Three bidders offer combat vehicles to Czech military, as German joint venture bows out

The Czech Ministry of Defence has announced it received three initial bids to supply new infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to the country’s military, with one player deciding to pull out of the competition.

Vehicles in the race include the Ascod, supplied by General Dynamics European Land Systems, BAE Systems’ CV90, and Rheinmetall’s Lynx. The contract, under which Prague aims to acquire some 210 vehicles for the country’s military, is estimated to be worth about 50 billion koruna, or $2.2 billion.

The fourth invited bidder, PSM Projekt System & Management GmbH, a joint venture between Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall, which makes the Puma, decided not to submit an offer because the companies believe the tender would require a costly rebuild of the vehicle to comply with its terms, the Czech ministry said in a statement.

“The project team will now begin to assess the received preliminary offers,” the ministry said. “Subsequently, the suppliers will be invited to submit their final offers.”

The planned procurement is to allow the Czech Republic to replace its outdated Soviet-designed BVP-2 vehicles with new IFVs.