April 25 (SeeNews) - The first six out of a total of 12 Rafale multipurpose fighter jets that Croatia has acquired under a 999 million euro ($1.07 billion) deal with France arrived from a French air base near Bordeaux on Thursday, the Croatian defence ministry announced.
Thanks to these Rafale jets, Croatia will have the strongest air force in this part of Europe, public broadcaster HRT quoted Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic as saying during a welcome ceremony held near Zagreb.
It is the biggest ever investment into the Croatian Army, parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said, according to a press release of the defence ministry.
In November 2021, Croatia signed an agreement with France for the purchase of 12 used Rafale F3-R multipurpose fighters and associated logistics support.
Together with an estimated costs of indexation and value added tax, the price of the delivery is 1.15 billion euro, the Croatian government said earlier on Thursday.
($ = 0.933 euro)