Government greenlights the procurement of 1.9 billion euros of military hardware

The procurement plans received the support of opposition MPs in parliament on Thursday, who deemed that Croatia needs to purchase new military equipment because the army needs to be maintained and modernized. However, they objected to the fact that they were not presented with a strategic document as a basis for the procurement.

Government adopted a decision today on the procurement of anti-drone systems, French howitzers, German tanks and heavy trucks. At a cost of 1.9 billion euros, this marks the biggest financial package for the equipping and modernizing of the Croatian Armed Forces. The new equipment should be delivered by the end of 2030. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković: "In question is the implementation of the loan that we took from the EU's SAFE instrument for Leopard battle tanks, CAESAR self-propelled howitzers and heavy army trucks. These investments will contribute to meeting the goals that Croatia assumed at the NATO summit in The Hague in June. We will sign these contracts next week during our visit with President Macron in Paris and afterwards in Berlin as part of our talks with Chancellor Merz."

For his part Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ivan Anušić said after the cabinet session that while the Leopard tank was not cheap, it was well worth the price: "As opposed to other tanks, this tank has the 'Trophy' anti-drone or anti-armor defenses. It is the only tank in the world that currently has that defense system. So, there is a reason why it is expensive, they are the best tanks available on the market right now. Obviously, we're also looking at this through the lens of our long standing cooperation with our ally Germany."

The SAFE (Security Action for Europe) financial instrument, was adopted in May of this year with the goal of providing financial support to Member States to speed up defense readiness by allowing urgent and major investments in support of the European defense industry, with a focus on closing critical capability gaps.

Source: HRT