Czechs Might Want U.S. Military Aid Under Radar Deal

The Czech Republic sent mixed messages this week about whether it wants U.S. military aid in exchange for housing a missile defense radar, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, April 10).

“We have asked the U.S. for cooperation in the acquisition of two midrange tactical transport planes and that should be raised in the framework of antimissile defense negotiations,” Deputy Defense Minister Martin Bartak told Czech public television.

Such a deal would fall outside of an agreement signed this month during a NATO summit in Romania.  Czech lawmakers must still sign off on the deal.

The Bush administration says it wants to deploy the radar and 10 missile interceptors in Poland to provide defense against missile threats from Iran.  Warsaw has demanded assistance in upgrading its military under any deal.

Previously, the Czech government has indicated it is looking for nonmilitary cooperation in the research and technical sectors as part of the radar agreement (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, April 14).

Czech Television also reported that Prague was looking for air defense support from Washington, potentially in the form of Patriot missiles, AFP reported.

A Defense Ministry spokesman shot down the report today.

“The U.S. could help us in some way with obtaining Hercules aircraft,” Jan Pejsek told AFP.  However, that would occur outside of the radar agreement.

“We are not discussing Patriot missiles.  That is a question for the future,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/NASDAQ.com, April 15).

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