Around noon on April 17 a military aircraft requested by the Ministry of National Defence and the Lithuanian Armed Forces landed at Vilnius International Airport with medical protective supplies from China aboard. This is the second time this week the Ministry of National Defence and the Lithuanian Armed Forces used a Boeing 747F aircraft as part of the military lift cooperation platform to bring medical protective supplies. The aircraft was booked through the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE) on the basis of a request from the Ministry of Health.
“As a result of acute shortage of civilian air transport on the market, Lithuania used the military lift cooperation platform and for the second time booked Boeing 747F via the Movement Control Centre Europe, a military cooperation mechanism of NATO and the European Union which allows participants to use their capabilities in a smart way, primarily, for moving troops and cargo. We decided to use the mechanism because of the lack of civilian transportation capabilities on the market for humanitarian purposes – for managing the COVID-19 pandemic and contributing to the fight against it. It stands as yet another example of NATO and the EU safeguarding our shared security even in peacetime,” Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis says.
Luxembourg’s Boeing 747F brought medical protective supplies to Vilnius International Airport earlier this week, April 12, on Easter Sunday.
The Movement Control Centre Europe is a military cooperation mechanism of NATO and the European Union which allows participants to use their capabilities in a smart way, primarily, for moving troops and cargo. Lithuania became a member of the MCCE which currently includes 28 NATO and EU member states sharing military lift capabilities in 2015.
Transportation of medical protective supplies to Lithuania by military airlift is another contribution of the National Defence System to the fight of our state against the COVID-19 pandemic. Our soldiers have been assisting specialists from the National Public Health Centre at airports and Klaipėda Seaport and helping Border Guard Service to control flows of arriving travellers on the Lithuanian border since the introduction of the quarantine. Several dozen of Military Police officers have been assisting civilian police patrols in ensuring public order, three flights of the Lithuanian Air Force Spartan aircraft were arranged to repatriate Lithuanians from abroad and bring medical supplies.
Photos: Boeing 747F of Luxembourg at Vilnius airport on Easter Sunday (credits: Sgt Spc 1st Class Ieva Budzeikaitė)
