March 31 (SeeNews) - The Croatian army will buy helicopters with a part of a recent $140 million (152 million euro) grant provided under the foreign military assistance programme of the US government, Croatia’s prime minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
“The funding will be used to buy military equipment including a squadron of new helicopters that Croatia will buy from the US,” Plenkovic told a weekly cabinet meeting on Thursday, as seen in a video published on the government's website.
Plenkovic did not disclose details on the planned acquisition, but local daily Jutarnji List reported on Thursday that so far Croatia has bought two new Black Hawk helicopters, the US has granted it two more and Croatia's defence minister Mario Banozic had said earlier that Croatia plans to buy a further eight Black Hawk helicopters.
“This $140 million grant is a follow-up to earlier grants totalling $800 million that we have received earlier under the same programme from the USA,” Plenkovic added.
($ = 0.919 euro)