President Vucic tours military airport "Colonel-Pilot Milenko Pavlovic": Huge investments are coming

Printscreen: Tanjug.rs

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic today visited the military airport in Batajnica, Belgrade, named after Colonel-Pilot Milenko Pavlovic.

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Minister of Defense Milos Vucevic, as well as General Milan Mojsilovic (Serbian Army chief) were also in attendance today.

A laser-guided missile was just one piece of powerful equipment on display during the tour. There were also modernized Orao airplanes, and weapons under development.

The president saw the Airbus-manufactured upgraded H145M helicopter, as well as the Serbian-made Lasta training plane.

The pilots praised flying the modernized Orao, especially stressing improved navigation, which makes it easier for them to fly in some difficult conditions.

"Today I spoke with the prime minister and the minister of finance, we will make huge investments in the defense industry," announced Vucic.

Speaking about the arms and equipment for the Army, the president noted:

"Serbia is a militarily neutral country. It is important for us to be strong and successful in defending our sky and deterring a potential aggressor."

According to him, the changes in the Army are already enormous.

"Now it is a much bigger force," Vucic said.

He added that it is important not to increase Serbia's public debt in relation to GDP, and to continue with investments.

"We can't hide our smile. You've seen the guys train. We have a 'monster' of a helicopter, just so you can see the scale of the investment in the Army," he proudly pointed out.

Deliveries of medium- and short-range radars will follow, it was announced during the tour.

President's official address

Aleksandar Vucic said that a German helicopter, Spanish planes, French radars and simulators could be seen at the Batajnica airport today, while Russian helicopters have been imported from Cyprus, but that there would also be domestic planes and helicopters.

"Our country has not bought so much in decades. You've seen our modernized Lasta and Orao (planes), 11 Mi-35 helicopters, six of them will be modernized by the end of January - among other things," he announced and added:

"These are huge reinforcements for the Serbian Army. We will continue, we will have to build more hangars. This was a record year in terms of investment in our Army, next year we will invest even more," said the president and concluded:

"I am grateful to all our partners, the people of Serbia who have always stood by their Army. We will seek additional recruitment of soldiers, especially to the special units, those salaries are high."

(Telegraf.rs)