ABSTRACT
The Czechoslovakian armament industry is the second most important such industry in Eastern Europe. Only the Soviet defence industry is larger and more technologically advanced. The production of airplanes in Czechoslovakia started immediately after the birth of the republic in 1918. In 1959, Czechoslovakia started the development of a jet aircraft for training purposes, and an armoured personnel carrier was developed in cooperation with Poland. The Czech arms industry that existed at the end of Second World War was none the less not used, at least not to re-equip the Czech army with new weapons. As Czech industry is not as productive as West German industry, the number of jobs dependent on the production of tanks should be larger than in West Germany. An examination will be made of the output of three sectors of Czechoslovakia’s arms industry: tank production, truck production, and the aircraft industry.
