11.04.2022.
Statement
All decisions made by the state leadership over the past few years regarding equipping and modernizing the defence system have been based on thorough analyses and expert assessments made by competent Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces bodies. Each of the combat systems that have entered service over the past period, as well as those that are yet to enter service, have been selected on the basis of requests expressed by the General Staff’s most competent officers and their characteristics have been harmonized with the needs of our country's defence. One of the most important criteria taken into account when choosing a new combat system is qualified personnel to adequately use and maintain it.
Therefore, the latest statement published by the Serbian Military Union, emphasizing again the alleged shortage of personnel to "operate and maintain the weapons that the armed forces already have" is absolute nonsense. There are a sufficient number of qualified and trained personnel in the Serbian Armed Forces and they undergo a continued training and professional development process. The influx of people into the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces in 2021 was considerably higher than the outflow, and this trend has continued this year as well.
The Serbian Military Union has been pretending to worry about the defence system for a long time, when in fact it feels frustration over the procurement of modern combat systems for the Serbian Armed Forces. Due to that, it will probably go down in history of military unionism as one of the few trade unions that directly acts against the interests of the state and its armed forces. The Serbian Military Union has criticized almost every piece of military equipment that has strengthened our armed forces over the past few years.
As a rule, statements made by the Serbian Military Union leadership contain two vital elements. The first is politicking, and the second is the lack of knowledge and professional competence. This prattle is often spiced up with some unverified information from obscure sources known only to them, so in the absence of ideas for doing something more constructive, they write statements deceiving the public and slandering the armed forces and their leadership.
