Czech Armed Forces in 2022: Land, Air and Space capabilities developed
According to the plans of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, the key priorities include the development of the heavy brigade with the related procurement of tracked infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled calibre 155mm guns, automated fire control system and the Short Range Air Defence system.
The armed forces also plan to deploy the acquired Mobile Air Defence Radars (MADR) in specific operations, enhance the host nation support capability and continue developing the medical battalion and unmanned aerial systems battalion.
Capability development in the cyber and space domain will continue as well.
Active reserve to continue recruitment
The Active Reserve Component, the reserve force the General Staff says displays the highest readiness for operational deployment, will continue to develop robustly in the next year. The ARC personnel can look forward to new arms and materiel. The Czech Armed Forces plans to enlist eleven hundred new military professionals and meet the ARC recruitment target of 1,200. The Czech Armed Forces’ total personnel strength is 27 thousand military professionals and about thirty-five hundred ARC reservists.
National defence and international commitments
Commanders and staffs will rehearse planning and conduct of operations to meet national defence requirements and international commitments. The training of military professionals and ARC reservists will intensify – the armed forces has to attain the demanded training standards after the Covid intermission. The training will primarily focus on field exercising.
EUTM command rerun
Besides tasks relative to the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second semester of 2022, the Czech Armed Forces will again be taking over the command of European Union Training Mission (EUTM) Mali. While the 2021 parliamentary mandate authorised the deployment of up to 851 service personnel, the 2022 mandate will permit deploying 946 personnel.
NATO enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltics, which is designed to strengthen the collective defence posture, also remain a high priority. In 2022, the Czech Air Force Gripen aircraft will be stationed in the region for their fourth operational tour in the Baltics. The deployment of ninety-five Czech Air Force personnel with five JAS-39 Gripen fighters will serve a six-month tour in Lithuania to provide coverage to the Lithuanian airspace as part of the Baltic Air Policing.
The UN mission in Mali will operate besides EUTM Mali and Czechs will continue to be posted to MFO in the Sinai with a CASA C-295M aircraft. The Czech Armed Forces will maintain its deployments for NATO, EU and UN operations and missions in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Golan Heights and in EUNAVFOR Mediterranean in an unchanged scope.
Standby readiness forces
A Czech Armed Forces Task Force will be on stand-up for the NATO Response Force in 2022–24 while development of forces and assets for NRF will be performed in 2023. A 56-strong Deployable CIS Module (DCM-B) will be ready for deployment in support of NATO operations and Czech servicemembers will be prepping for their assignment in the Visegrad Four (V4) EU Battle Group (EUBG).
Covid accounted for
The military will continue to help contain Covid at least till June with the mandate permitting the assignment of up to 900 service personnel for auxiliary work in hospitals and social services. Additional 150 service personnel, including ARC reservists, can be assigned for Covid testing. The Czech Armed Forces presently provides assistance in nearly seventy hospitals with over 900 personnel and additional teams assigned to help track, test and vaccinate in the Kotva vaccination centre (by the Military Police) and operate the Smart Quarantine system.
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