Illustrative photo – Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic in Tychonova Street in Prague on June 8, 2017.
Prague – Air defense systems for Ukraine will be produced in the Czech Republic. The Netherlands will pay for a hundred modified Toyota all-terrain vehicles equipped with a pair of rapid-fire machine guns that can target, for example, drones. They will also buy the necessary ammunition from Czech companies, Aleš Vytečka, director of the Agency for Intergovernmental Defense Cooperation (AMOS), told ČTK. The trade was brokered by the Czech Ministry of Defense through the AMOS agency it established. Deputy Minister of Defense Daniel Blažkovec informed about the production of anti-aircraft weapons for Ukraine after Tuesday's meeting of the states that militarily support Ukraine.
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The project is based on the same principles as the previously announced modernization of 90 T-72 tanks. Their repair is jointly paid for by the United States and the Netherlands, and everything is coordinated by the Czech Ministry of Defense. The modernization and supply of tanks is provided by a Czech company.
According to Vytečka, the Netherlands has convinced itself that the Czech Republic is a suitable partner for helping Ukraine thanks to its agile defense industry and functioning government support. At the same time, he highlighted the high level and quality of cooperation with this Western European country.
The project of acquired air defense systems responds to Russian attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure and to Ukrainian efforts to defend against them. Vytečka noted that Western countries attacked by Ukraine supply highly sophisticated anti-aircraft systems. However, the missiles that are used for them are many times more expensive when deployed, for example, against cheap Iranian-made Shahid drones.
Therefore, after consultations with Ukraine and the Czech arms industry, the Czech Republic offered the Netherlands participation in the project of off-road vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns. They can effectively stop similar machines, they use commonly available and cheap ammunition for this.
Czechs have already used the same devices in the Gift for Putin campaign. The organizers collected 90 million crowns for 15 air defense systems called Viktor. According to the Dárek pro Putin website, the system is capable of effectively defending strategic and civilian targets against suicide drone strikes and aerial bombardment. Toyota all-terrain vehicles are equipped with a pair of 14.5-millimeter rapid-fire machine guns that can be used to destroy aerial or, if necessary, ground targets. They can intervene against medium and large drones, but also against airplanes and helicopters that operate at low altitudes. The effective range is up to two kilometers.
The weapon is also equipped with a night sight. According to Vytečka, the Ukrainians appreciate it very much, because Russia has started deploying drones, which can be shot down quite easily during the day, especially at night.
According to Vytečka, the contract with the Czech company has already been signed. For security reasons, the ministry and arms companies do not publish details of aid to Ukraine.
