Other events in Baltic States

On January 1, Water Purification Unit (WPU) of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytenis General Support Logistic Battalion will be assigned for a half-year duty with the EU Battle Group. From January 1 to July 1 of 2011 12 service members of Lithuania will conduct duty in a joint Battle Group together with Austrian, Dutch, Finnish and German troops, informed BC the Ministry of National Defence.

Unit of the Lithuanian Armed Forces on standby in the EU Battle Group will be deployed in Lithuania and maintain high readiness to join a multinational operation of the European Union any moment if a decision was made to employ combat groups in a crisis region.

Troops of Vytenis Battalion will perform standby in the Battle Group with water purification system WTC-1600 GT which was real-life tested in 2005 when the unit was deployed with NRF rendering humanitarian relief for an earthquake-hit Pakistan. Another system used by the unit is ROWPU 1500 for water supply in field compounds.

Formation of Vytenis General Support Logistic Battalion's WPU began in the end of 2007. At the moment there are two water purification units meeting NATO standards in the Lithuanian Armed Forces capable of processing 400 m³ and storing 200 m³ drinking water and of performing duty in combat standby and rendering support to partner states. One the two units will conduct duty in the Battle Group in 2011.

It will be a second Lithuania's standby period in a EU Battle Group. On June 30 quintalateral EU Battle Group (Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Germany) ended its duty period, the unit included Lithuanian contingent of 130 troops based on King Mindaugas Mechanised Infantry Battalion.

The first EU Battle Group entered duty in the beginning of 2005, and every half-year two battle groups have been conducting standby since then. Each unit includes around 2 thousand troops. Participating military units are to be deployable within 5-10 days to an operation area anywhere beyond the EU's limits at a radius of 6 thousand kilometres around Brussels and sustain for 30-120 days in case the decision to activate the EU Battle Group is made. The EU Battle Group concept is based on NRF model, however, the two forces are different in their size and character of target tasks. Neither EU Batlle Groups nor NRF have been invoked in 2010 in crises areas.

More information regarding Lithuania's standby at: 1st Lt Valda Salaseviciute, cell phone 00370 682 40 388.

Pictures by Vytenis Battalion and MoND – water purification system of Lithuanian WPU to be used while on duty with the EU Battle Group in 2011, members of Vytenis Battalion on standby with NRF render relief for people of earthquake hit Pakistan in 2005.