Executive Summary
The Lithuanian Riflemen Union (Sauliu Sajunga) musters roughly 17,000 civilian volunteers under the Ministry of National Defence, and the National Defence Volunteer Force (KASP) fields between 8,000 and 10,000 active uniformed reservists. Both are organised around general infantry and territorial defence. Neither has a dedicated technical track that absorbs civilian engineers, software developers, drone builders, or hardware-repair specialists into a defined wartime support role. The civilian base is meaningful: Vilnius University and Kaunas University of Technology produce engineering graduates each year, and firms such as NanoAvionics, Brolis Semiconductors, and Granta Autonomy work in satellites, photonics, and autonomous systems. Foreign reference models for a structured technical volunteer track exist, including Ukraine's Aerorozvidka drone unit, the Estonian Defence League Cyber Defence Unit, and the US Civil Air Patrol auxiliary. The recommended next step is a feasibility study by the Ministry of National Defence, with the Riflemen Union, KASP, and the Seimas, to examine whether a technical track inside an existing structure or a new auxiliary better fits Lithuanian institutions, what legal status volunteers would hold, and how training and activation would work. Final design is for Lithuania to determine.
The Problem
Modern conflict consumes technical labour. Ukraine has shown that drone repair, electronic-warfare adaptation, secure communications, and rapid software fixes are continuous wartime tasks, not one-off projects. During the late-2025 balloon incursions, Vilnius International Airport closed for more than 60 cumulative hours and over 51,000 passengers were affected; persistent GPS jamming continues across the Baltic region. These pressures already exceed what a small standing technical staff can absorb.
Lithuania's two volunteer structures are infantry-shaped. The Riflemen Union and KASP train mainly for territorial defence; technical specialists who join are absorbed into general roles rather than matched to engineering, software, or repair tasks. There is no national skills registry that maps civilian technical competence to defence demand, no defined activation procedure for technical volunteers, and no published legal status (combatant, auxiliary, or contracted civilian) that would govern their wartime work.
Lithuanian Context
Lithuania's Riflemen Union Statute today frames volunteer activity around civil defence and technical support; it does not assign offensive cyber or sabotage roles, and the framing of any new technical track would have to stay inside that civil-defence and technical-support envelope to remain politically and legally viable. Whether the right form is a technical track inside the Riflemen Union or KASP, a new auxiliary, or a hybrid attached to the Defence Materiel Agency is a Lithuanian determination.