Slovakia To Purchase 30 Rosomak Armored Vehicle From Poland

Slovokia is negotiating a purchase of 30 eight-wheeled Rosomak armored modular vehicle (AMV) from Poland.

The announcement by  Poland’s defense ministry follows unsubstantiated news reports that Slovakia’s Defense Ministry had scrapped the acquisition plan, Sputnik reported Monday.

Bartlomiej Misiewicz, the Polish Defense Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by the news daily that the negotiations "will be continued, as indicated by the talks by the defense ministers of Poland and Slovakia that took place during NATO’s summit in Warsaw."

Under the original plan discussed by the two parties, the Slovak military was to acquire 30 tanks, which are built by the Polish arms manufacturer Rosomak in three years.

After information about the deal began to surface from the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Warsaw, an unnamed Slovak Defense Ministry official told Slovakian media outlet SME that the project was "stopped due to military and economic disadvantageousness for Slovakia."

The two governments initially signed a letter of intent to cooperate on military transactions back in July 2015. Following the signing, Poland’s then-Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz announced that Rosomak would obtain more than $30 million from the contract. The deal would also bring jobs to the Slovakian economy with the country’s defense industry slated to produce the tank’s turret.

The deal was designed to enable the Slovak Armed Forces to replace the outdated OT-64 SKOT armored personnel carriers first designed back in the 1960s.