Czech Military Balances Old, New

Signal, Sep 2008 by Ackerman, Robert K

But upgrading legacy systems does not necessarily achieve interoperability.

The armed forces of the Czech Republic are wrestling with interoperability issues as they strive to modernize in place a military largely built around legacy systems. The 60-yearold Atlantic alliance to which the Czech Republic belongs still has not achieved complete interoperability, so the former Warsaw Pact member is trying to achieve compatibility with an organization that has not yet reached its own interoperability goals.

Faced with tight defense budgets, the Czech Republic is replacing older systems incrementally as it upgrades some platforms to last beyond their planned service lives. It is embracing network centricity as the cornerstone of its military future. And, it is pursuing joint modernization and transformation in concert with its allies in spite of increasingly strident opposition from some non-NATO forces.

Lt. Gen. Vlastimil Picek is the chief of the general staff of the armed forces of the Czech Republic (ACR). The top military officer in the democracy, Gen. Picek assumed his position in March of last year. He comes from a strong signal background, including the top signal position in the Czech armed forces: director of Ministry of Defense Command and Control Division-chief of the ACR Signal Corps. This signal background helps him tremendously in his current assignment, he offers, noting that people in the Czech armed forces say that signal personnel make excellent operators because they possess the right operational thinking. This reasoning follows that because signal personnel know the command and control system and know how to tailor it to a specific operational scenario, they also can use it to make the right wellinformed decisions.

This philosophy, which Gen. Picek suggests applies to all militaries, is even more appropriate in the era of military network centricity and information superiority. While as chief of the general staff he is not involved with specific operational command and control, he is tasked with transforming the Czech military into a force that can interoperate in a NATO networking environment.

Among the country's top transformational priorities is the implementation of a network-enabled capability (NEC) concept. Gen. Picek explains that the Czech defense community views NEC not just as a capability to achieve information superiority but also primarily as a vehicle to transform existing basic operational capabilities for greater operational effectiveness.

In 2006, the Czech Republic completed a four-year implementation of the first step in its defense reform. The transition to step 2 began last year, and its activities should lead to full operational capability by 2018. The general describes these goals as enhancing the capabilities of the Czech armed forces; increasing the proportion of deployable forces; optimizing command, organizational and personnel management structures; improving mobilization processes and requirements along with administrative and support processes; and complete organizational and basing changes.

Achieving these goals amounts to a slight increase in defense spending. The Ministry of Defense budget for fiscal year 2009 should be about 55.8 billion koruna ($3.8 billion), reaching 60 billion koruna ($4.09 billion) by 2010. As a percentage of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), this translates to about 1.38 percent. Gen. Picek forecasts that Czech defense spending as a percentage of GDP will increase in 2011 through 2018.

The Czech Republic shares with other NATO allies who are former Warsaw Pact members the challenge of incorporating into alliance operations a force equipped largely with gear from the former Soviet Union. This equipment makes up too much of the country's arsenal to be replaced entirely, yet it does not interoperate easily with modern NEC systems. Gen. Picek explains that the Czech Republic is opting to both modernize legacy systems and replace some with newer gear.

For example, the country's T-72 main battle tanks will remain a mainstay of armored ground forces, but they have been modernized to a thirdgeneration standard. They now can use traditional or NATO ammunition in their 7.62-millimeter machine guns, and their night observation and surveillance systems have been upgraded. The country also has upgraded the instrumentation in its BMP-2 vehicles.

Hardware replacement currently focuses on obsolete or largely uninteroperable systems. The Czech Republic is replacing systems incrementally where possible as part of its transformation effort.

The country is equipping its forces with the Ericsson Artillery Hunting Radar, also known as ARTHUR. This system is in use in the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and British militaries. The Czech Republic also is procuring Swedish RBS-70 manportable air defense systems.

The air force has replaced its venerable MiG-21 fighter aircraft with Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen aircraft. These aircraft joined L-159 subsonic light combat aircraft built by the Czech company Aero Vodochody in partnership with the Boeing Company. And, a pair of old Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-154 transport aircraft were replaced by two new Airbus A-319s.