Ugnė Naujokaitytė, spokeswoman for Lithuania's Defense Minister Rasa Juknevičienė, said after the Chicago summit that the program would facilitate member-states to carry out uninterrupted large-scale ground surveillance and identify threats.
Lithuania's contribution to the program is 16.51 million litas by 2016, with the payments distributed across the period.
"It is important to note that the money paid by Lithuania will return to Lithuania. The plan is that European-US companies participating in the program will be reimbursed to 70 percent of the contributions. With Lithuania paying the above-mentioned 16.51 million litas, Elsis company will receive an order estimated at 11.56 million litas," Naujokaitytė told BNS.
The agreement on program financing was reached at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in February.
Alliance Ground Surveillance should be launched in 2015, five US unmanned aerial vehicles Global Hawk RQ-4B will be bought.
In addition to Lithuania, the project should involve Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United States.
NATO signed a 1.7-billion-dollar contract with Northrop Grumman Corp in Chicago on Sunday.
