Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
15.12.2009.

102nd issue of ODBRANA brings to you



Early December Minister Sutanovac paid a several-day visit to USA upon the invitation of the US Secretary for Defense Robert Gates which is the first invitation of this kind in 25 years.

Brig. Gen. Veljko Todorovic, Head of the Health Care Department in an interview stresses that the vaccine is the most efficient means to prevent the new flu. This is why the defense system plans mandatory vaccination of al the conscripts, officers, NCOs, professional soldiers as well as students of military schools.

Establishing criteria in managing human resources is just as complicated as setting up landmarks and road signs on complicated crossroads-one wrong sign and off you go down the wrong road! The personnel department is about to finish a set of guidelines and regulations which should significantly help the management of personnel in those posts which carry most responsibility.

Developing and advancing personnel is a process adjusting slowly to new security, social and economic challenges. The international conference “Skills SAF officers need in 2010-2020”, showed that the defense system possessed capacities to direct the strategy of future officer education towards possible and needed.

A visit to the Air Force training center. After the end of a six-week individual specialist training, realized in the “school for air force professions” at Batajnica air field, the soldiers leave for their respective units enabled to perform basic military tasks.

SAF GS Doctrine Department is organizing a third cycle of garrison courses for learning English language. The program started on 19 October and there are currently 631 attendees (612 SAF members and 19 from MoD organizational units) in 11 garrisons.

The members of the Tactical Air Force Command of the Danish Royal Air Force recently shared their experiences with SAF air force.

The SAF help Sjenica locals. Members of the Army Second Brigade engineering unit managed to set up a launch bridge “Baly” thus linking the villagers of Strajnicaand Uvac hamlets.

The old saying goes” We do not inherit the land from our forefathers, but we rather borrow it from our children”. The climate situation on Earth is such that unless we start mitigating the effects of global pollution and climate change right away, we might leave a rather uncomfortable place for life to our offspring.


WE visited Colonel Borivoje Orovic, an excellent student, leading cadet in his class, with a brilliant officers career, a warrior bearing the National Herr Medal, educated, strict, and a commanding officer eternally committed to his profession. Despite all of this, he managed to bare the poetic aspect of his soul. Three books of poems and one book of aphorisms are just a harbinger of his poetic inspiration transformed into words which evokes memories, describes events and scrutinizes conscience.


Pentagon adopted one of the most expensive and ambitious projects in the history of the American army, to replace old weapons and arms systems with the new generation of equipment and arms. This 324 million USD worth project involves 550 companies from 48 states, and envisions the forming of 15 combat groups in the brigade rank by 2030.

Food as the challenge of security. The UN Food Program and the World Bank state that there are over 963 million hungry people in the world today which is about 15 % of total human population. Almost two to three billion people live on two to three USD a day where 30000 children die per week as a result of extreme poverty. Famine creates possibility for instability and conflicts to arise.

Tanks remain the powerful weapon of all modern armed forces, yet they are present in relatively small number compared to the standards at the end of the cold war. Some members of the former Warsaw Pact reduced their tank establishments down to a company, and even Russia prone to massive systems of weapons opted to reduce the number of tanks down to 10 % of totals weapons.


A human being is a mystery, a mystery that needs to be solved-these lines were written by Dostoyevsky back in 1839 thus delving deeply into what he called the mystery of man. The problems of faith, and loss of faith, good and evil, the purpose of life, freedom, responsibility, passion, morale and reason are just some of the questions posed in the Encyclopedia of the Russian Philosophy which had a book launch at the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade just before the Book Fair.

On occasion of 24 January-the day of ODBRANA magazine, the “Ivan Markovic” award will be presented to the best athlete and sports team in SAF.

You can purchase ODBRANA at STAMPA and FUTURA PLUS news stands and at 22 Vasina Street, at military book store at 100 RSD.
 
MOD
Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia, Bircaninova 5 street, Belgrade
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