Czechs ink $2.7 bn deal for Swedish combat vehicles
by AFP Staff Writers
Prague (AFP) May 24, 2023

The Czech government on Wednesday inked a $2.7-billion deal to buy tracked combat vehicles from Sweden's BAE Systems Hagglunds.

Prague will receive 246 of the company's CV90s, which come with a turret-mounted cannon and can be considered a light tank or armoured personnel carrier.

The NATO and EU member, like other countries in the region, has been prioritising defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

"The purchase of the armoured vehicles is an important milestone in building a heavy brigade and in upgrading the army and boosting our defence capacities," Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said on her ministry's website.

The move is an upgrade from last year's memorandum of understanding, under which the Czech army was due to buy only 210 combat vehicles.

Cernochova said Prague would also start talks with the German government on a joint purchase of about 70 German-made Leopard 2A8 tanks.

Last month, the Czech parliament approved a bill raising the country's annual defence spending to at least two percent of gross domestic product from next year, as required by NATO.

It has also provided nearby Ukraine with more than $260 million in military aid since Russia's invasion.

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