Tuesday 21 December 2021, Defence Minister Jana Černochová visited the Czech Armed Forces General Staff for the first time to expand her familiarity with the High Command, current status and primary missions of the Czech Armed Forces as presented by the Chief of General Staff, General Aleš Opata.
General Opata welcomed Jana Černochová in front of the General Staff compound in Prague Dejvice and accompanied the Minister for her first joint working meeting with the senior officials of the Czech Armed Forces.
“We dedicated a large part of our discussions to the armed forces modernisation,“ Minister Černochová said to the press and went on to reassure that potential savings in the MoD budget could not be sought in allocations for the armed forces’ modernisation.
The Minister also said she would discuss already in the first week of January the way ahead for the tender for 210 units of wheeled infantry fighting vehicles with the Chief of General Staff, Deputy Minister for Armaments Lubor Koudelka, legal advisors and other specialists who had developed the specifications. “We do realise we should not delay the decision for too long,“ she added.
Another subject of the discussion was the deployment of service personnel for foreign operations and possible changes in legislation, which could simplify the process of operational deployments.
In 2022, Minister Černochová also plans to visit units and components such as the Defence University and military medical facilities. The first on the schedule will be the 7th Mechanised Brigade.
Last but not least, the Minister thanked the service personnel who had provided assistance on containing the pandemic in hospitals, social services, vaccination centres and call centres.
General Opata added he had presented briefings to the Minister on the workings of the General Staff and the primary missions and tasks for 2022.
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