Iraq will buy 28 Czech-made L-159 training jets valued at $1 billion dollars (770 billions euros), Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra said Friday in Prague. “We’ve agreed to supply 28, L-159-type aircraft to the Iraqi air force,” Vondra told reporters on the last of a two-day visit to the Czech capital by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. “Twenty-four of the planes will be new, while four will come from Czech army surplus stocks,” he added. Iraq has already struck a $12-billion deal to buy 36 F-16 combat fighters from the United States, which are to be delivered from September 2014. The L-159 jets, which Prague has been trying to sell for years, are made by Aero Vodochody, the largest Czech aircraft producer controlled by the Czech-Slovak private equity group Penta. The jets meet NATO standards and can be armed. Around 80 percent of their components are foreign-made, notably in the United States. Aero Vodochody is also a sub-contractor for major arms makers including EADS, Saab and Sikorsky. The visit of the Iraqi government delegation to the NATO and EU country came on the heels of its three-day visit to Moscow, during which Russia announced signing more than $4.2 billion in arms contracts with Iraq. The deal made Russia the violence-torn Middle East nation’s largest weapons supplier after the United States.
