Czech Gripen in trouble

PRAGUE – The commission in charge with the Defense and the Foreign
Affairs of the Czech Senate decided Wednesday against the purchase of 24 JAS-39 Gripen combat aircrafts, which will make Friday the object of vote to the “Upper House” of 81 members.
A governmental project of law on the financing for some 2 billion
euros of this acquisition was already adopted on May 9 by the House of Commons . At the end of the project, the consortium SAAB-BAe Systems
must deliver to Czech aviation twenty four JAS-39 Gripen, starting in 2004.
Six of the 11 members of the Commission decided against the purchase, and two others expressed serious doubts about this acquisition, during a discussion with the Czech Minister for Defense Jaroslav Tvrdik.
The adversaries of the purchase of JAS-39 Gripen within the Commission
estimate that the governmental project neglects other alternatives of the defense of the airspace of the country, and does not take into account the international situation marked by the NATO-Russia summit.
For its part, the Tvrdik minister (Left social democrat CSSD) say again his conviction that the purchase of supersonic is in the interest of country, because in particular of the retirment of the obsolete MiG-21s planned for 2005.

———————————————————————-

Will we see L-159s armed for air defense ???