Lithuania has signed an order with French Nexter for 18 CAESAr NG with high power signal jammers

At the EuroSatory 2022 air-ground equipment exhibition in June, Lithuania signed a letter of intent to purchase trucks equipped with a new generation artillery system [CAESAr NG or Mk2] to equip a battalion of the "General Motiejus Pečiulionis" brigade, currently equipped with 105mm towed gun.

Six months later, on December 29, during the visit to Paris of Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anušauskas, at the signing of an arrangement for technical cooperation in field artillery aimed at strengthening French-Lithuanian military relations This intent is confirmed within the framework.

In fact, a contract for the delivery of 18 CAESAr NGs to the Lithuanian Army has been formally notified to Nexter. To finance the order, Vilnius plans to provide between 11 and 150 million euros. These "funds will be used for the development and procurement of the equipment, as well as for its integration into the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The delivery deadline for the howitzer is 2027," the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense said.

The design of the new 6X6 CAESAR NG will have the same configuration as the previous version, but with new improvements in protection and mobility.

As a reminder, the CAESAr NG was an order from the Armed Forces last February and it will benefit from enhanced protection with a level 2 armored cabin, improved fire control software, high power signal jammers against IEDs [EEI or IED] BARAGE[ Supplied by Thales], CONTACT radio, new chassis, automatic gearbox and twice the power of the engine [460 CV vs. 215 CV for the current version of the CAESAr].

The new improvements of CAESAR NG also include new emission control software, the radio communication system CONTACT and the high power radio jamming system BARAGE produced by the French company Thales.

The Belgian Army artillery unit will be developed into a long-range precision indirect fire support company based on the CAESAR NG 6x6 155 mm self-propelled howitzer, and a close-range indirect fire support company based on the current LG1 105 mm towed howitzer, also manufactured by Nexter. In addition, the Belgian army's The artillery unit will be supported by radar operators, forward observers, and necessary communications and networking systems.

"Therefore, the Lithuanian and French armies will benefit from capabilities that have already been proven in Iraq or, more recently, in numerous operations in Ukraine", emphasized the French Armed Forces. "Through this partnership around CAESAr, France and Lithuania are increasing the interoperability of their armed forces and confirming their desire to work together to strengthen the eastern flank of NATO and the EU, while consolidating the industrial base and European defense technology," he added .

To justify the choice of CAESAR, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense presented two arguments. The first is that this howitzer is "closest" to the expressed needs of its Army, especially since it has already proven itself in combat. As for the second, which uses 155mm ammunition and is "compatible with the PzH2000 artillery system", Vilnius bought about 20 of them from Germany in 2015.

In addition to the PzH-2000 and CAESAr NG, the Lithuanian artillery will also have the American M142 HIMARS system with ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles [range 300 km], which has recently been the subject of an order worth $ 450 million.

"The Ukrainian war demonstrated the importance of artillery on the battlefield and it is a fundamental capability of the Lithuanian Armed Forces," Mr Anusauskas said.