02.09.2014.

Minister Gasic and General Dikovic at Batajnica

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic and Head of the General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic visited today Batajnica Airport where they attended takeoff of MiG-29 aircraft, one of the planes with new batteries that arrived on Saturday as a donation from the Russian Federation.

On this occasion, Minister Gasic pointed out that, regardless of restrictive financing, the Armed Forces of Serbia manage to maintain its technology at a high level, preserving security and continuously training pilots.

- We had long been in a situation where we didn’t have the means for our planes to fly, but this issue has just been settled – Minister of Defence said, underlining that we are now placing one by one plane to use.

He explained that the acquisitions of batteries had been timely conducted, but that there was no agreement on the side of the Russian Ministry for the warrantee to be extended, if batteries from an Indian company were placed on MiGs.

- The price of Indian batteries, in accordance with the Law on public procurement, and that of military equipment, was the best, but it was to no avail since we couldn’t get all the other certificates we needed – Gasic said, adding that the aid sent by the Russian President was arranged during the talks between Sergey Shoygu, Russian Minister of Defence and the delegation of the Serbian Defence Ministry about 10 days ago. Minister also said that Russian legal procedure prescribes that only the president can make a decision about a donation.

Answering to press’s inquiry about the procurement of new planes and loans that had been previously mentioned, Defence Minister pointed out that, first, we should stabilize our finance situation, adding that “the moment Serbia’s public finances are better, the Armed Forces of Serbia will have a share of its needs settled.”

- Of course, even with all the problems our air defence has encountered daily, at no point did we lose control over our airspace – General Dikovic said, commenting certain media’s allegations that the sky over the Republic of Serbia was not safe during the past few months.

One of the planes that got new batteries, MiG-29, with skillful pilot navigation over Batajnica Airport, displayed a part of its capabilities.

Earlier today, a Joint Collegium of the Minister of Defence and the Head of the General Staff was held at the Aeronautical Plant "Moma Stanojlovic" in Batajnica. The collegium dealt with subjects of realization of organizational mobilization changes within the Armed Forces of Serbia for 2014, realization of the Plan on acquiring arms and military equipment, problems with water supplies in military complexes in Nis, Batajnica, Sombor, Kraljevo, Sremska Mitrovica and “Nikinci” training ground, and with optimization of logistical support.