The Czech Republic may postpone the contract for the latest Leopard 2A8 tanks due to competition with other strategic defense projects.

The Czech media Novinky.czk1 reported on this.

In December, the Czech Ministry of Defense received a letter from the General Staff in which the army leadership asked to suspend negotiations on purchasing 78 Leopard 2A8 tanks due to lack of funds.

“Due to the lack of financial resources associated with the repeated reduction of funds under Chapter 307 of the Ministry of Defense, we request abandonment of the Main Battle Tank project,” the letter reads.

The reason for the problems was the reduction of the defense budget for 2025 to $6.32 billion instead of the $6.93 billion envisaged by the government. This amount is insufficient to cover the financing of all planned defense projects in the country.

The Czech government has launched several strategic projects: purchasing the aforementioned tanks, 24 F-35A fighter jets, 2 C-390 military transport aircraft, and 246 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles.

The newspaper reported that canceling the purchase of tanks, which had already been approved by the government and included in strategic projects, threatened political problems. Therefore, officials convinced the generals to withdraw their request and seek other solutions.

It is yet unknown whether the Czech government has found a solution that would allow it to fund all the necessary contracts this year. However, even postponing the deal for the new tanks to a later date will not mean a complete rejection of them, as the country needs to strengthen the armored component of its military.

Currently, the Czech army has only 30 modernized T-72 M4CZ tanks in service. The country received another 28 Leopard 2A4 tanks as part of a “circular exchange” from Germany. In addition, in December, the Czech government purchased 14 more tanks of this type at its own expense.

In addition to these “strategic defense projects,” the Czech Republic is also actively rearming in other areas. In particular, the first Caesar wheeled howitzers, contracted back in 2021, are due to arrive in the country soon.

The Czech Republic ordered 52 self-propelled artillery systems, but in December 2022, it increased its order by another 10 vehicles. The contract’s total value is CZK 10.3 billion, or almost $451 million. All vehicles are planned to be delivered by the end of 2026.

In addition, the country plans to purchase about 1,000 Tatra T-815 military trucks worth $510 million. This number of vehicles is expected to be procured by September 2031.