More than EUR 1 billion for arms and military equipment

Serbia will invest more than EUR 1 billion in arms and military equipment this year, much more than any other country in the region, Romania excepted, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated. On Sunday, July 29, 2018, he attended the Serbian Armed Forces small arms target exercise at the Nikinci training grounds.

– In late October or early November, at least eight or nine MiG-29 planes will be operational in Serbia's airspace. For the first time after many years, we will be able to see that, and I don't think we've ever had that number of these planes, especially those of the 4+ generation, in our airspace as Serbia's fighters and bombers – Vucic stated.

As said, the procurement of new H145 helicopters from Airbus, six of which are meant for the military, whereas three are needed by the police, is planned as well.

– We will also have two Mi-17s we've already procured, and we are procuring another three Mi-17s and four Mi-35s – Vucic said and added that other, very modern defense systems were being procured as well.

President Vucic also said that negotiations with France and other western countries about additional arms that can be mounted on PASARS were ongoing, “and additional negotiations will be had about whether these are Mistrals or some other weapons and tools”.

– We have discussed the procurement of unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles with certain countries, as we want to produce Pegaz and Vrabac ourselves, but we will procure something more sophisticated and serious than arms for UAVs, just as we managed to develop Milos as support to our infantry in Trstenik – Vucic said.

Newly developed arms, produced by the local industry, developed at the Military-Technical Institute and used by the SAF, was also showed during the practice.

A part of the arms and military equipment within the 1500+ project, developed by the Military-Technical Institute and undergoing the final testing at the Technical Test Center, was also presented. These are some of the 40 systems developed locally.

The exercise also included the showcase of a part of new recon optical-electronic systems, the new generation of small arms, modular sniper rifles, as well as the recon-combat vehicles Milos and Lazar and the self-propelled air defense missile system PASARS 16, the Ministry of Defense says in its press release.

Ministarstvo odbrane Republike Srbije

Vojska Srbije

Vojnotehnički institut VTI Beograd

Airbus France Blagnac Cedex - France

Tehničko opitni centar Beograd

Airbus

SAF weapons

new military equipment

military equipment

Aleksandar Vucic

MiG 29

H145 helicopters

Mi 17

Mi 35

SAF helicopters

PASARS

PASARS 16

recon combat vehicle

unmanned aerial vehicles

procurement of unmanned aerial vehicles

project 1500

Nikinci exercise

small arms target exercise

Military Technical Institute

Technical Test Center