The Lithuanian Armed Forces () are the military of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of the Lithuanian Land Forces, the Lithuanian Navy, the Lithuanian Air Force and the Lithuanian Special Operations Force. In wartime, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (which is under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior in peacetime) becomes part of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
The purpose of the Lithuanian Armed Forces are to be the principal deterrent against any security threat to the nation. Lithuania's defence system is based on the concept of "total and unconditional defence" mandated by Lithuania's National Security Strategy. The goal of Lithuania's defence policy is to prepare their society for general defence and to integrate Lithuania into Western security and defence structures. The Ministry of National Defence is responsible for combat forces, search and rescue, and intelligence operations.
Male conscription is in place since 2015, when it was reinstated after being ended in 2008, due to concerns about the geopolitical environment in light of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Female service in Lithuania is currently voluntary, but it has become the subject of growing political and public debate, with defence officials and policymakers advocating a greater role for women in the armed forces and some leaders warning that Lithuania may ultimately need to introduce female or universal conscription in response to long-term security challenges, demographic constraints, and the evolving regional security environment.
In early 2022, Lithuania's defence budget for 2022 was approximately €1.05 billion, but it was increased to €1.5 billion on 17 March 2022. In 2024, the budget was raised to €2.3 billion and is projected to reach 3.03% of GDP.
History
Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army
The Lithuanian military originates in the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, active from the 13th century to 1795. It fought many major battles, such as the Battle of Blue Waters (1362/63), Battle of Grunwald (1410), Battle of Orsha (1514) and Battle of Kircholm (1605). After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Lithuanian Army remained equal to the Polish Crown army in the military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until the Third Partition in 1795.
Similarly to other medieval European states, the army was raised by the nobility during the Late Middle Ages. By the 17th century, it was mostly outclassed by professional forces and a standing army was instituted.
13th century From the 12th century's end and into the 13th century, Lithuania frequently went to war against the western and southwestern Rus' states, Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia and Duchy of Masovia, and also devastated the lands along the Daugava and elsewhere. From the early 1200s, Lithuanians fought against the Swordbrothers, then from 1237 against the Livonian Order, and from the second half of the 13th century's against the State of the Teutonic Order. Fighting on Lithuania's northern and western frontiers was unceasing, the Lithuanian state expanded southwards and eastwards in the Late Middle Ages. The Lithuanian army was mobile, as it had to fight on many fronts: the State of the Teutonic Order to the west, the Livonian Order to the north, the Golden Horde and its vassal Muscovy to the east, and the Tatar khanates to the south. According to 13th-century sources, Lithuanian soldiers rode horses on military expeditions but fought on foot, arranged in three rows during battles. The best-armed and most experienced fought in the front, while the least experienced and lightly armed were in the last row. Furthermore, the Lithuanians were skilled at fighting using spears, especially on horseback. The earliest written mention of such tactics, from 1208, says that Lithuanians on horses threw spears at their enemies.
Although the Germans initially had superior weaponry in the 13th century, the Lithuanians won the Battles of Saule (1236), Durbe (1260), Karuse (1270) and the Aizkraukle (1279). However they were less successful against enemy fortifications, especially brick castles. Eventually the front lines stabilised over time, and the one against the Livonian Order more or less followed the modern Latvia–Lithuania border, while the one against the Teutonic Order was close to the Nemunas. A castle system fortified the Lithuanian side of the border along the river.
14th century Over the 14th century, the Teutonic and Livonian orders organised raids into Lithuania. Lithuanians reciprocated by raiding their respective territories, but the Lithuanian raids were fewer in number. The Lithuanians won the Battle of Medininkai (1320), but lost the Battle of Strėva (1348). More and more, the Teutonic Order destroyed the Lithuanian castle system along the Nemunas and built their own castles near the Lithuanian ones. As the German and Livonian orders were constantly reinforced by Christian European countries, it became increasingly difficult to defend Lithuania solely by military means. A new generation of the Lithuanian Grand Dukes, Jogaila and Vytautas the Great, used not only military, but also diplomatic and political means, for example Lithuanian baptism in 1387, to protect Lithuania.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Lithuania, the Golden Horde's army was destroyed in the Battle of Blue Waters (1362–1363). In 1368, 1370, and 1372, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas led a military expeditions against Muscovy. However, the Battle of the Vorksla River (1399) was a decisive victory for the Golden Horde.
15th century Finally, the German Teutonic Order was crushed in the Battle of Grunwald (1410) (known as Battle of Žalgiris in Lithuanian historiography), which was the largest Middle Age battle in Central and Eastern Europe. In this key battle, the Lithuanian Army was led by Vytautas the Great. Under him, the Lithuanian Army attacked the lands of the Republics of Pskov, in 1426, and Novgorod, in 1428. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania had internal civil wars in the first half of the 15th century. The Lithuania Army engaged in biological warfare already in 1422, when it catapulted manure made from infected victims into an opposing Bohemian town as part of the Hussite Wars. In 1435, Sigismund Kęstutaitis' army defeated the opposing army, which included troops of the Livonian Order, led by Švitrigaila in the Battle of Wiłkomierz.
16th century This century was marked by war of Lithuania against Muscovy and the Crimean Khanate, against whom they won the Battle of Kletsk in 1506. The strengthening Grand Duchy of Moscow starting in the late 15th century waged unceasing wars over Lithuania's eastern territories. In 1514, during the fourth war, the Lithuanians triumphed over the numerically larger Muscovite army in the famous Battle of Orsha. However, Lithuania lost a part of its eastern lands, most notably the strategically important fortress of Smolensk. Lithuania fought against Muscovy in the Livonian War and won against the Muscovite army, twice its size in the Battle of Ula in 1564. Three years into the Livonian War, the Treaty of Vilnius. made Livonia part of Lithuania in 1561 with the Union of Lublin concluded in 1569. In the late 1570s and early 1580s, the Lithuanian and Polish armies cooperated in Stephen Báthory's incursions into Russia.
17th century The 17th century was marked by wars against Sweden, the Tsardom of Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire. The Lithuanian army and the Polish army fought against the Ottoman forces notably at both Battles of Khotyn in 1621 and 1673. During the war with Sweden from 1600 to 1629, the Lithuanian army defeated Swedish forces three times their number at the Battle of Kircholm in 1605. However, this war highlighted the Commonwealth's difficulty recruiting and retaining enough troops, better arming its soldiers with firearms and bettering their use. Sweden seized a significant part of Livonia as part of Swedish Livonia. In the first half of the 17th century, Smolensk returned to Lithuania following the Smolensk War.
The Commonwealth's military weakness in the middle and late 17th century was evidenced in the Deluge. In 1655, the much-smaller Lithuanian army could not defend the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius against Muscovite attack. This was the first time that Vilnius was occupied by a foreign state. The Swedish and Muscovite armies occupied large parts of Lithuania. Nevertheless, Lithuania succeeded in holding out and liberated Vilnius, Kaunas, Samogitia and the eastern Voivodeships, except for Smolensk Voivodeship and other parts. Militarily speaking, however, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was weakening.
18th century
During the Great Northern War the Lithuanian Army no longer defended the country and the Lithuanian magnates' private armies supported different sides. Throughout the 18th century, the many nobles confederations sought different political goals. The Bar Confederation (1768–1772), which happened partly in Lithuania, attempted but failed to stem the increasing influence of Imperial Russia and the First partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth followed. In the face of the possible loss of independence, military reforms in the Four Years' Sejm (1788–1792) significantly expanded the Lithuanian army, which reached a strength of 17,500. Attempts to make the Commonwealth's armies equal those of neighbouring absolute monarchies were unsuccessful and the unsuccessful War of 1792 resulted in the Second Partition.
The Polish and Lithuanian armies put up a spirited fight against the Imperial Russian Army and the Prussian Army in the Kościuszko Uprising. In addition to regular forces, many ad hoc units such as the Vilnian National Guard also fought, as well as many irregular units. In the end, the Uprising was defeated and much of the remainder of the Lithuanian Army was lost in the Battle of Praga on 4 November 1794. With the uprising defeated, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland ended with the Third Partition, and their respective armies being disbanded.
Interwar and post-war periods
After Lithuania's restoration on 16 February 1918, the country immediately began creating an army. The Ministry of Defence's first order, issued on 23 November 1918, is considered to mark the establishment of the modern Lithuanian Armed Forces. The newly-formed army almost immediately fought three wars of independence. Having won the Lithuanian–Soviet War and the war against the Bermontians, Lithuania lost large chunks of territory, including its capital Vilnius in the Polish–Lithuanian War. Armoured equipment in the interwar period, primarily consisted of light tanks and armored cars: French Renault FT-17s, British Vickers Carden-Loyd M1934s and M1936s, Swedish Landsverk-181, and German Ehrhardt E-V/4. In 1935, the country opened an advanced military research laboratory, specialising in chemical materials for ammunition as well as defence against chemical warfare. The construction of the laboratory was supervised by Juozas Vėbra. In 1940, Lithuania had a considerable Air Force, consisting of 118 aircraft with about half of them designed and produced locally. During the World War II, Lithuania was invaded by both Nazis and Soviets, which eventually concluded in Soviet occupation. The Lithuanian Armed Forces transformed into the Lithuanian People's Army in 1940 under the People's Government of Lithuania. Despite Soviet deportations from Lithuania, armed Lithuanian resistance lasted until the 1950s.
Restoration and NATO