The Czech Defence Industry: Products and Capabilities

摘要

First and foremost, it is important to emphasise that local defence industry products are fully supported by the Czech government, which is willing to allocate the necessary defence budget and - in the current case - is ready to secure the budget for several years ahead. Thus, neither governmental changes nor potential economic uncertainties will hamper the defence budget allocations, which is a dramatic change compared with past years, when defence spending was constantly being axed. The coalition government agreed back in 2014 that the defence budget would amount to 1.4% of GDP by 2020, rising from the 2015 budget level of 1%. Efforts are indeed being intensified to keep this promise and raise military expenditure from the current 1.08% to 1.4% by 2020 and 2% by 2025. In 2015 the defence budget totalled CZK43.78 billion (U$1.78 billion). Andrej Babis, Minister of Finance, told reporters in August 2015 that, "the Czech MoD's budget is to rise to CZK47.5 billion in 2016."