During the wednesday session of the Chamber of deputies minister of defense Karla Šlechtová has spoken on the amendment of act on Securing defense. She admitted for the first time that the tender on purchase of multi-purpose helicopters will restart, from zero, with the phase of marketing research.
„Nobody passed the result of the marketing research after two years. So now I have asked the General staff that I want to have, by the 31st january, a precise and realistic specification on purchase of multi-purpose helicopters that would be employable by the Czech army,“ minister said. One of the armie’s requirements was for example heated rotor against blade icing or wheeled landing gear, that the American company Bell was unable to provide.
During her speach Šlechtová complained also about the situation of the armament of the Czech army. „We have Russian guns. We have radars which exceed their durability by 15 years. Why nobody took action? At the moment there are many things on my table. I am trying to find solutions. And I will. And I will hope that there will be somebody at this place in four years saying that it was well done, and that we can be glad Šlechtová had signed it.“
„Minister Šlechtová, if she didn’t want to be collegial, would easly throw responsability on her predecessor Stropnický, and according to the law of falling… he would throw it to the chief of general staff, chosen by himself! This explains why governement and pseudocoalition deputies refused to give more money to the army yesterday, as proposed by the ODS. They simply cannot reforge the money for equipment,“ member of the Defense committes Karel Krejza (ODS) said on his facebook.
According to Šlechtová the law on Calling public tenders is to be blamed, she admitted however that the suggestions of the ministry of defense were processed. According to the minister the delays were caused also by verfications. „Many of the acquisition procedures require verifications on applicants to purchase the armament and other, and not all applicants answer the conditions. Recently it happened that we had to return two big acquisition processes due to the fact that the technical parameters were not met. So these processes do not last so long just because it is impossible to plan it, but also because someone did not win the given tender, and it restarts from the beggining,“ she reasoned in front of the deputies.
Afterwards Šlechtová has deployed a paper of A3 size on the platform, which contained presumably a list of acquisitions for this year. „For 2018, with the budget of 58,9 billion, the estimation reaches 1,13 %, under the condition that all acquisition processes planned for 2018 will be realized. I am standing here in january in front of the Parliament of the Czech republic, in front of the Chamber of deputies, and I am telling you they won’t. They won’t because some need to be held off, some will last long, and some will have to be moved to 2019,“ Šlechtová concluded.
According to the coalition deputy Robert Králíček is makes no sense to rise the armie’s budget rigidly by law as it was impossible for the army to spend the money, like in the case of the helicopters. „I understand that a tender can just fall under the table because neither of the parties, who made it through to the final of the marketing research, is able to answer the technical requirements of the army… Do we really need heated rotor or wheeled landing gear?“ Králíček asked on his facebook profile. According to him it would be better to start from zero with realistic technical requirements. „At least more companies may apply for the tender and we might save some money on the purchase,“ concluded the member of the Committe of defense Králíček.
So the Russian helicopters Mi24/35 will remain in the armament of the Czech army for a while. „Generally the helicopters are available within at most two years after the signature of the agreement,“ the press section of the Czech army answered the qustion of the SM. In case the American company Bell would win the tender, the deliveries might begin much faster.
Author: Jan Blažek