Prague, Sept 2 (CTK) – The Czech Defence Ministry is to sign contracts worth almost five billion crowns, including a tender for the servicing of the Mi helicopters for over four billion crowns, the purchase of ammunition and new gas masks in the weeks to come, Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) told CTK on Saturday.
Last week, the deals were approved by the Defence Ministry.
On Thursday, the office signed a contract for the purchase of modular combat sets for soldiers.
“We continue with modernisation of the military and replenishment of our reserves. In the weeks to come, we will sign contracts for five billion crowns,” Stropnicky said.
“They will be signed with Czech suppliers. This means that we continue with the support for the domestic defence industry,” Stropnicky said.
Of the contracts, most money will be spent on the servicing of 41 Mi helicopters.
“Based on our previous experience, we have prepared a single, comprehensive contract with such a financial volume that it will ensure the servicing of all the 40 Mi helicopters until 2023,” Stropnicky said.
The state-run LOM Praha is to be in charge of the military helicopters within the prepared framework agreement.
The ministry presumes that during the time, it will pay 4.159 billion crowns plus VAT for the servicing, Defence Ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek said.
So far, the servicing of the helicopters has been ensured on the basis of three contracts, Pejsek said.
The amount of the contract was approved by an expert review, he added.
“During the talks with LOM we managed to reduce the hourly rates for work compared to previous contracts,” Pejsek said.
Another contract relates to the purchase of new gas masks.
The ministry plans to buy them from the Czech company Gumarny Zubri, depending on the need, Pejsek said, adding that it could be presumed that another 17,000 gas masks would be added to the current 22,000 by 2019.
The Defence Ministry is to pay some 170 million crowns plus VAT for them, Pejsek said.
“The price was evaluated by military experts and an expert report from the Military Research Institute in Brno,” Pejsek said.
The Defence Ministry is planning to sign contracts for 475 million crowns for the deliveries of various types of ammunition with seven suppliers.
Pejsek said most money would be spent on the ammunition for the guns of the Gripen fighters of Czech air force and it would also buy smoke hand-grenades and smoke bombs.
The Ceska zbrojovka arms maker will deliver the ammunition for over 300 million crowns and further ammunition will be produced by the firms Zeveta and Explosia.
In all, 16 tenders have been put up for the delivery of the ammunition.
On Thursday, the ministry signed a contract with the firm Pramacom-HT on the delivery of three sets of modular combat equipment which makes it possible to pinpoint the enemy’s position.
