17.09.2022.
Minister Stefanović for RTS: New Officers Give Great New Strength to Serbian Armed Forces
A ceremonial promotion of the youngest officers of the Serbian Armed Forces will take place today at 10 o’clock in front of the House of the National Assembly. Minister of Defence Nebojša Stefanović PhD states for the RTS that new 135 officers that are to be promoted will give a great new strength to the Serbian Armed Forces and that there is an ever growing interest in the military profession.
The total of 135 cadets of the Military Academy and MMA Medical Faculty are going to be promoted to first officer rank, eight of them coming from the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one from the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Srpska.Appearing in the Morning News of the RTS, Nebojša Stefanović stated that the new officers took around 50 different exams and carried out from 8 to 20 various field tasks throughout their education.
“I am very glad to see that they have achieved very good results, especially if one takes into consideration that they took over 50 exams in four, five or six years, depending on the branch they belong to, the Army, Air Force and Air Defence, and that they carried out from 8 to 20 field tasks”, Stefanović said adding that it was all a serious preparation for everything that is expected from them, that being to protect and defend their country at any moment.He noted that the new 135 officers that are to be promoted will give a great new strength to the Serbian Armed Forces and that there is an ever growing interest in the military profession.
We have a diverse palette of professions, he adds, which can satisfy the young people with good salaries and opportunities for professional advancement and acquisition of new knowledge and skills.
“We indeed offer a diverse palette of possibilities. In the armed forces, one has real opportunities for professional and career advancement because when they come to us, the young people can be engineers, and they can work in the Military Technical Institute, and they can be a part of the project to design new aircraft, tanks, aeroplanes, missiles. Therefore, they influence what the capabilities of the armed forces will be like in the future”, Stefanović says.He added that the armed forces strive to enable the young, high quality and competent people to find their place in the armed forces, whether they are medical doctors, engineers, IT experts, tankmen, artillery men.
“We are trying to attract them all, because we need pilots, and tankmen, infantry men and medical practitioners. But we also need those who will serve in the artillery, infantry and special units of our armed forces. Of course it is a struggle, but if you offer a decent salary, if you offer a quite low price of a square meter for flats where the will start their families and their future lives, that is an encouragement for young people to join the ranks of our armed forces”, Stefanović stated.
He underlined that the Ministry owes great gratitude to President Vučić who, according to the minister’s words, understands soldiers’ needs very well, and who approved 25% salary increase for soldiers, starting from next January.
He noted that the Serbian Armed Forces are fully modernised.“We have procured new aeroplanes, helicopters, artillery-missile systems, equipment to enhance and modernise everything they work on”, the minister says.
He emphasises that the interest of the young in the armed forces is ever growing year after year.
“That happens because the see that their armed forces are going from strength to strength, and the armed forces are the guarantor of a strong and sovereign Serbia”, Stefanović concluded.
