29.07.2018.
President Vučić: We will continue investing in the Serbian Armed Forces
- In late October, early November, there will be at least eight or nine MiG-29 planes in the air over Serbia. It is for the first time after many, many years that we will be able to see it, and I think we never had “29s” especially the 4+ generation in that number in the sky over our country, to be Serbian, fighter-bomber planes, President of the Republic of Serbia and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, accompanied by Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin on the Nikinci testing ground, attended firing from the armaments used by the Serbian Armed Forces and armaments under development.
- Also, since Airbus we are also acquiring new H145 helicopters, six of them for the armed forces, and three for the police, and we will also have two Mi-17 which we have already purchased, and we are still going to purchase another three Mi-17 and four Mi-35 combat helicopters, as some in the neighbourhood call them “devil's chariots”, and we call them remarkable combat helicopters, which we have never had before, President Vučić said adding that some more modern defence systems were being procured.
Speaking about today's presentation at the Nikinci testing ground, President Vučić pointed out that this was something he suddenly asked, in order to gain insight into what is the real certainty of our soldiers and military capacities.
- I am particularly pleased with what the members of the Special Brigade showed, but also what we could see from people who are not soldiers, from the Zastava, Kragujevac company, who used a modular rifle. We also saw both models of “scar” rifle, for stand-off and close combat. I am very pleased with firing of both “Lazar” and “Miloš” and I am very pleased with the Belgian machine guns that we bought, and you could see that what we automated and what we modernize can sometimes be clogged and we will have to work on that, the president of the Republic said.President Vučić also pointed out that he talked with soldiers today, who said that they were very satisfied with the rifles, and that they would like to have more uniforms than they have today, for which the necessary tenders were announced, although this situation was much better than before.
- We will work on new systems, especially on guided missiles, and we also negotiate with France and some other western countries for additional weapons that can go to PASARS, and whether they are “Mistral” or some other weapons or arms, we will negotiate it further. We have talked to some countries about the purchase of armed drones, that is where our knowledge did not get far enough, but we will continue to invest in our minds, to our engineers, because we want to be the manufacturers of boththe "Pegasus" and the “Sparrow” but we ar going to procure something more sophisticated and more serious than the weapons and arms of the drones, just as we managed to develop a small “Miloš” in Trstenik to support our infantry units, President Vučić pointed out.
He added that we still have to work a lot, because the equipping, armaments and modernization of the army has always been complicated, painstaking and time-consuming process, which we are doing fast, but it can be even faster because we want to discourage any potential aggressor from attacking the Republic of Serbia.- We want anyone who thinks that Serbia might be a light target to have their hearts in their mouth and to understand well that they would encounter fierce and much stronger resistance than they could count on some ten or fifteen years ago, the president of the Republic said, adding that because of this, such exercises will be more frequent and everyone will have to get used to it.
Answering the journalist's question on how much money Serbia allocates for arms and equipment, President Vučić pointed out that this year it will amount to about or perhaps a little more than a billion Euros, which is significantly higher than anywhere in the region, not counting Romania.
- Thus we are helping and strengthening our defence industry, but we are buying what we are not able to provide and we will continue with it. When you wish to be militarily neutral, you have to be strong enough to defend yourself from those who could use their military force as a means of political pressure. You need to be strong enough to be respected by everyone, so that everyone respects independence of your country, and I think it is good to invest and we will invest even more, President Vučić said.
In the first segment of the demonstration at the Nikinci testing ground there was the demonstration of the firepower of the members of the Special Brigade, in which the effects of sniper rifles, the action of anti-terrorist teams approaching the enemy with “Humvee” vehicles, as well as the actions of reconnaissance and raider teams encountering enemies during their patrols.In continuation of the programme, there was demonstration of the newly developed weapon, a product of domestic industry developed at the Military Technical Institute, to be fielded in the Serbian Armed Forces. A part of the latest types of arms and military equipment from the 1500+ project developed by the MTI, which are under final examination at the Technical Testing Center, was presented. This is just a part out of the total of 40 systems from our development, which are under constructor, internal, final examinations in the TTC and are the backbone of further modernisation of the Serbian Armed Forces.
Today, on that testing ground, among other things, a part of the new reconnaissance opto-electronic systems has been shown, firing of a new generation of small arms, modular-sniper rifles, as well as operation of the “Miloš” combat reconnaissance vehicle, anti-aircraft missile and gun complex PASARS 16.
The demonstration at the Nikinci testing ground was attended by Nebojša Stefanović, Minister of the Interior, Bratislav Gašić, Director of the BIA, General Ljubiša Diković, Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, as well as members of the collegium of the Minister of Defence and the Chief of General Staff.
