Due to the coronavirus crisis, the testing of the offered new IFVs has been postponed to next year. Our soldiers will probably have to depend only on BVP-2 for some time coming, so the vehicles must be kept running as long as possible. That is why a tender was recently announced for the purchase of spare parts that will extend the life of these aged infantry vehicles.

Picture: Currently used armoured tracked vehicles BVP-2 | army.cz

BVP-2 is an amphibious combat armoured tracked vehicle, which was manufactured in Czechoslovakia on the basis of a license according to the Soviet transporter BMP-2. It is an age-old army machinery that should be only placed in museums by now and not on a modern battlefield. However, due to the coronavirus, complications follow our army throughout the next phase of the tender for new IFVs for the ACR.  The so-called tests of functional samples of tracked IFVs were originally to take place from 29 October to 6 December 2020 at several locations in the Czech Republic. Within the billion-dollar order, testing and verification of the declared parameters of IFVs is one of the fundamental requirements - a total of approximately 30 types of tests, mostly practical, will be performed. However, the above tests had to be postponed due to the coronavirus to next year and the tender for new IFVs will be drawn out again.

Since our soldiers will have to make do with only the obsolete BVP-2 vehicles for some time, it is necessary to keep them in perfect condition for as long as possible. For this reason, a tender was recently announced for an extensive supply of spare parts for the current BVP-2. The subject of the tender is the supply of spare parts for BVP-2 chassis and weapon systems of the 2A42 cannon in a BVP-2 infantry fighting vehicle. Not everyone can apply for the tender, only companies with proven experience and practice in the sale of this and similar equipment.

The documentation says the following: "The supplier proves the fulfilment of the technical qualification according to § 196 par. 1 let. b) of the Act by a list of significant supplies provided in the last 5 years before the commencement of the tender procedure, including the indication of the price, the time of their provision, the identification of the customer and the customer's certificate. The supplier meets the following criterion of technical qualification if it is clear from the customer's certificate that the supplier has provided significant deliveries according to CPV in the last 5 years: 35400000-8 "Military vehicles and related parts" and CPV 35412100-6 "Infantry fighting vehicles" in the total financial volume for Part 2 of this public procurement at least 15,000,000, - CZK without VAT, of which at least one delivery was made in the financial volume of at least CZK 2,000,000 without VAT.”

And what will the army buy? These include tens of thousands of cartridges for ammunition belts, ball bearings, oil pumps, fuel pumps, virtually all chassis components, including complete tracks sets. There are also summer and winter balaclavas for the crew. All in sufficient quantities spread into deliveries in 2021 and 2022. The army is trying to extend the life and capability of the existing infantry fighting vehicles as long as possible. We have written in the past that a huge share of the current functionality of BVP-2 vehicles is ensured by military mechanics, who do everything possible and impossible to keep the machines running.

Let us therefore hope that our soldiers will get the new tracked infantry fighting vehicles as soon as possible and will be able to fulfil the alliance commitments.