The Ministry of Defense ordered ten Osprey-H drones for the needs of pyrotechnicians from the Military Police.
The contract for 29.3 million crowns was won without competition by the small Prague company Summit advanced systems, whose owner is the Israeli-Czech businessman with dual citizenship Doron Schulz. The contract was already concluded at the end of last year, but it is not entered in the public register, and Seznam Zpravy came across it only now.
The Department of Defense defends the fact that no competitive offer was accepted and the order was awarded as part of a so-called negotiation procedure without publication, saying that the Osprey-H drone produced by the American company Easy Aerial is a “unique product”.
He is said to be the only one who met the required criteria, and Doron Schulz’s company is his exclusive supplier in the Czech Republic. “The request for a specific type of unmanned vehicle was the only possible alternative within the current market offer,” said ministry spokeswoman Simona Cigánková.
However, some Czech manufacturers objected to the declared uniqueness of the drone. It is also worth noting that the former Czech ambassador to Israel and current influential advisor for national security Tomáš Pojar was an executive in the company that supplies drones to the Military Police for over five years.
But he denies that he had anything to do with the contract. As he stated, he has not worked for Summit advanced systems for more than two years and he does not have detailed information about its current activities.
“I don’t know anything about this order, since I joined the state service on April 1, 2022, I am not and cannot be involved in any activity except for teaching,” responded Pojar to questions from Seznam Zpráv.
I have not met a similar person
Although Tomáš Pojar is not aware of the order, he is sure that Summit advanced systems and its owner offer services at a very high level.
“(Doron Schulz) has been active in the development and operation of unmanned vehicles for over a quarter of a century, since his service in the Israeli army, and has completed projects in a number of countries on several continents,” said Pojar. “I personally have never met a Czech with more experience in this industry,” he said to the owner Doron Schulz, adding that he is not currently in contact with him.
Tomáš Pojar was the managing director of Schulz’s company from 2016 to 2022, at the same time he was vice-rector of the private university CEVRO Institut.
The aforementioned company, based in Business Park Košíře, was founded in 2012, when Pojar was still ambassador to Israel. It was originally devoted to the development of monitoring balloons, as can be seen from a single, more than ten-year-old article in the Ekonom magazine.
According to official statistics, to this day it has no more than five employees, and its economic results from recent years are dominated by losses. On the aforementioned order for the Czech army, he is to cooperate with four other subcontracting companies, two American and two Israeli.
Unique or dime a dozen?
What exactly is the uniqueness of the Osprey-H drones, which are intended to serve pyrotechnicians from the Military Police for aerial reconnaissance and observation of objects?
The ministry highlights in rough language that, according to it, this particular unmanned vehicle has the ability to transmit online information about the situation in the “area of interest”.
Why did the military choose a single drone?
The Military Police, as a user, required a unique product that, with its technology, would be able to transmit online important information regarding the current situation of the area of interest and thus be an operative information tool for taking the necessary measures to ensure safety in the performance of the Military Police’s official tasks, while at the same time being long-term implemented and operationally deployed in a number of countries, including the USA. It is a robust unmanned vehicle capable of performing the required tasks at night, under adverse weather conditions, it has the ability to fly automatically along a defined trajectory and altitude, and the possibility of safely aborting the flight automatically or at the command of the pilot. This device also meets the criteria for information security in terms of data transmission and their transfer to third parties. The manufacturer also guarantees extensive service support and long-term availability of spare parts.
Statement by Simona Cigánková, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence
In addition to the Ministry of Defence, the editors also turned to the Prague management of Summit advanced systems in this matter. However, it did not respond even after the emergency, although the assistant initially promised that they would deal with the editorial questions by e-mail.
Even Czech businessmen who work in the same industry did not know about the awarding of this army order until the past few days.
Ladislav Semetkovský, head of the Czech company Primoco UAV, which supplies its drones to the Ukrainian battlefield, said in his first reaction that he was “hearing for the first time” about this order for the Military Police.
After studying the basic information available on the contractor’s profile, he rejected the thesis that there was no comparable competition in this area. “There are a thousand identical devices in the world, including Czech manufacturers,” declared Semetkovský, dwelling on the alleged non-transparency of the entire procurement process.
Tags: Ten drones competition supplied soldiers company consultant Pojar worked
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