REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala –
Security assistance and foreign military sales cases provide capability to allies and partners that support regional and global operations, enable national territorial defense, and enhance interoperability and readiness.
The Army security assistance enterprise synchronizes and integrates capabilities to meet Army goals in the competitive environment with an advanced focus on speed and agility. That is why the United States continues to deliver quality equipment that meets our allies’ defense requirements, as seen with the recent offer of 84 Bradley M2A2 Infantry Fighting Vehicles to Croatia.
“We first offered this Bradley acquisition program to Croatia in fiscal year 2017,” said Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché’ for Croatia Col. Matt Denny. “The U.S. supports the Bradley acquisition program by providing a cost effective option to meet the country’s NATO target.”
The Bradleys offered to Croatia share approximately 70% of the same parts as other Bradleys in the U.S. inventory and provide assurances of long-term availability for parts and supplies.
“The U.S. Army has a strong record of ensuring assistance to our partner nations for effectively sustaining their U.S. equipment,” said Denny. “Such activities include maintaining qualified sources of supply and repair, bundling procurement contract requirements for economies of scale, proactive parts redesign and supplier requalification and continued product support for legacy variants of weapons systems for decades to come.”
The Croatian Armed Forces have a 25-year partnership with the Minnesota National Guard through the Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program, which builds cooperative, mutually beneficial international relationships.
The program, which began in 1993, consists of 85 partnerships with 92 countries and Croatia is one of those.
Because the Minnesota National Guard use the same model of Bradleys, they will help Croatia integrate, train and maintain the Bradley capability.
Like the Minnesota National Guard, the Croatian Army has requested the same upgrades for their new Bradleys, to include a UAVE component for the vehicles.
U.S. Army Security Assistance Command, which manages foreign military sales cases for the Army, is supporting the Croatian Army’s request.
“FMS is one of many security cooperation tools, but the impact can be significant when it is synchronized and integrated with a program like the State Partnership Program, which ensures this is more than just equipment – it will be a long-term capability that increases the Croatian Army’s capacity,” said Doreen Simmons, USASAC country program manager.
“All refurbishment of these 84 Bradley Fighting Vehicles in this program will be completed by Croatia’s talented workforce at the Djuro Djakovic facility in Slavonski Brod,” said Denny.
“The US Embassy and the Minnesota National Guard look forward to working closely with our Croatian Allies to build an amazing Bradley IFV combined arms capability and take our already strong security relationship to new levels,” said Denny.
Editor’s note: The Army continues to modernize its more than 2,000 Bradleys in its fleet for the next several decades before transferring them to the U.S. Army National Guard units for further use.