Czech Republic offers to rent combat planes to Hungary

The Czech Republic has offered to rent 14 Czech-made Aero L-159 combat aircraft to Hungary’s military. The Czech prime minister, Petr Nečas, put the proposal to his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban at a meeting on the sidelines of a Visegrad Four conference in Budapest on Tuesday. The Czech and Hungarian defence ministries will now hold talks on a possible deal. A number of other countries have expressed interest in the fighter planes, but to date the Czech air force is the sole operator. The firm Aero Vodochody produced 72 L-159s for the Czech military. It only uses 24 of them; the rest are in storage in hangars.

Author: Ian Willoughby