September 9 (SeeNews) - Croatia has received offers for the procurement of fighter jets from Sweden, the U.S., France and Israel by the September 9 deadline, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.
Next, an evaluation process will take place that will last by the end of 2020, the ministry said in a statement, without providing any details on the received proposals.
Defence minister Mario Banozic confirmed the government's plan to buy 12 fighter jets in a separate statement on Wednesday.
In January, the Croatian government sent requests for proposals for the delivery of new fighter jets to the U.S. (F-16), and Sweden (JAS Gripen), and requests for the procurement of used fighter jets to France (Rafale), Italy (Eurofighter) and Norway, Greece and Israel (F-16).
In September 2019, the defence ministry said that the country had received 13 proposals for the delivery of fighter jets after sending letters to 26 potentially interested parties.
Back then, Robert Kopal, an advisor to prime minister Andrej Plenkovic, said that the government aims to buy 12 fourth-generation fighter jets by the end of 2020.
In January 2019, Croatia cancelled the agreed purchase of 12 multi-purpose U.S.-made F-16 Barak jets from Israel, after the $500 million (424 million euro) deal was blocked by the United States.
In March 2018, Croatia reached an agreement with Israel for the acquisition of the F-16 fighter jets used by Israel's Air Force, in order to replace its ageing fleet of Russian-made MiG-21 fighters. The deal with Israel needed Washington's approval for the sale of a U.S.-made product to a third party. In December 2018, Israeli TV broadcaster Channel 10 reported that the Trump administration had blocked the deal because it was angry that Israel had added advanced electronic systems to its F-16s in order to sweeten its offer in the Croatian tender.
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