Slovakian Defense Minister Jaro Nad has described an advantageous offer made by the United States to compensate his country for having provided MiG-29 fighters and Kub air-defense missiles to Ukraine.
The offer includes 12 new Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters with accessories, pilot and technician training and more than 500 AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles, Nad said in a March 21 post on his Facebook page.
The value of this equipment is slightly over 1 billion USD, Nad said, adding that Bahrain five years ago paid about $911 million for just 12 AH-1Z helicopters, with accessories but without weapons.
According to the deal on offer, the Slovak Republic would pay approximately $340 million over a period of 3-4 years from its planned defense budget, Nad said. “That's exactly what the offer from the US government sounds like.”
The rest, approximately $660 million, would be donated by the US Government through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) Defense Fund.
“Several countries have shown interest in said helicopters, if we don't take them, they will go to another country. Thanks to our responsible defense policy, relations with the USA and also clear support of Ukraine, we were the first to receive this offer. It should also be seen in the context of indirect compensation for delayed F-16 fighters, where we have long demanded some form of compensation,” Nad said.
“This offer is extremely advantageous and will significantly increase the defense potential of the Slovak Republic. We currently do not have combat helicopters at all, so this would be a completely new combat capability.
“After handing over the MiGs and part of the KUB air defense system, we will be ready to approve this agreement at the government level as well.
So let's summarize: for 13 old MiGs (Hungary has repeatedly failed to sell its 19 MiG-29s even for about 10 million euros) and a smaller part of the KUB air defense system, we have an offer for about $660 million in the form of brand new helicopters with complete accessories and a lot of sophisticated missiles.
This will be in addition to approximately €200 million in cash from the European Peace Facility for MiGs and €50 million for the KUB system.
The total amount of compensation will therefore exceed 900 million euros.
“This is called realizing national interests and increasing the defense capability of the country like never before. We thank you,” Nad concluded.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: As described by Nad, the net cost to Slovakia would be just $70 million for the $1 billion AH-1Z package it has been offered by the United States. This is how the deal would be financed, according to his unofficial statement:
| --Total cost of package: | $ 1,000 million | |
| --US Foreign Military Financing | ($ 660 million) | |
| --Cost to Slovakian defense budget | $ 340 million | |
| --Payment from EU Peace Facility | ($ 270 million) | (€250 million converted to USD at today's rate) |
| Net cost to Slovakia | $ 70 million |
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