23.01.2012.

Visit to the Military Technical Institute

Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac visited today with ambassadors and military attachés accredited in Serbia, Military Technical Institute in Zarkovo.

After a welcome address by Colonel Zoran Rajic, Director of the Military Technical Institute, and short presentation of the work and research and development projects of that institution, Minister of Defence with the delegation visited the Laboratory for Textiles, Leather and Footwear in the Sector for Materials and protection and the Tri-Sonic Wind Tunnel T-38 in the Sector of Experimental Aerodynamics.

Thanking to the foreign ambassadors and military representatives on their response, Minister Sutanovac pointed out that the Military Technical Institute is the brain and the heart of the Serbian defence industry and defence capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces.

-In the past period, MTI has developed over 1300 products with multi-functional value not only for the Serbian military but also for the civilian structures. Within the past few years, every year we have invested money with the desire that MTI becomes again the leader not only in the region but also beyond, Minister Sutanovac underlined. According to him, the defence system, this year with reduced budget, plans to invest about 20 million euros with a remark that the biggest export projects that have been developed in Serbia were launched at that institution.

-All these projects were initiated primarily because of the needs of the defence system and the Serbian Armed Forces and then also for the third market, which is why today's visit of foreign diplomats and military attachés is of great importance, the Defence Minister said expressing his hope that the international cooperation in this field will continue.

Ambassadors of the United States, Switzerland and Ukraine, Mary Warlick, Ervin Hofer and Viktor Nedopas, speaking to the media pointed out that the visit was a great opportunity to see the capacities of the Military Technical Institute on the site. They stressed that the knowledge of experts of that institution, high technological development and skilled personnel are good basis for the development of the Serbian defence industry, but also for the continued cooperation and new production projects in this field internationally.

Military Technical Institute is the largest military scientific research institution in the Republic of Serbia for the research and development of new weaponry and military equipment and modernisation of the existing ones. More than 75 percent of our military weaponry was developed in the MTI, and produced in local factories.

The Institute has 22 laboratories, some of which are rare in the world, while the others are unique in this part of Europe. It is situated on an area of 86 hectares and 177,000 square meters of laboratory and office space. In their work, the MTI experts apply the quality management system according to the requirements of SRPS ISO 9001 and SRPS ISO/IEC 17025 standards.

The tri-sonic wind tunnel T-38, which has been renovated recently, is a unique installation within the MTI, which has enormous potentials and opportunities. It is not just the most important wind tunnel installation in the institute but it is one of only several of the kind in the world and is of great international importance. The technical specification of the wind tunnel was made by experts of then Air Technical Institute - Zarkovo and the Military Technical Institute - Belgrade. From the beginning of its operation till today there have been completed more than 10,000 tests, more than 70 models of rockets, missiles, aircraft, various types of bombs for the needs of the military, first of the SFRY than the FRY and later of Serbia, and for the needs of a large number of foreign clients.

ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS OF JOURNALISTS

Responding to journalists' questions if Serbia can continue with the work on the development of modern multi-purpose aircraft, and if the state can support that project, the Minister of Defence said:

- There is no doubt that we have experts who can continue the work on the project of modern multi-purpose aircraft, but there is no country in the world of this size that works on that independently. I recall that even the former Yugoslavia worked in cooperation, for example, with Romania, for the needs of the Romanian and the then Yugoslav military. If we could find a cooperator and collaborator in this project, we would certainly be able to continue with this project. One of the ideas during the visits of ministers who are coming particularly to MTI, just like the ambassadors today, is to see which are the projects that we can develop together to contribute to security of both countries and may appear on the third markets. In this way we have completed also some previous projects and we are trying to find partners for the future cooperation, Minister Sutanovac said.

The Minister said that the project of a multi-purpose aircraft that existed in the eighties was stopped in the early nineties. According to him it is a very expensive project for which significant resources are needed, as well as a known buyer, which Serbia does not have today.

Answering the question about joint international projects on which MTI works, the Minister said that particularly in the wind tunnel there is a project going on jointly with one foreign country.

In addition, the Defence Minister said that during the recent years the Military Technical Institute have had 25 Algerian officers on schooling.

- We expect new officers to be on studies in the field of military technical sciences in our country and I think that it is important because in that way we will have young officers outside the borders of our country who speak Serbian, and who will certainly have influence on our becoming partners also in a larger scale.