BRATISLAVA - Slovakia's National Security Council has agreed to Ministry of Defense proposals for a new Strategic Defense Review (SDR) that calls on the armed forces to retire their remaining tank fleet. Under the outlines of the SDR, the Slovak armed forces will retain their fleet of MiG-29 jet fighters but suspend use of the T-72 main battle tank. The Slovak Army has 245 of these tanks in its inventory, which were manufactured between 1984 and 1989.
Three models have been proposed for the future Slovak armed forces under the SDR. One would see the defense budget stabilized at 1.5 percent of GDP in order to maintain the armed forces in their current 21,000-strong state. Another would lock the annual defense appropriation at the equivalent of 1.1 percent of GDP, with either the Air Force or Army sacrificing troops to bring the total size of the armed forces down to 16,000. The final proposal calls for continual decreases in defense spending - an untenable proposition for the armed forces, as they already spend 86 percent of their annual appropriation on personnel, leaving equipment to atrophy to the point of obsolescence.
The MoD proposals are to be submitted to the government Cabinet for approval. Slovakia's 2011 defense budget of EUR740 million ($1.04 billion) is roughly equal to 1.2 percent of GDP.
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