Slovakia to build army personnel carriers with Finland's Patria

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia's government approved plans on Wednesday to build military armored vehicles with the Finnish defense industry company Patria to replace the NATO member's outdated armored personnel carriers, the defense minister said.

State-owned defense company Konstrukta Defence will work with Patria, owned by the Finnish government and Norwegian firm Kongsberg Defence&Aerospace, to build 81 eight-wheeled armored personal carriers with an estimated value of 417 million euros that will be bought by the Slovak army, Defence Minister Peter Gajdos told reporters.

(Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Jan Lopatka)