Kalinak: Procurement of Air-defence Systems Should Be Concluded in December

Bratislava, November 20 (TASR) - The procurement of air-defence systems should be concluded by the end of the first week of December, said Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) at a press conference following the government session on Wednesday. According to the minister, the contract for the systems has already been signed, but the technical details of the deal are being finalised. "For instance, each unit, each battery, has its own control centre and has its own power drive unit. According to the contract, it's been agreed that we want this to be produced in Slovakia. The other side claims that it can produce it more cheaply if it isn't produced in Slovakia. This means that, okay, it may be reflected in the price, but then we have to bring another part of the production to Slovakia in order to maintain the [output] of Slovak production," explained Kalinak. Slovakia is set to purchase six mobile air-defence systems from Israel with an estimated price of over €554 million. According to Kalinak's estimates from the past, the first system could arrive in Slovakia by the end of next year. zel/df