Czech Defense Ministry Eyes Several Tenders

WARSAW — The Czech Ministry of Defense has unveiled plans to buy new armored vehicles, radars, and ammunition, and to sign new maintenance and servicing contracts for its Airbus A-319 and L-410 aircraft, as part of its ongoing military modernization efforts.

Petr Medek, the spokesperson for the mDefense Ministry, told local news agency CTK that 11 tenders are to be launched in 2015. The procurements will be financed by multi-year contracts, according to Medek.

In the third quarter of this year, the Czech ministry aims to purchase 20 Pandur II 8x8 armored personnel carriers (APCs) from General Dynamics European Land Systems. Under the plan, the Czech Armed Forces are to operate a total of 107 Pandurs by 2020. In addition to this, in late 2015, Prague is to order a further 42 armored vehicles mounted on a chassis by local manufacturer Tatra with deliveries scheduled for the years 2019 to 2023.

The Czech Armed Forces are also planning to acquire ten new mobile 3D radars for an estimated 3.5 billion krona (US$144 million) to replace its Soviet-built gear.

The ministry has drafted a report on the required acquisitions that which will be discussed by the government.

The purchases will be enabled by the increased defense budget for this year, which is largely due to the conflict in Ukraine and Russia's takeover of the Crimean peninsula. In 2015, the Czech government aims to allocate 43.78 billion krona to defense, up 4.2 percent compared with a year earlier, according to data from the ministry.

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