01.10.2020.
New issue of "ODBRANA"
IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF “ODBRANA” MAGAZINE:
Members of the Serbian Armed Forces and citizens of Serbia received sad news of the death of two pilots, Major Dejan Krsnik and Captain 1st Class Zvonko Vasiljević from the 101st Fighter Squadron of the 204th Air Brigade, who died on 25 September in a MiG-21 crash in the area of Mali Zvornik.
In the FOCUS section, read about the first marking of the Day of the Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag that took place on 15 September in Banja Luka, where the Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin, acting as the Envoy of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksadar Vučić, handed over a replica of a war flag of the units of the Armed Forces of Republika Srpska to the President of Republika Srpska Željka Cvijanović. The past month was marked by intensive unit training and the continuation of weapons modernization and a series of training activities whose goal was to improve operational capabilities of the armed forces, which you can also read about in the magazine’s editorial.
After the introductory overview of the past month, we recommend that you read a text which provides details about the visit of the Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin to the Russian Federation, which confirmed “stronger than ever” cooperation between the two countries.In the STANDPOINT section read about another promotion of the youngest officers of the Serbian Armed Forces. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was held at the “General Jovan Mišković“ barracks instead of, as tradition dictates, in front of the House of the National Assembly. However, the messages sent are encouraging, especially the message sent by the President of the Republic and the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić - that the state and all its citizens are proud of their armed forces, but also of the military education system which have achieved exceptional results in the past few years. There is also a story about the best cadets who were commissioned to the first officer ranks, who say that they are proud of the profession they chose and promise to justify the confidence of their state and their superiors on their first duties in the units and institutions of the Serbian Armed Forces.
We also recommend the article in the SYSTEM section entitled “Battalion with a Heart of a Brigade” which presents, on the occasion of the Armoured Units Day, the 15th Tank Battalion, located in the “Boško Palkovljević Pinki” barracks in Sremska Mitrovica. In the same section, you can read the text “Hunger for Water” – for the first time since the diving service was formed in the Serbian Armed Forces, among this year’s candidates for a diver course there are two women who, after rigorous psychological and physical tests, medical and other assessments, got the chance to earn military diver badges. There is also a story about the Training Command’s Logistics Training Centre, which is described as a “unique school of much-needed and missing trades today”. In the SYSTEM section you can also read about the details of the scholarship competition of the Ministry of Defence. The biggest scholarships will be awarded to final year students and they amount to 25,000 dinars. Another text in this section is about the humane gesture of cadets of the Military Academy and the Medical Faculty of the MMA, who raised 107,000 dinars to help the University Children's Hospital in Tiršova.
The central section of the “Odbrana” magazine will acquaint you with the testing of the domestically developed materiel carried out in September, while in the TECHNOLOGY section, you can find out all about the Serbian M19 modular rifle, colloquially called the “two calibre rifle”, which is part of the “1500+” project.
In the GLOBALLY section (shadow conflicts), in the text entitled “The Balakot Incident” by Colonel Slaviša Vlačić, PhD, read about the history of the relations between India and Pakistan, characterised by numerous incidents and conflicts. The last in a series of clashes which threatened to escalate into an open armed conflict was the Balakot incident that took place in early 2019. A renowned author, Prof. Aleksandar Životić, gives an exclusive account of the modern Hungarian Armed Forces, which have undergone several reform cycles in the last three decades and are in the process of large-scale modernisation and renewal of fire capabilities. This section also includes a text by Colonel Dalibor Denda, PhD, about the principle of “mission command”, which is a way of command and control that encourages subordinates to make decisions and execute tasks entrusted to them in a decentralized way, in accordance with the actual developments on the battlefield, from the perspective of the Serbian Armed Forces.
In the CULTURE section, we present the new titles of the Media Centre "Odbrana", as well as a conversation with Prof. Jovan Babić, a philosopher and bioethicist, about the book "Experiments on Defence", for which he received the "Nikola Milošević" award.
In the year of the Military Academy’s great jubilee, when we revive the memory of many professors who made an indelible mark on the history of this important higher education institution, in the TRADITION section, we give an account of reminiscences of Nada Budisavljević, an English professor. By introducing the sub-section FROM THE TREASURY, we are opening up space for presenting to the public valuable exhibits that are kept in the treasuries of military museums, while in the SPORT section we present a sports unit, the most beautiful face of military sports.
