Over the past decade, Croatia has nearly doubled its military spending to €1.5 billion, though it has not yet reached the 2% NATO target, which it joined in 2009. This increase has already allowed it to modernize its fighter aviation by acquiring 12 second-hand Rafales from France, and to bolster its maneuver helicopter fleet with a total of 12 UH-60M Black Hawks, thanks to financial aid from the United States and payment facilities.
However, it is likely that Zagreb will need to make further efforts to allow its ground forces to complete their transformation by replacing their last Yugoslav [and Soviet] origin equipment with Western systems.
But one of the priority issues for the Croatian army is the replacement of its 70 M-84 tanks, which are based on the Soviet T-72 design. This was highlighted by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in a speech in early August, during the anniversary of Operation Storm, which was launched in 1995 to take control of the territory of the [self-proclaimed] Serbian Republic of Krajina. On this occasion, Mr. Plenković indicated that Zagreb’s goal was to acquire a “modern Western tank.” A few days later, the newspaper Jutarnji List revealed that discussions were underway with KNDS Deutschland for the purchase of a first batch of 30 Leopard 2A8 tanks. In total, 75 units are planned for acquisition.
Croatian Ministry of Defense plans to acquire American M142 HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System] systems, through the FMS [Foreign Military Sales] program. Croatia plans to “equip and modernize its armed forces with M142 HIMARS, for which a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. government is expected by the end of 2024,” confirmed a spokesperson for the Croatian Minister of Defense. The number of systems Zagreb intends to acquire has not been specified yet… It will likely depend on the quote provided by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency [DSCA], which handles American military equipment exports.