09.08.2020.

Minister Vulin: The development of the PASARS system and the modernization of the “Giraffe” radar are important for the Serbian Armed Forces

The Minister of Defence, Aleksandar Vulin, and the Commander of the Air Force and Air Defence, Major General Duško Žarković attended the testing of the self-propelled air defence artillery-missile system (PASARS) with integrated “Igla” missiles, imported with the modernized “Giraffe” surveillance and target acquisition radar, at the military airport “Colonel-pilot Milenko Pavlović” in Batajnica.

After the testing, Minister Vulin said that the development of the PASARS anti-aircraft system, together with the modernized “Giraffe” radar is important not only for our Air Defence, but also for the entire armed forces.

- The Serbian Armed Forces are constantly being modernized. Our people are trained and most importantly, we show that our engineers and our constructors are able to follow world trends and find the best solutions that can be applied to our equipment and our technology. Thanks to such people, the Serbian Armed Forces are able to equip and arm themselves much more cheaply than they would if they were on the market – said the Minister of Defence.

Minister Vulin points out that the only thing that is ours is the product of our intelligence and what we produce ourselves, because everything else is subject to the decisions of others, to some other rights and cannot be used the way we think it should.

- The development of the PASARS system with the modernized “Giraffe” radar is important not only for our Air Defence, but also for our entire armed forces – the Minister of Defence pointed out.

According to the Acting Assistant Minister for Material Resources, Nenad Miloradović, PhD, the troop air defence was neglected for years both in our and the armed forces of much more developed countries, especially in the previous era of expeditionary and asymmetric conflicts, but now intensive work is being done to improve it. He explains that the PASARS-16 self-propelled air defence system based on the “Bofors” 40 mm gun and the modernized “Giraffe” radar, which is the basic surveillance sensor of the PASARS battery, are two systems that form the basis of our modernized troop AD.

- Before it is introduced into the armament of the SAF, we are testing the “Giraffe’s” software radar receiver which significantly improves its capabilities. This is the first phase of the modernization of this radar whose various subsystems are being improved so that the radar has better overall characteristics - longer range detection of small targets such as small unmanned aerial vehicles which are now becoming the dominant threat, increasing the speed of adopting a battle formation, increasing the number of weapons that can be controlled, i.e. to which targets can be automatically assigned - said Miloradović.

The basic variant of the air defence PASARS system was introduced into the armament last year, emphasizes Miloradović and adds that, in accordance with the principles of spiral development, final testing is underway of the new subsystems that will additionally improve this air defence system. One of them, as Miloradović states, is the integration of the "Igla" missile system on all previously completed weapons, which would significantly increase the efficiency of PASARS against air targets due to its being equipped with self-guided anti-aircraft missiles.

The actuators and other elements for the integration of the "Igla" missile system on the improved anti-aircraft gun will also be used for the integration of the newly purchased "Mistral" missiles, which according to the Assistant Minister for Material Resources are currently probably the best in their class in the world. In that way, the synergy between the Giraffe radar’s improved guidance system and the addition of missiles to PASARS will significantly enhance the capabilities of that system in its basic purpose, which is the air defence of the Army units.

- We have a large number of older, portable anti-aircraft missile systems such as "Igla" and "Strela". A large number of a new type of targets will appear on the battlefields in the future, primarily various types of unmanned aerial vehicles, and the older, written-off weapons, so to speak, i.e. anti-aircraft IR guided missiles, are now becoming more important because, with the necessary modifications, they are efficient yet very cheap weapons for the destruction of that type of targets and for that reason they are integrated into the PASARS system in our country - Miloradović explains.

The project manager in charge of the task entitled "Improved ‘Bofors’- Pasars Anti-Aircraft System", Captain Aleksandar Stanojevic from the Military Technical Institute, said that the testing was successful in all parameters.

- We had the opportunity to see the design testing of the integration of the "Igla" missile system on the improved Pasars anti-aircraft system. The system itself works by being linked to the "Giraffe" surveillance and target acquisition radar. The new digital communication between the radar and the weapon worked successfully. We tracked various air targets. We successfully detected targets at defined distances, and the guidance was equally successful with the help of both modernized radar and an optical target indicator - says Captain Stanojević and adds that this is the second phase of modernization of the improved "Bofors" - Pasars anti-aircraft system.

The testing was also attended by the Chief of the Development and Equipping Department of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Milan Popović and the Director of the Military Technical Institute, Colonel Bojan Pavković.