Hey, wanna buy a fighter?
Reuters
Czech government aims to sell 47 used fighter jets
Wednesday July 7, 10:28 am ET
PRAGUE, July 7 (Reuters) - The Czech government on Wednesday approved a plan to sell 47 used but relatively new subsonic L-159 fighter jets, hoping to place them in neighbouring Hungary or in Africa by the end of this year.
The central European country's army will keep just 24 planes and has been in advanced talks with several potential buyers.
"We hope to finish the talks by the end of this year. We are quite optimistic," a defence ministry spokesman said.
The spokesman declined to comment on who might buy the aircraft. "We will seek to find a solution that may reduce our costs of maintenance of the fleet."
An industry source told Reuters the state might compete with the planes' producer, Czech company Aero Vodochody, in which U.S. aerospace giant Boeing has a minority stake. But they might also join forces to provide servicing of the planes.
"Hungary, Egypt and Algeria are the territories that are often being mentioned in the press and that are not completely out of the picture," the source said.
The army, which is undergoing a cost-saving programme, bought the planes between 2001 and 2003.
An Aero spokesman said his firm hoped to benefit from the government decision but declined to comment further.