The Czech military has launched a system of online gear acquisitions as of January 1, Chief-of-Staff Ales Opata has told CTK, adding that the system is in a trial operation for the time being.
The system, similar to e-shop, is designed for selected soldiers, and it will be gradually extended along with the range of its users.
According to daily Pravo, the trial operation this year will involve selected soldiers from the garrisons in Zatec, north Bohemia, Prague and Stara Boleslav near Prague.
For security reasons, the military has developed its own purchase application that will operate within a protected information system preventing a leak of sensitive data as a result of a possible hackers' attack. The application will be accessible only from selected computers in the given garrisons.
Until now, soldiers had to personally visit one of the country's four gear depositories, where, however, the required type of gear need not be automatically on offer.
The new system enables soldiers to order the goods online and then go to pick them up or have them fetched. In future, the system is to operate as an e-shop, with the goods automatically delivered to the soldiers who ordered them, Opata said.
In recent years, soldiers often complained about a shortage of gear and equipment.
After his appointment as chief-of-staff in 2018, Opata called the purchase of bulletproof vests, helmets, firearms and night vision equipment the army's top priority.
