Colombia buys $1.12 bln of new military gear - gov't

Colombia has purchased military equipment for some 5.2 trillion pesos ($1.1 billion) as part of plan to replace obsolete material, the government said on Monday.

Colombia has purchased military equipment for some 5.2 trillion pesos ($1.1 billion) as part of plan to replace obsolete material, the government said on Monday. The army will receive equipment including 55 armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The air force will replace Colombia's obsolete air defense system with new equipment and two electronic defense platforms, while the navy will get a strategic surface platform, an ocean patrol boat, and a logistics support ship, the statement said. The government did not say which companies would supply the new equipment.

"These new purchases should not be taken as entering an arms race, on the contrary, it's about replacing obsolete equipment, which is between 40 and 60 years old, and which in some cases was donated by governments after the Vietnam war," the ministry said. The acquisitions will allow Colombia to have better prepared and more modern military capabilities which are adapted to the evolving realities nationally and in the region, according to the government.

Colombia also looks to replace its fleet of Israeli-made Kfir warplanes, but talks with France's Dassault Aviation and Sweden's Saab AB to replace the fighters collapsed and will have to start again, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said in January. ($1 = 4,669.74 Colombian pesos)