The Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic is the government department responsible for the Czech Armed Forces. The media reported on 1 October 2026 that it had cancelled a contract for 185 armoured vehicles.
The Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic is the government department that oversees the Czech Armed Forces. In the government of Petr Fiala it was headed by Jana Černochová (ODS); her successor became Jaromír Zůna for SPD.[1]
Contract for armoured vehicles
Preparations for buying medium-weight wheeled vehicles for combat engineers, military medics, special forces and the military police began in 2018. Owing to a lack of funds, the ministry postponed the project, and in January 2024 it approached the state enterprise VOP CZ to update a market survey. In June 2025, the government of Petr Fiala announced the intention to buy up to 185 vehicles and included the project among the army's strategic projects. The ministry announced the tender in March 2025.[1][2]
The ministry cancelled the contract, with an estimated value of CZK 24.7 billion; the news was reported on 1 October 2026 by the websites Aktuálně.cz and Ekonomický deník. In the register of public contracts it gave economic reasons, among others. Spokesman Petr Pešek said that the tender lacked a risk assessment and a financial analysis and that an internal review had found ambiguities in the economic aspects, the minimum technical parameters and some contractual provisions. According to him, the ministry is not abandoning the need for the vehicles, the schedule of purchases is not supposed to change, and a new tender is to be announced once the shortcomings are remedied.[1][2]
Opposition representatives criticised the decision. Jana Černochová called the justification too general, and the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies' defence committee, Josef Flek (STAN), called the cancellation a mistake. Security analyst Milan Mikulecký, by contrast, said that the contract had been beset by problems from the outset.[1]
Chronology
- — The Ministry of Defence cancelled a contract for 185 armoured vehicles for combat engineers worth almost CZK 25 billion. → ČTK / České noviny ČT24
Pages that link here
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 1 October 2026
- Seznam Zprávy — 1 October 2026