Lithuania puts mobile U.S.-made radars on NATO’s eastern edge

Lithuania is putting U.S.-made AN/TPS-77 Multi-Role Radars into service to watch its airspace, with the truck-mounted Lockheed Martin systems feeding real-time data into NATO’s integrated air and missile defense network, the country’s Ministry of National Defence said.

Lithuania is buying three of the radars under a Foreign Military Sales contract worth about $52.6 million that the U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin in September 2023, covering the radars along with training, spare parts and interim contractor support. The contract runs through February 2027, and the United States is covering more than $29 million of the cost through its Building Partner Capacity program.

The AN/TPS-77 MRR is the most transportable version of Lockheed Martin’s TPS-77 family of long-range air surveillance radars. It can operate from the back of a truck at unprepared sites or be taken off and set up at a fixed location, which makes it far easier to move and harder to target than a permanent radar station. Lithuania’s air surveillance has relied mainly on fixed AN/FPS-117 radars.

The radar works in the L-band and can detect and track aircraft roughly 450 km (280 miles) away and at altitudes up to about 30,500 m (100,000 feet). Its multi-role single-scan design lets operators assign different tasks, such as long-range surveillance and low-level coverage, to different sectors in the same rotation, with the radar adjusting automatically as it turns. That lets it look for low-flying targets such as helicopters while it keeps watch over the wider sky. Lockheed Martin builds the radar with gallium nitride electronics, which cut power use and improve reliability.

The new radars arrive as Lithuania deals with repeated airspace incidents along its border with Belarus. Lithuanian authorities closed Vilnius airport several times in 2025 because of balloons launched from Belarus by cigarette smugglers, and drones have also crossed into Lithuanian territory from Belarus. Lithuania also borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west.

Neighboring Latvia already operates TPS-77 Multi-Role Radars, bought in 2015, and the three Baltic states have shared radar coverage through their BALTNET air surveillance network since joining NATO in 2004, giving the alliance a common picture of the skies over its northeastern flank.