The Czech government is negotiating with the Swedeish government to extend the lease of 14 Gripen fighters till 2035, Czech news site Novinky has reported.
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© Milan Nykodym, Czech Republic, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Czech Ministry of Defense has officially been negotiating with the Pentagon for five months to purchase 24 F-35 fighters. However it is worried that the American fighters could not be delivered on time in 2029 when the lease for Gripen fighters expire.
“Negotiations with the U.S. do not close the door for other platforms. The basic goal of the Czech Republic has always been and remains to be able to protect our airspace with our own means even during the transition to a new platform,” said Defense Spokesman David Jareš to Novinky when queried on the talks with Sweden.
Lawmakers on the Defense Committee have been briefed last week on the topic of extending the lease and the purchase of F-35s. An anonymous lawmaker said the Czech Ministry of Defense had proposed to Sweden that the Gripens be donated to the Czech Republic. Last year, Swedish ambassador to Czech Republic Fredrik Jörgensen said in an interview with Seznam Správy that Czech can keep the Gripens for free. “There is a possibility to transfer these aircraft currently rented by the Czech Republic for essentially zero costs. They have already been paid for, it’s like a car on leasing. We would consider them essentially paid off and on this basis we could expand the cooperation system with Gripen C or further with Gripen E, Jörgensen was quoted as saying.
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