{"id":5154,"date":"2026-10-01T13:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/?p=5154"},"modified":"2026-10-02T13:14:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T10:14:05","slug":"construction-begins-on-leopard-tank-assembly-and-repair-plant-in-kaunas-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/construction-begins-on-leopard-tank-assembly-and-repair-plant-in-kaunas-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction begins on Leopard Tank Assembly and Repair Plant in Kaunas District"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A symbolic capsule marking the start of construction of a \u201cLeopard 2A8\u201d tank assembly and repair plant was buried at the Kaunas Free Economic Zone (FEZ). The start of construction of the modern facility marks a significant step in strengthening the development of Lithuania\u2019s defence industry. Investment in the establishment of NATO-standard tank assembly capabilities will help expand the country\u2019s defence industrial capacity and technological self-reliance.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Under an industrial cooperation agreement, German companies \u201cRheinmetall Landsysteme\u201d and \u201cKNDS Deutschland\u201d plan to invest in and develop the tank assembly and repair facility through their joint venture, UAB \u201cLithuania Defense Service\u201d (LDS). LDS is expected to be responsible not only for the assembly of \u201cLeopard 2A8\u201d tanks and the maintenance of military equipment, but also, in the future, to service a broader range of armoured vehicles from other Allied countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEpso-G Invest\u201d, managed by UAB \u201cValstyb\u0117s investicinis kapitalas\u201d, plans to acquire approximately 25% of the shares in LDS. This would be the second investment in a company operating in the defence industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInvestment in the development of Lithuania\u2019s defence industry not only strengthens the country\u2019s military resilience, but also contributes to technological self-reliance and the creation of long-term investment value,\u201d says Vaidas Daktari\u016bnas, CEO of UAB \u201cValstyb\u0117s investicinis kapitalas\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In the future, the joint Lithuanian-German company is expected to be able to service not only the armoured vehicle fleet of the German Brigade stationed in Lithuania but also accept orders from other countries in the region.<\/p>\n<p>The new plant is expected to assemble the first \u201cLeopard 2A8\u201d tank ordered by the Lithuanian Armed Forces in 2028. The remaining tanks are expected to be assembled and delivered to the Lithuanian Armed Forces by the end of 2030. Lithuania has ordered more than 40 \u201cLeopard\u201d tanks in total.<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement signed by Lithuania with the German Federal Ministry of Defence in 2024 and implemented under the \u201cCooperative Procurement Arrangement\u201d (LEOPARD 2 CPA) initiative, the tanks were originally scheduled to arrive in Lithuania between 2029 and 2034. However, the planned production capacity will enable all equipment intended for the Lithuanian Armed Forces to be assembled and delivered by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A symbolic capsule marking the start of construction of a \u201cLeopard 2A8\u201d tank assembly and repair plant was buried at the Kaunas Free Economic Zone (FEZ). The start of construction of the modern facility marks a significant step in strengthening the development of Lithuania\u2019s defence industry. Investment in the establishment of NATO-standard tank assembly capabilities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5155,"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions\/5155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vika.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}