VILNIUS, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania will apply to the U.S. government to purchase at least 200 armored all terrain vehicles for its armed forces, announced the Lithuanian defense ministry on Tuesday.
According to the announcement, the Lithuanian Defense Resource Council is interested in the possibility to purchase light combat tactical all-terrain vehicles (L-ATV) manufactured by Oshkosh Defence.
"We recognized the L-ATV as the best efficiency-price ratio and decided to open negotiations on procurement of these armored all-terrain vehicles," Raimundas Karoblis, Lithuanian defense minister, was quoted in the announcement by the country's Defense Ministry.
Lithuania plans to make the purchase, with the first deliveries foreseen as of 2021.
Currently, Lithuanian armed forces use HMMWV, commonly known as the Humvee, and Toyota Land Cruiser 200 armored all-terrain vehicles.
The Lithuanian Defense Ministry states that L-ATV's "are an important element of the army mechanization" supplementing the country's early acquisition of German manufactured armored fighting vehicles Boxer.
Last year, Lithuania signed a contract to buy 88 Boxers. The deal worth nearly 386 million euros (447 million U.S. dollars) is the largest acquisition in the Baltic country's history.
