The Commander of the National Armed Forces, Kaspars Pudans, announced the intention to conduct a broader transformation of the army, including a review of its structure.
Changes will be planned taking into account the experience of the war in Ukraine, recent research, and conclusions. It is expected that some changes may be included in the already existing development plan of the National Armed Forces before autumn, reports the Latvian Television program "de facto".
Two drones that crashed into oil tanks in Rezekne last week starkly demonstrated how close the war is to Latvia. The drone incidents led to the resignation of the Minister of Defense and ultimately the entire government. At the same time, this situation attracted additional attention to the development of the defense sector, which has a budget of over 2 billion euros this year, as well as to how prepared the country is to defend itself.
The advisor to the resigned Prime Minister on national security, Aivars Riekstins, said: "There is still a lot to be done here - primarily regarding the understanding of the battlefield by both commanders and soldiers. And, of course, the Ministry of Defense, as the policy-making body, has many important tasks related to monitoring changes on the battlefield. I think this work is being done, however, sometimes there is a feeling that it should happen faster."
After the incident in Rezekne, one of the conclusions is that it is necessary to improve public notification. However, it cannot be definitively said whether the outcome would have been different if the army had already had all the ordered interceptor drones at its disposal.
"We will still be more focused on point defense - protecting critical points, populated areas, and infrastructure facilities, while not creating the impression that we are already capable of covering absolutely every corridor. There is a goal for the future, however, again, through the search for new solutions that would be as autonomous as possible. Because every such military unit requires personnel. If such units are deployed along the entire border, especially in peacetime, we will not have ground forces ready to fulfill other everyday tasks or to prepare and train for repelling a major attack. And I would like to emphasize: a major attack is one that could lead to occupation," said Pudans.
