PRAGUE, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Czech Defence Ministry will start selecting the supplier of over 200 full-track armoured personnel carriers (APCs) for a bid worth 53 billion crowns (about 2.57 billion U.S. dollars) in the summer, Defence Minister Karla Slechtova said at a press conference on Thursday.
Slechtova said the winner of the tender would be known by the end of 2018 or the beginning 2019 at the latest.
This will be the biggest tender Czech Defence Ministry has ever put up.
Czech Defence Ministry also wants to buy new equipment for 1.5-1.7 billion crowns (about 72.8-82.5 million U.S. dollars) in 2018.
Slechtova said the Defence Ministry will decide the supplier of 12 multipurpose helicopters by this summer. She also said she would approve the purchase of reconnaissance vehicles for chemical warfare worth over 5 billion crowns (about 242.7 million U.S. dollars) in the near future.
Czech military wants to purchase new assault rifles with grenade launchers worth about 7 billion crowns (about 339.8 million U.S. dollars) in 2019. It also wants to replace the 400 old Soviet-made BVP-2 APCs. Czech Defence Ministry plans to spend more than 150 billion crowns (about 7.28 billion U.S.dollars) for modernization projects by 2026.
So far, Czech military has two combat brigades, the 7th mechanised and 4th rapid deployment brigades.
Slechtova said Czech military will form another regiment in the years to come. (1 U.S. dollar = 20.6 crowns)
