WARSAW — Czech Minister of Defense Martin Stropnicky has announced the ministry will urgently purchase a number of new weapons and modernize its existing gear, reportsed local news agency CTK.
The procurements are intended to increase the Czech armed forces’ capabilities to secure the country’s border against the inflow of migrants from the Middle East, and ensure the Czech military is prepared to participate in joint NATO activities, according to Defense Minister Martin Stropnicky said.
"The reason behind this was, in particular, the deteriorating global security situation which represents a threat to the security of the Czech Republic and Czech citizens. After a thorough evaluation of the current risks and threats, the ministry decided to make an effective and adequate response [by making these acquisitions]," Stropnicky said.
The procurements include armored personnel carriers, trucks, monitoring and reconnaissance systems, electronic attack prevention systems, assault rifles and grenade launchers. These will are to comprise 57 wheeled vehicles that will be supplied by Italy’s Iveco and Czech manufacturer Tatra.
Stropnicky said that the weapons primarily will be supplied to troops from the Czech land forces, air forces and reserve units.
The acquisitions are enabled by the country’s higher defense budget for 2015. This year, Prague plans to spend 43.78 billion krona (US $1.78 billion) on the Czech military, a increase of 4.2 percent increase over the previous from a year, earlier, according to figures from the Defense Ministry.
Email: jadamowski@defensenews.com
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
