He was joined by Radka Konderlová, Chief Director of the Industrial Cooperation Section of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, Petr Milčický, Brigadier General, Director of the Force Development Section of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, General Staff of the Army of the Czech Republic, and David Hác, Chairman of the Board of Directors of STV GROUP a.s.
As Radka Konderlová pointed out during the hour-long discussion, such a composition of panelists, linking the public sector, academia, the military and the private defence industry, would have been de facto unimaginable a few years ago. However, the events of recent years, or even weeks, call for new dialogues and new interactions.
All four speakers agreed on the fundamental themes, although each spoke from his or her own point of view. Bureaucracy was identified as one of the pressing problems of an effective defence process; however, Rector Petráček noted that although CTU also struggles with it, the university is able to deliver its ideas and research relatively quickly. Petráček also reminded that as far as groundbreaking technologies on which the university cooperates with the Czech Army are concerned, the development is extremely fast, e.g. we can talk about orders of several months in the field of AI. General Milčický said that the average acquisition program proposed by the Army takes about two years - and by the time the Army's request is fulfilled, it is already obsolete.
The panellists agreed that "the rapid adoption of technology is the biggest challenge of the coming months and years, not only in the Czech Republic but in the whole EU". David Hác said that the army will only be as strong as the defence industry behind it, because the normal reserves of any army would never be sufficient for a potential conflict. General Milčický elaborated on this sentence, saying that the army will be as strong as the resiliene of the whole Czech society.
Rector Petráček believes that it is necessary for everyone to realize exactly what is really happening in the world. He recalled that he had tried for closer cooperation between academia and the army in 2014-2015, when he was the vice-rector of CTU, but at that time he encountered a reluctance to armaments and reluctance of academics to cooperate with the military because they were afraid, for example, of a threat to academic freedoms. The latest memento was the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine. General Milčický added that the Czech Army has intensified its cooperation with academia in recent years and he is glad for that; however, he explicitly thanked the rector of CTU for the fact that this university was the first among Czech universities to help the military in developing new technologies and their implementation.
Petráček added that the CTU is trying to help the University of Defence, for example, in expanding its specialisations. "We are also a member of a consortium of seven universities and one institute of the Academy of Sciences. In my opinion, it is a good strategy not to split forces, but instead to bring together those who are proficient in the subject," he said.
About 80 invited guests watched the discussion, which was streamed online as well. The conference was opened by Jakub Landovský, head of the Aspen Institute's Central European office, and Reflex editor Viliam Buchert. The moderators of each panel were Nikita Polyakov, editor-in-chief of the e15, Martin Bartkovsky, editor-in-chief of the Reflex, and Viliam Buchert.
