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.