Lt. Col. David Griffith, Lt. Col. Benjamin Maher, and U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania Kara McDonald, from left, discuss U.S. Army operations in Lithuania during the ambassador’s visit to Camp Herkus, Feb. 14, 2024. Lithuania's defense minister Arvydas Anusauskas pledged this week to improve living conditions for U.S. troops deployed to the country. (Alex Soliday/U.S. Army)
Lithuania’s top defense official pledged this week to improve living conditions for U.S. troops carrying out missions in the country, where American units have stepped up their presence in recent years to deter Russia.
Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said following a meeting with the new American ambassador to the country, Kara McDonald, that the steady presence of rotational U.S. troops is vital for regional security.
“You have come in the times of tensions and multiple challenges in our region. … We will provide better conditions and new infrastructure to the U.S. troops,” Anusauskas said Wednesday in a statement.
For U.S. forces carrying out rotational missions on NATO’s eastern edges, living conditions can be austere compared with the well-established Army garrisons found in Germany.
But in places such as Poland and Lithuania, the U.S. military and its hosts have been spending money to improve base life.
New mobile modular housing at Camp Herkus, Lithuania, that was turned over for use by the U.S. Army, June 4, 2021. Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas pledged this week to improve living conditions for U.S. troops deployed to the country. (Lithuanian Defense Ministry)
U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania Kara McDonald poses with Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas at a meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, Feb. 22, 2024. Anusauskas pledged to improve living conditions for U.S. troops on rotation to Lithuania. (Lithuanian Defense Ministry)
McDonald credited Lithuania for modernizing its own armed forces while hosting American soldiers. Since 2019, U.S. Army battalions have been positioned in Lithuania, where a base in the town of Pabrade serves as a hub.
The move was part of a broader push by the U.S. and other allies to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, especially in the vicinity of Russia-aligned Belarus and the Russian military exclave of Kaliningrad, which is wedged between Poland and Lithuania.
Other allies also are expanding in Lithuania. Within the next three years, Germany is expected to put a brigade of about 4,800 soldiers there, the first permanent deployment of German troops in a foreign country since World War II.
“Soon, when the military infrastructure is expanded, we look forward to being able to better meet the military readiness needs of the Lithuanian and allied troops,” Anusauskas said.
