In the beginning in last week a trainset from Germany loaded with containers of combat stocks and military equipment – infantry fighting vehicles and all-terrain vehicles – arrived at Kaunas Railway Station. It was a logistical exercise held in relation to the European Union Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) project by logisticians of the Belgian, Dutch, German and Lithuanian Armed Forces.
Military equipment and stocks were loaded into railroad cars in Germany and brought to Lithuania. The objective of such an exercise was to train and simplify the procedures of military transit of EU and NATO forces in order to make movement of supplies in Europe quicker and freer which would be critical in case the Baltic defence capabilities needed reinforcement. The cargo was unloaded and transported further, to the logistics centre in Rukla where the Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf and the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group integrated into it are based.
The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) is a cooperation platform based on the Treaty of Lisbon with 25 participant EU member states that seek to develop their military capabilities. The concrete deployment of military stocks was carried out in the framework of German-led PESCO project on Network of Logistic Hubs in Europe and Support to Operations which is aimed at developing the network of logistic hubs in the territory of the European Union and improving the procedures of military stocks transit, as well as to cut down on the time provision takes.
There are 48 different projects concerning enhancement of the defensive strength of the participating countries currently underway in the framework of PESCO. 15 European Union member states take part in the PESCO project on Network of Logistic Hubs in Europe and Support to Operations: Germany is the coordinator and four countries are observers. Lithuania leads a PESCO project it initiated on Development of Cyber Rapid Response Teams.
