24.04.2012.
International Symposium on the system of monitoring and maintenance of ammunition
In the Technical Repair Facility in Kragujevac, a three-day international symposium on the system of monitoring and maintenance of ammunition has commenced today. The meeting is organized by the Material Resources Sector of the Ministry of Defence, and the reason for the maintenance were the conclusions of the Third Meeting on Cooperation in the field of armament and logistics, which was held last June. The seminar was attended by experts from the permanent members of the Conference on Cooperation in the field of armament and logistics, representatives of the Technical Repair Facility in Kragujevac, Military Technical Institute, Logistics Department of the Serbian Armed Forces, the Central Logistics Base and the Army Command.
The guests were welcomed by Lieutenant Colonel Nikola Bobic from the Defence Technologies Department of the Material Resources Sector of the Ministry of Defence.
- We usually talk about the ammunition when some accident happens, when we get a little more publicity, however, we need to deal with prevention activities that will prevent these potential accidents. People dealing with ammunition are aware of it, but we have to make others to think like us – Lieutenant Colonel Bobic said.
He also said that there are intensive efforts to make TRZ Kragujevac, the eminent institution in the Serbian Armed Forces, a regional centre for the demilitarization of ammunition. Lieutenant Colonel Draško Milosavljevic, technical director of the institution, spoke about the history of Technical Repair Facility in Kragujevac and the activities of that institution – ammunition maintenance, renovation, demilitarization, and more and more represented engineering.
On the first day of the seminar, the system of monitoring and maintenance of ammunition, technical inspection of ammunition, laboratory and control testing of these assets, which are an additional mechanism of control, were discussed.
In the following two days there will be more discussion on the information system for quantitative and qualitative monitoring of ammunition, basic and technical maintenance of these assets, mastering and general maintenance, and demilitarization of ammunition.
Besides lectures, participants in the gathering visited some of the working units of the Facility to see in practice how the work in them is organised. In the end, they exchanged experiences and opinions, which is the aim of such seminars.It is undisputed that the monitoring and conducting of the system of ammunition maintenance costs, but the price is always lower than that which has to be paid in the event of an accident. Due to unfortunate circumstances, after the Paracin explosion, the government authorities became more significantly engaged and it had an impact on infrastructure investment and acquisition to both the defence system and TRZ. Of course, improving the system of ammunition maintenance is an ongoing process. And this is must not be the end of efforts. Also, it has been the message that was heard on the first day of that event.
