According to Jermalavičius, fighter jets can fly over Lithuania only if there are helicopters ready to rescue NATO pilots in cases of accidents. The expert believes discussions about the purchase of helicopters for EU funds unused for housing renovation are populist.
Jermalavičius says Lithuania needs at least three helicopters as two of them should be on the constant alert in Kaunas, central Lithuania, and in the coastal area of Nemirseta, and the third would undergo maintenance. The expert said Estonia had experience when NATO fighter jets could not fly over the country as none of the country's search and rescue helicopters could take off.
"They have three Augusta Westland helicopters, and it happened last year that all three of them could not fly. One was in Belgium where maintenance was delayed, and the other two broke down, and the country did not have any search and rescue capacities. And no air policing flights took place over Estonia at the time. There was a bit of a fuss in the Estonian press that due to the fault of the agency that manages those helicopters, Estonia was left without the NATO umbrella," the defense analyst told BNS.
According to Jermalavičius, search and rescue functions on land and in the sea is the Baltic state's commitment to NATO partners who send fighter jets to protect the airspace of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
"There has been an incident involving a Lithuanian L-39 in Šiauliai. A Lithuanian fighter jet crashed then, and air search was really needed. The absence of such capacities raises doubts as to whether NATO's Air Policing mission can be carried out at all. Some people even say it might give NATO allies the reason to say "look, they are incapable of ensuring such basic things they promised," Jermalavičius said.
The expert called the situation when the Ministry of National Defense has to look for funds for carrying out its functions in the budgets of other ministries Lithuania's tragedy.
"If you tell the army to ensure the function of search and rescue from the air both in the sea and on land, so you should give the money to do that too. It’s not like you leave the ministry walking with a stretched hand asking other ministries whether they have disposable EU funds that can be used for new helicopters. It’s absurd," Jermalavičius said.
According to the expert, helicopters currently owned by the State Border Guard Service are not ready to be on the 24/7 alert and are not properly equipped for the search and rescue function in a stormy sea. He also stressed the fact that helicopters purchased for EU funds cannot be armed, so in fact there's no point for the army to purchase them merely for the search and rescue function.
"I've had doubts about that too that perhaps the army should not purchase helicopters just for this function but when there's no funds in the budget and you need to use EU funds, so the solution is obvious," Jermalavičius said.
In his opinion, recent political discussions on the issue "seem not very nice." Attempts to cover up with phrases that they want to take the housing renovation money are populist, he said.
"It shows the country and foreign partners that even the ruling coalition has difficulty in agreeing on important national security and defense issues. Even the implementation of decisions is stalling as somebody wants to build a political capital by populist means. It leaves an impression that the country is not capable of agreeing on priorities," the expert of the Tallinn-based International Center for Defense Studies said.
Arvydas Anušauskas, chairman of the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defense, said in a statement on Tuesday the Committee had recommended purchasing three helicopters and said that 103 people were rescued during search and rescue operations in 2011.
The ruling liberals have said recently funds from the stalling housing renovation programme cannot be used for the purchase of helicopters. Liberal Minister of Transport Eligijus Masiulis said then one should look for funds in other programs.
Lithuania has to purchase new helicopters by 2016 as currently used Russian helicopters Mi-8 will become outdated by then.
Minister of National Defense Rasa Juknevičienė has said the helicopter purchase process, including the selection of a producer and the time of production, can take around three years.
