29.03.2018.
Entire Serbia heard salvos and words from Pasuljanske livade
President of the Republic of Serbia and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces Aleksandar Vučić, Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin and the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Ljubiša Diković, have attended the Distinguished Vsitors Day at the Synergy 2018 exercise at the Pasuljanske Livade training ground, today.
Assessing the demonstrated exercise as “very good” at the inspection of the participants after the exercise, President Vučić expressed gratitude for the efforts and engagement of all participants, stressing that he knew that it was not easy for them at all.
- Even in these difficult meteorological conditions, you have performed this complex exercise, I would say, with a lot of dedication and effort, lots of work and energy. After many years of deterioration, I would say, after the posibility to go bankrupt as a country, we managed to organise public finances and now we are increasing our income every year. This year you will have an additional increase in income, and in particular we will see that soldiers under contract, non-commissioned officers and those who have the lowest wages, that they get some extraordinary increase, so that this job becomes more attractive to young people in the future, and this year, we will start with building apartments for members of the military, the police and the BIA, to show how important it is for us to ensure the future of our children, that they can feel safe and secure in our country - President Vučić emphasized.
Addressing the crowd, President Vučić has pleaded on them to be serious and responsible and ready to protect and preserve our country at any moment in times when we are under pressure from different sides and when we have attacks on our integrity and sovereignty, when we are facing so many problems.- We will do our best and we will always strive to ensure that you never have to use your weapons. As some have said before - it is our job to do everything we can for our weapons not to start talking, but we must always be ready to preserve our homeland, our country. Once again, thank you for your great love for Serbia and for the fact that you have been able to show your patriotism even today in such difficult circumstances. Thank you for the disciplined approach, and I think that you could see today many real-life situations, to experience it in a different way, and I think that this has been an important experience for you too - President Vučić said.
After successfully carrying out the exercise, which President Vučić assessed as excellently performed, or in military terms “very well”, speaking about the exercise, he pointed out that it was a regular exercise activity of the 4th Army Battalion, which was carried out in very difficult meteorological conditions with the participation of 900 members of the Serbian Armed Forces.- I think that they showed great discipline, good training level, and they also demonstrated some of the things that others do not demonstrate in their exercises, and we demonstrated the whole firing process from firing missiles, to hitting, or missing the target. I think our soldiers were very successful, which you could see. What was my message at the end of the exercise is that this year their living standards is expected to improve further and particular attention will be devoted to professional soldiers and non-commissioned officers, to those with the lowest income, but everyone will have significant increase and that our armed forces will continue with acquisitions - President Vučić said.
According to him, today it was possible to see some arms and weapons that had already been in depots for destruction in the previous years, such as armored fighting vehicles and self-propelled anti-tank guided missile system M83.- We pulled them outfrom depots, refurbished, and today, as you could see, they worked well. At the same time, you could also see part of our Air Force, reconnaissance aircraft and Eagles bombers, of which we had only one or two in resources until recently, and today we have seven of them already. We expect that we will soon have all 12 in our resources, that they are serviceable and that they can work in the upcoming period, and we expect further accelerated equiping. As a small country that is outside military blocs but wants to protect its freedom and sovereignty, and to be able to do it even as a country that is small both according to the size of its territory and its population, Serbia must have capable armed forces, and that is why we will know how to invest in such armed forces and I am grateful to these boys and girls who have done this job excellently today with a lot of effort and engagement and, I would say, a lot of seriousness and responsibility. I wish to thank to the commanding personnel for good training and dedication in work, and I hope, I wish and believe that we will be able to achieve better results in the upcoming exercises - President Vučić said.
Speaking about the equipping of the neighbouring countries, President Vučić pointed out that “we are small, but very strong, we like that others do not govern us, we like to manage our own country, we like to be on our own, and that is why we are trying to have a stronger army than the one we had”.
- People in Serbia should not worry, we will have army strong enough to preserve our country and enable us to have freedom and to be masters on our own land, President Vučić pointed out.Speaking about the exercise, General Diković pointed out that the current historical moment and the political and security situation in the region require the need to monitor changes in the security environment on a daily basis.
- In order to successfully respond to the new changes, in addition to constant monitoring, it is necessary to have forces at a higher level of development, well-equipped, and above all highly trained for the protection of the security of the Republic of Serbia. With the degree of modernisation of the Serbian Armed Forces, with the use of experience from contemporary conflicts, it is necessary to have personnel who will be able to change the tactics of using units in a short period of time in order to achieve maximum use of capabilities and supremacy in maneuver on their own territory.
According to him, today's exercise is a live fire tactical exercise of the 4th Army Brigade, with the support of air forces, with the aim of evaluating their combat readiness. This tactical exercise, he added, is an introduction to a more complex and large-scale exercise, which, as planned, will be carried out in synergy with other security forces of the Republic of Serbia.
- The exercise is carried out in absolute respect of international agreements according to the number of personnel and assets employed in exercises - General Diković emphasized.The live-fire tactical exercise Synergy 2018 on the theme of conducting a counterinsurgency operation, is one of the largest exercises of the 4th Army Brigade this year with more than 900 participants. Members of the Special Brigade and the AF&AD were involved in its conduct along with the members of that brigade. At today's exercise, among other things, the performance of the modern Orbiter UAV could be seen, as well as HMMWVs, planes, helicopters, tanks and anti-tank missile systems.
The demonstration at the Pasuljanske livade training ground was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, MoI, BIA, representatives of the military diplomatic corps, as well as the veterans gathered at the Club of Generals and Admirals.
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