Netherlands to field Patriot missiles close to Russian border — RT World News

The Netherlands will deploy a Patriot air defense unit to Lithuania, a NATO ally, as part of a joint summer air defense exercise, the Dutch Defense Ministry announced this week.

The Dutch military claimed in a press release on Thursday that the several-week exercises are necessary to strengthen air defenses on the eastern side. The stated goal is to test the ability of NATO forces to quickly move and deploy air defenses within the deployment area. Decision to deploy a US-made system near the Russian border “Contributes to NATO air defense readiness” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in the statement.

Lithuania welcomed the exercises and described them as excellent news, noting that the Dutch will train to redeploy air defense units without notice alongside the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Enhanced Forward Presence forces of the US-led military bloc “Vital for the security of the Baltic states” Defense Minister Lourinas Kaciunas said on Friday that he called for more deployments and training of NATO aircraft and ground-based air defense systems in Lithuania.

It is unclear how far the Dutch Patriot missile deployment in Lithuania will extend. A single battery of the Patriot air defense system consists of several truck-mounted units, including power, radar, antenna, engagement control and other support vehicles, as well as up to eight launchers with interceptor missiles.

The Netherlands was one of the few countries to supply Ukraine with two of its own Patriot launchers, along with the United States and Germany, which sent a full battery.

This deployment follows NATO's largest sustained military exercise in decades, Steadfast Defender 2024, which includes approximately 90,000 troops, more than a thousand combat vehicles, more than 50 naval vessels, and 80 helicopters, drones and fighter aircraft from all 32 member states. .

Russia said that the US-led military bloc's increased military spending and intensified military exercises prove this “Increasingly aggressive nature.” The exercises are practiced a “Scenario of armed confrontation with Russia” The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said at the beginning of last March, “The increasing tensions and destabilization of the situation in the world.”

Patrushev described NATO as… “An important tool for Washington’s influence on other countries” Which, over the 75 years of its existence, has been a declared guarantor of peace and democracy “He has unleashed over a hundred wars and military conflicts around the world and is preparing for more.”