Prague, July 31 (CTK) – The Czech military will buy 80 light armoured vehicles with the Iveco chassis worth 5.1 billion crowns and it is to receive the first vehicles in 2020, the Euro weekly writes on its website on Tuesday.
The Czech government discussed the purchase already last year and the contract is to be signed in September.
New Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar (for ANO) approved the contract at a meeting of the ministry’s management last week, Euro.cz writes.
This is Metnar’s first big decision in the post to which he was appointed at the end of June. Previous defence ministers, Martin Stropnicky (2014-17) and Karla Slechtova (2017-18), who both represented ANO, postponed the signing of the contract. Slechtova challenged the price of the contract.
The light armoured vehicles will serve the units of radiation surveillance in Liberec, north Bohemia, for the automatic detection of the presence of radioactive, chemical and biological substances in space, the tactical taking of samples as well as the processing and sending of data to military units.
The state Military Research Institute, which is authorised to handle combat chemical substances necessary for testing the vehicles, will supply them to the military by the end of 2022.
The Defence Ministry said the radiation surveillance units, known as the “chemists” have an excellent reputation, but some of its equipment is getting old.
The new vehicle was presented in Liberec last September. It provided better protection in contaminated territory to the experts as the cab can be hermetically closed.
