The Lithuanian Defence Materiel Agency has awarded Saab a four-year contract to provide missiles for the RSB 70 short-range air defense system.
As part of the agreement, Lithuania has already ordered the first batch of missiles valued at 350,000,000 Swedish kronor ($32 million) to be delivered between 2023 and 2024.
The contract enables the agency to place orders for the missiles until 2026.
“Our best-in-class short range air defence missiles deliver a tactical advantage,” Saab Dynamics Head Görgen Johansson said.
“The recent contract will further strengthen Lithuania’s air defence capability through the RBS 70 system and its high performance missiles.”
The Saab RBS 70
The RBS 70 utilizes unjammable laser guidance and can be integrated with various ground vehicles.
The system has an overall weight of 87 kilograms (192 pounds) and a length of 1.32 meters (4.3 feet).
It can deploy 1.1 kilograms (2.4 pounds) of warhead up to 9 kilometers (6 miles) at Mach 2 (2,500 kilometers/1,500 miles per hour).
Saab produces the RBS 70 with its latest RBS 70 NG version. The company has delivered 1,600 RBS launchers and more than 18,000 missiles to 19 nations.
Lithuanian Air Defense
The Lithuanian Armed Forces has been using Saab’s RBS 70 ground-based air defense system since 2004.
This month, Lithuania and Saab signed a $44.3 million agreement to procure Bolide and MK-2 guided missiles for the Lithuanian Air Defence Battalion’s RBS-70 systems.