ABSTRACT The possibility for Croatia to obtain new fighter aircraft is not new, as this option has been publicly debated for at least a decade. A sudden decision to advance the acquisition of a limited number of fighter aircraft was made in 2017 with an international tendering process concluding in early 2018. Through open source material, this paper will look at this procurement process by examining the relationship between policy and strategic thinking on the one side, and policy delivery on the other, and evaluate why the tendering process failed in achieving envisaged results. The paper concludes that the problems facing the Croatian aircraft acquisition process stem from at least two interrelated factors: firstly, at the operational level, the failure of the procurement was the direct result of mismanaged tendering procedures linked to the wider public administration reform process; and secondly, at the strategic level, inherently complex civil-military relations and related cultural aspects which have not been adequately addressed over the past decades. The result was a failure to deliver on government policy, something which this paper argues will need to be addressed over the medium to long term.

中文翻译：

---

克罗地亚战斗机采购：政策交付失败

摘要克罗地亚获得新型战斗机的可能性并不新鲜，因为这一选择已经公开辩论了至少十年。2017 年突然决定提前采购数量有限的战斗机，国际招标过程于 2018 年初结束。 本文将通过开源材料，通过检查政策和战略思维之间的关系来审视这一采购过程一方面，另一方面是政策交付，并评估招标过程未能实现预期结果的原因。该文件的结论是，克罗地亚飞机采购过程面临的问题至少源于两个相互关联的因素：首先，在运营层面，采购失败是与更广泛的公共行政改革进程相关的招标程序管理不善的直接结果；其次，在战略层面，过去几十年没有得到充分解决的内在复杂的军民关系和相关的文化方面。结果是未能兑现政府政策，本文认为需要在中长期解决这一问题。