Lithuania to give children drone training to counter Russia threat
In a joint initiative by the defence and education ministries, the government said on Tuesday it hoped to teach more than 22,000 people, including schoolchildren, drone skills as part of an attempt to 'expand civil resistance training'.
The programme would be adapted to different age groups, with third- and fourth-grade students of between eight and 10 years old learning to build and pilot simple drones, the government said. Secondary school students will design and manufacture drone parts and learn how to build and fly advanced drones.
Like its neighbours Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million people that borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Moscow's ally Belarus, has been on high alert for war ever since Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The perception of a Russian threat in the Baltic states was underlined on Wednesday by the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from Estonia. Estonia's foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said it was due to 'ongoing interference' in the state's affairs.
'The diplomat in question has been directly and actively involved in undermining the constitutional order and legal system of Estonia … The Russian embassy's ongoing interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Estonia must end,' Tsahkna said.
In Lithuania, the government plans to spend €3.3m (£2.9m) on specialist equipment including indoor and outdoor first-person-view drones, control and video transmission systems and a mobile app for training on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The defence minister, Dovilė Šakalienė, said: 'We plan that 15,500 adults and 7,000 children will acquire drone control skills by 2028. In September we will open drone control centres in Jonava, Tauragė and Kėdainiai, and we will open six more drone training centres in other regions of Lithuania by 2028.'
The training will be conducted by the Lithuanian riflemen's union in conjunction with the Lithuanian non-formal education agency, which will train children in primary and secondary schools.
Lithuania has been increasing its focus on drone technology, with UAVs extensively used for counter-drone capabilities over its borders after two incidents in July when two suspected Russian drones crossed from Belarus into Lithuanian territory.
In Russia the training of children in drones has been controversial, with revelations last month over the alleged systematic involvement of children in the design and testing of the technology using video games.
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