Kalinak Confirms Withdrawal of SAMP/T Mamba, Decision on New System

Bratislava/Michalovce, April 11 (TASR) - The Defence Ministry will decide on the procurement of a new air-defence system in the following days, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) claimed after a session of the government on Thursday. Kalinak confirmed that Italian system SAMP/T Mamba will be withdrawn from Slovakia and thanked Italy for having it deployed in Slovakia for a year. "In the following weeks, we'll certainly announce the end to the discussion on the procurement of the new air-defence system and talk with our other partners about the bolstering of our air defence at the same time," said Kalinak, pointing out that Slovakia continues to be protected by the so-called air policing carried out by the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Kalinak conceded to reporters that Slovakia is likely to procure the Israeli air defence system Barak. "You're getting a little bit ahead of yourself, but let's agree that there's quite a high likelihood [of buying Barak systems]. I think that we'll be announcing our next step really soon," said the minister. He confirmed that the procurement of the US air defence system Patriot is "off the table", due to extremely long delivery waiting times and the inability to switch the discount granted by the US Government on Viper helicopters to Patriots instead. Kalinak criticised the previous government over having "handed out the entire air defence system" and added that Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed that the S-300 system gifted by Slovakia to Ukraine is one of the most reliable systems. mf/mcs