Serbia, Ministry of Defense confirmed intention of procurement of helicopter, negotiations with Eurocopter

Minister of Defense of Serbia and Montenegro Prvoslav Davinić confirmed that the Ministry of Defense was interested in procurement of transportation helicopters and added that they did not have to be made in French. Although, the negotiations were conducted with the representatives of French companies, but primarily with the aim of procurement of spare parts for helicopters Gazela and development of military industry.

Namely, according to Davinić, Yugoslavia used to have licese for overhaul of Gazela helicopters in 1980's, the kind of helicopter all the countries in the region possess. The Ministry of Defense is striving to make it possible for SCG to obtain that license again. By the way, SFRJ used to cooperate with France in that field for 30 years.

Rehabilitation of cooperation would be related to the principle of offset industry, i.e. design of spare parts.

Eurocopter, with which they negotiated, is not French product, but the product of consortium consisting of several European countries - EADS. Procurement of such helicopter would be justified from the point of view of compatibility with the countries that are members of NATO. According to the words of Davinić, Ministry of Defense will be interested in this helicopter eventually. He claims that the Ministry wishes to negotiate with the Russians on overhaul of helicopters that are made in Russia, but that is not cheap either.