05.12.2024.
Training for driving off-road vehicles
At the Training Ground Beranovac near Kraljevo, members of the Serbian Armed Forces are being trained to operate off-road cross-country motor vehicles.
The training activity is attended by members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, 72nd Special Operations Brigade and reconnaissance units of the Army, as well as members of the Serbian Armed Forces preparing to participate in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
Training, supervised by instructors from the Transportation Training Battalion, aims for military drivers to acquire skills in driving off-road motor vehicles safely and learn the maintenance of accompanying devices and systems in rough terrain. The practical part came after theoretical training.
Training instructor Master Sergeant Miraš Femić has pointed out that members of special and reconnaissance units are sent to this type of training with a driver’s license category C and knowledge and experience they will enlarge considerably during this form of training, since the motor vehicles they train with are fitted with special devices.
— The training process consists of specific actions candidates need to master at the training ground, as well as driving a motor vehicle across different terrain; they will have to cross logs, water crossings, different surfaces, using special devices from the vehicle, such as a winch, which can be used to pull out vehicles to overcome an obstacle — said MS Femić.
For members of the Serbian Armed Forces who are to participate in UNIFIL, training is conducted according to UN standards. According to instructor MS Novak Okanović, their training at the range lasts four working days, that is, twenty-four lessons.
— Part of the training activity takes place on the field track, where candidates need to overcome certain obstacles, such as a water crossing, a steep slope left and right, crossing over alternately placed and buried logs, and slopes up and down. At the end of practical training, participants drive a motor vehicle in public traffic, having their driving skills on the open road evaluated — said MS Okanović.
The said form of training is part of preparatory activities by members of the Serbian Armed Forces before their deployment to a peacekeeping operation as staff officers and operators, because the nature of their assignments will often require them to drive motor vehicles outside organized road communications.
