Czech Republic enters talks with Embraer for C-390 aircraft deal

WARSAW, Poland — The Czech government is entering negotiations to buy an undisclosed number of Embraer C-390 Millennium transport aircraft for the nation’s military, the Defence Ministry announced Tuesday.

“The Armed Forces of the Czech Republic currently do not own a medium- and long-range aircraft with a flight time of at least 12 hours which would also be capable of taking off and landing at airports with unpaved runways,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Czech company Aero Vodochody supplies to Brazil’s Embraer various components used to make the C-390.

It’s unclear how much the planned acquisition is worth.

Should Prague decide to award an order to Embraer, this would represent another contract for the manufacturer in the region, following Austria’s decision last month to buy four C-390s for the nation’s armed forces.

In a bid to replace its aging fleet of three C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft with new C-390s, Austria’s Defence Ministry announced Sept. 20 it will to spend between €130 million and €150 million (U.S. $137 million to U.S. $158 million) per plane.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——捷克国防部周二宣布，捷克政府正就购买数量不详的巴西航空工业公司C-390“千禧年”运输机用于该国军队进行谈判。

“捷克共和国武装部队目前没有飞行时间至少为 12 小时的中远程飞机，也没有能够在跑道未铺设的机场起降的飞机，”该部在一份声明中表示。

捷克公司 Aero Vodochody 向巴西航空工业公司 Embraer 提供用于制造 C-390 的各种零部件。

目前尚不清楚此次收购计划的价值是多少。

如果布拉格决定向巴西航空工业公司授予订单，这将是该公司在该地区获得的另一份合同。此前，奥地利上个月决定为该国武装部队购买四架 C-390 运输机。

为了用新的 C-390 飞机替换其老旧的三架 C-130 大力神运输机，奥地利国防部于 9 月 20 日宣布，每架飞机将花费 1.3 亿欧元至 1.5 亿欧元（1.37 亿美元至 1.58 亿美元）。

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。