The president’s chief national security advisor informed reporters of the move following a meeting of the State Defense Council on Wednesday.

The two training areas will be located in western Lithuania, in the Tauragė and Šilalė districts and will be available for use by a company-sized unit.

Defense Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas said that the training facilities were necessitated by Lithuania’s growing military profile, adding that “our need for training space is huge, as we have more and more allies, and our military forces need training spaces.”

Lithuania hosts a battalion of U.S. troops on a rotational basis and, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany agreed to station a brigade in the country permanently.

Most of the German contingent will be based at the Rūdninkai training ground, 36 kilometers (22 miles) southwest of the capital, Vilnius. The Lithuanian government has undertaken to have infrastructure in place to host the forces by 2027.

The country is also working towards universal conscription, with reforms to this effect adopted by parliament in June. In addition, it is creating its first army division, of around 17,500 soldiers, which is expected to be operational by 2030. The Lithuanian military has never had a unit of such size before.

As Lithuania expands its own military and receives more allied forces, the authorities are seeking sites for the new training facilities, which are planned to have an area of 4,304 hectares at a site in the Tauragė district, and 2,677 hectares in the Šilalė district.