25.06.2010.

"Diplomac 2010" graduate exercise of cadets

The graduate cadets of the Military Academy performed today at ‘Pasuljanske livade” training ground a demo exercise titled “Diplomac 2010”. The exercise was attended by Minister of defense Dragan Sutanovac, SAF CHPOD LTG Miloje Miletic with the members of his staff as well as the Undersecretary of defense ministry of Turkey LTG Ahmut Tarmus, Assistant defense Minister of Bangladesh Major General Abdul Matin, foreign military representatives and numerous guests. Furthermore, the exercise was also attended by the cadets of foreign academies from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Minister Sutanovac expressed his pleasure after the exercise at seeing so many foreign officials, such as the high delegations from Turkey and Bangladesh, attending the exercise as well as students from foreign academies who are visiting Serbia within the ‘Inernational week 2010”.

Reminding that this was the fifth time the exercise had been carried out, he said that this was a very demanding activity and that it means that the cadets have finally graduated by passing this final exam and test of their preparedness.

Once again he took this opportunity to remind that only ten days ago we have signed an agreement on cooperation with Croatia which has proved our country to be a factor of stability in the region. The agreement signed with Libya yesterday on military-technical cooperation confirms that the defense system is strongly supportive of our defense industry.

In the years behind us we have done so much for the development of the military education and I believe that our name has been recognized as brand name both home and abroad. Large number of delegations attending today this exercise speaks in favor of this louder than words, said the minister, adding that 117 members of foreign armies had been educated in our military schools during last year, while we sent 192 of our commanders abroad for the same reasons.

He observed that the interest in military profession had been far less in previous years, while the military schools today have the opportunity to have the best pick of candidates.

Sutanovac brought to the media’s attention the fact that our cadets were practicing procedures in multinational operations, while both the Government and the Parliament had recently decided to send our peace makers in other two missions-Lebanon and Cyprus.

Fully aware that large part of the society and economy is facing a crisis today we are doing our utmost to develop new technologies and weapons and to offer them to those in need of it, of course, to make it top-quality and at an acceptable price. This is why we have already had a presentations of the results of the Military Technical Institute and SDPR Yugoimport, convinced that the equipment presented today would find its buyer.
This year as he said would be recognized as the year of great reforms of our society-full professionalization of the Serbian army which means canceling the obsolete form of mandatory military service, and introducing modern principles of training and enabling. This exercise was a demonstration of what our future officers learn at the academy. This year, 15000 citizens, 13 % of which were women, applied for the posts of professional soldiers for 4000 vacancies.

It was necessary to provide a budget for defense for the next year which would enable modernization of some systems and a stabilization of the air force which is in dire need of modernization.

- I am confident that we will find the strength to do this since we as a system help the economy in filling up the budget, and that those who decide how these budgetary funds will be used understand why the army has to progress.

He congratulated to all the exercise participants, cadets, their commanders and teachers adding that at the same time the accreditation committee was deciding on the accreditation of the Military University.
This should be another news of the progress the defense system is making.

The demo exercise “Diplomac 2010” is a presentation of integration of combat capabilities of forces in at a tactical level in the first SAF mission with the exercises in shooting of tactical forces in a combat operation. Besides the cadets of the Academy, members of the SAF and the MoD have also been engaged in the exercise where 940 people participated in it.

Tactical supposition envisioned that the opposing forces would tend to stabilize defense and occupy the territory. The opposing side according to the plan of the exercise was infusing fresh forces and the plan also envisioned the prolonging of the attack.

Our forces were ordered to break through the enemy’s lines and banish it beyond state borders thus gaining control over territory in order to create conditions which would force the enemy to accept permanent peace.

The infantry, armored and mechanized units with the support of other forces took part jointly in the exercise. The spectators had the opportunity to see the joint action of all infantry weapons, M84 tank, armored car, Galeb G4, Gama helicopter and anti armor missiles. The cadets presented the procedures used by UN in check points.

Unlike previous exercises, a new approach has been introduced this year where all levels of the education and specialization in MA have been involved. In the first stage the attendees of GS college planned the exercise and drafted the plans acting as joint commands and the command of the operational group. Then the attendees of the command college and the cadets planned the exercise at an operational level within battalions, companies and regiments, and rehearsed the exercise in the newly-formed Simulation Center.

The exercise saw the demonstration of weapons developed by “Yugoimport SDPR” such as self-propelled 155mm howitzer Nora B-52, artillery self-propelled 122mm Soko howitzer, M-84 armored car, and “Lazar” armored vehicle, command recon vehicle, and command-info systems.

The Military Technical Institute presented an equipment in progress-artillery self-propelled howitzer, 122mm SORA, Lasta training plane, and Maljutka modernized anti-armored rocket.

Besides dynamic activities in the training ground, the visitors had an opportunity to get acquainted with the elements and the work of logistics support to the brigade and see the tactical display of weapons and the equipment deployed by the army.

For the first time it was possible to see the exercise live via live stream on the Internet and to GPS the command units. The cadets of the air force academy flew the Gazela helicopters, while female cadets also took part in the shooting section as support to 82mm grenade launcher.