13.10.2022.

Minister Stefanović opens 10th International Conference on Defence Technologies “Oteh 2022”

Today, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Nebojša Stefanović, PhD, opened the 10th International Conference on Defence Technologies "Oteh 2022" at the Military Technical Institute. A total of 61 domestically developed weapons and types of military equipment have been introduced into the armament of the Serbian Armed Forces over the past two years, he said on this occasion.

At the beginning of his opening address, Minister Stefanović expressed special thanks to the Military Technical Institute for hosting such an important conference and for being the backbone of the domestic defence industry and a true integrator of various complex systems, which are now part of our weapons and military equipment.

- Serbia is hosting this important academic conference for the tenth time and after the previous one, which was held online due to Covid, this is an excellent opportunity to review all achievements in defence technology, exchange knowledge and experience in this field, strengthen the existing and establish new forms of cooperation between related institutions on the development of modern weapons and military equipment, and to discuss future directions in their development - said Minister Stefanović.

According to him, events taking place worldwide today, unfortunately, show very clearly that conflicts and wars are not a thing of the past and that humanity has not yet put them in museums.

- The way they affect the global situation and stability has clearly shown the importance of continuous strengthening of own armed forces. These turbulent times and global upheavals that we are witnessing, have confirmed in many ways that our decisions about Serbia's path have been made in a serious, responsible and wise way. Our path, which includes strengthening our military and increasing the production of equipment and weapons, has proven to be the right one as well. It was, and still is, directed towards only one goal - preserving the peace and stability in our country and our region. We never want to go to war again, or come into any conflicts or be brought into other people’s conflicts. We want to continue to build Serbia’s economy in peace and create better living conditions for our citizens. None of that is attainable without a strong military, without strong defence capabilities, and being aware of that, we have worked to improve them - said Minister Stefanović.

Serbia has never been one of the world's greatest powers, nor among extremely rich countries, but we are the nation of Živojin Mišić, Stepa Stepanović, Nikola Tesla and Mihajlo Pupin, the Minister reminded in his address to the audience.

- Led by President Vučić, we have decided that our soldiers must be well trained, well paid, but also professionally equipped. A neutral country cannot depend only on imports. And that is why we have invested in domestic experts, institutes, and factories. Today, their projects and products make up the majority of our armed forces’ equipment - said Minister Stefanović.

According to him, our military is now equipped with "Nora" self-propelled howitzers, digital modular "Oganj" rocket systems, modernized "M-84" tanks, Pasars air defence systems, "Lazar 3" and “Miloš” armoured combat vehicles, “Mali Miloš" robotic platforms, and numerous other domestically produced means which have buyers all over the world.

- In just two years, since the last Oteh, a total of 61 domestically developed weapons and types of military equipment have been introduced into the armament of the Serbian Armed Forces. In addition to the M-84 AS1/2 tank, "Oganj" and "Pasars" systems and the modernized BVP M-80 AB1 infantry fighting vehicle, the M-19 missile with a range of 40+ km, which has been successfully tested and is being introduced into the armament of our armed forces, there is also artillery and rifle ammunition with better performance and longer range and many other means that increase the firepower of our military - said Minister Stefanović.

He said that 20 more prototypes and seven 0-series of various weapons and types of equipment were also being tested.

- Once again, I want to thank our managers, engineers, associates, workers and all employees of the Military Technical Institute and all domestic factories because the Serbian Armed Forces are now one of the leaders in the region thanks to your work, among other things. The state's investments in these people have proven to be wise. Our decisions to employ young people, to provide student scholarships for future engineers, to increase the salaries of our researchers, but also to provide them with additional funds besides their salaries, to build apartments so that all these people can get a roof over their heads at more affordable prices and to address some issues that are very important to them were right, because they meant investing in the peace and stability of our country. The same goes for the investments in our military industry, in which, as President Vučić announced, we will invest an additional 200 million euros in the forthcoming period, primarily to increase production capacity and to create new opportunities for those factories to follow global trends - Minister Stefanović said.

He thanked them all for understanding how important it is for our military not to falter in technological development and reminded that we should constantly think about what we can do to make our military even more capable.

- We expect the serial production of our "Pegasus" unmanned aerial vehicle to start soon, which is very important to us in technological sense. We are aware that, besides qualified personnel, the future of defence lies in drones, UAVs, unmanned vehicles, robots and artificial intelligence, and we do not want to lag behind anyone in the world in that sense - said Minister Stefanović, wishing the participants in the conference much success in their work.

This year's "Oteh" has brought together numerous participants from Serbia and 13 other countries, from the United Arab Emirates, USA, Algeria, Belarus, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, to Germany, Slovenia and Portugal.

According to the Director of the Military Technical Institute, Colonel Bojan Pavković, PhD, the conference aims to provide an opportunity for all domestic and foreign participants in the process of development of weapons and military equipment to get to know each other, exchange ideas, knowledge and experiences.

- It gives me great satisfaction that OTEH has an international character this year as well, which has been confirmed by a large response from our colleagues and friends from abroad who have joined in this conference. The impressive number of projects that we will see over the next two days indicates that the commitment to scientific work in the field of defence technologies is still at a high level, and the presence of high-ranking officials at this opening ceremony is proof of the wholehearted support of the Ministry of Defence and state institutions for scientific research - said the Director of the Military Technical institute and added that, traditionally, each OTEH is dedicated to one of the greatest Serbian scientists.

This year, the conference is dedicated to the famous scientist of Serbian origin, Ruđer Bošković, who achieved remarkable success in physics, astronomy, diplomacy, philosophy and art. On this occasion, Prof. Slobodan Ninković from the "Ruđer Bošković" Astronomical Society gave an introductory lecture about this world-famous scientist.