National Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas said a batch of around 150 machine guns should reach the agency at the end of this year.
Border guards need heavier weaponry as they would be the first ones to respond in the event of a conflict with a neighbouring country, the minister said.
Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė noted that the phase of arming border guards with NATO-compliant weapons was now completed.
„Today we are ending the period when our border officers fully switch to weapons that meet NATO standards. We had allocated around EUR 10 million for that since 2021 (&) That phase is completed today, making our border guards and Lithuania stronger and safer,“ the minister told reporters in Mickūnai, east of Vilnius.
She said around EUR 3 million was earmarked to buy the machine guns.
According to Kasčiūnas, a total of EUR 5 million will be spent on the acquisition of machine guns, including the ones intended for the military.
Head of the VSAT Rustamas Liubajevas said officers will be trained to use the new weapons as soon as they are delivered to them. He did not disclose which units were set to receive the weapons.
„All the weapons will be deployed very close to the state border in our units that protect national borders, including the ones that become part of the armed forces in the event of war under our law,“ he said.
The FN Herstal S.A. Belgian-made FN MINIMI machine guns are lighter and more modern than the KSP-58, FN MAG, MG3s currently in use in the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the ministry said.
The FN MINIMI machine gun is manned by one soldier instead of the two soldiers that manned the older KSP-58 machine guns. The machine guns can be fitted with a variety of optical devices that increase their accuracy and efficiency in the dark.
Interior Minister Biloitaitė said that the previously used by border guards will be handed over to Ukraine.