46 companies register in tender on armoured carriers

Forty-six companies, including Austria's Steyr-Daimler-Puch and Finland's Patria, have applied to take part in a tender to produce 8-wheel armoured carriers for the Czech Army. The deal has been slated as worth 25 billion crowns, or more than 1 billion US dollars. Friday was the final deadline for registration. The tender - the most expensive order by the Czech Army since the fall of communism in 1989 - was approved by the government in April and will see the replacement of the old OT-64s with 200 new vehicles. The OTs have been in use since the 1960s.

The Defence Ministry will then decide during the summer on who will make the tender's 2nd round. The winner is expected to be known by the end of 2005 or early 2006.