21.02.2020.
Minister Vulin: Overhaul and modernization of four MiG-29 aircraft of the Serbian Armed Forces in Belarus is going well and according to plan
As part of his official visit to Belarus, Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin and his delegation members visited “558. Aircraft Repair Plant” in Baranovichi today, which is overhauling and modernizing four MiG-29 aircraft of the Serbian Armed Forces donated to Serbia by the Republic of Belarus. The Director of the Plant, Pavel Pinihin, informed the guests about the overhaul and modernization.
During his visit, Minister Vulin met with the First Deputy Chairman of the State Military Industrial Committee of the Republic of Belarus and the Co-Chairman of the Joint Serbian-Belarussian Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, Major-General Igor Demidenko, to discuss the implementation of projects and work within the military-technical cooperation.Following the visit and the meeting, Minister Vulin stated that all the provisions of the Technical Agreement reached between President Vučićand President Lukashenko were implemented exactly as foreseen and signed.
- After the overhaul of our aircrafthas been completed, we can say that we have obtained assetswhose life span has been significantly extended and will be able to guard our skies for much longer. The modernization process is carried out parallelly, everything that needs to be installed on our assets is being prepared and everything is done according to deadlines. Deadlines should never be talked about, it is a safety issue, but what is certain is that there is someone to guard our skies and we can be very happy with the quality of the work being delivered here. Of course, our pilots and our experts will come soon to check how this is done, to perform a technical inspection and then move on – MinisterVulin emphasized.
Assistant Minister for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović, PhD said that in addition to ascertaining the achieved progress on the overhaul and modernization of the MiG-29 aircraft, the delegation of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces discussed the implementation of other projects within the military-technical cooperation between Serbia and Belarus.
- The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia and the State Committee for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus have been intensively cooperating on other projects over the last three years. We have a Joint Military Technical Commission that works very intensively. Several projects have been initiated and here we could see the progress in the implementation of projects concerning cooperation on drones, overhaul and modernization of air defense assets, and there are plans for some more projects to be implemented over the coming months – saidMiloradović.Commander of the Air Force and Air Defense, Major General Duško Žarkovićemphasized that the repaired MiGs mean a lot to the Air Force and the Serbian Armed Forces.
- With the introduction of aircraft into operational use, we will raise the levels of the capability to control and protect the airspace, as well as the possibilities for conducting flight training and certainly the possibilities for performing operations – saidGeneral Žarković.Managing Director of the “558. Aircraft Repair Plant” in Baranovichi, Pavel Pinihin said that today he had visited all the facilities with Minister Vulin and members of the delegation, where they could see how parts for the aircraft of the of Serbian Armed Forces aircraft were being overhauled.
- All works are performed in accordance with the contractual obligations, technological dynamics and technical documentation. All four aircraft of the Serbian Armed Forces are undergoing the process of overhaul, all parts for the aircraft are being made and complete documentation is being prepared. I expect that the first test flights will be carried out according to plan, and then the procedure for handing over the aircraft to the Republic of Serbia will follow – saidDirector Pinihin, adding that 20 to 40 aircraft are generally overhauled annually at the Baranovici Institute.
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