For the first time, Serbian Army to conduct live ammunition drill with MiG warplanes

Photo: Ministry of Defense

Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin says that, during the "Sadejstvo 2020" exercise which starts tomorrow at noon on Mt. Pester, citizens will be able to see what the Serbian Army is like and how safe Serbia can feel.

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"Tomorrow, we will take 3,000 people to Pester, more than 40 aircraft, 150 combat and non-combat vehicles, a lot of ammunition and weapons. This is a message that we have a modern, organized, strong army, which is able to take care of peace and security of all citizens of our country and all Serbs, wherever they live," Minister Vulin stressed.

He told RTS that he will find out whether everything is ready for tomorrow's exercise at today's general rehearsal at the Pester Temporary Range.

"For the first time, you will see that all helicopters are armed and they will all act and show that they can be used not only for transport, but that they can also be powerful combat machines," said Vulin.

According to the Ministry of Defense, Vulin stated that, as the European Union likes to say, Aleksandar Vucic is "to blame" for all those aircraft, both Mi-35s and Mi-17s, and MiG-29s.

"I have to say that President Vucic is responsible for the fact that we equipped our selves, bought and procured all those modern tools that we will show tomorrow," said Vulin.

According to him, we have not done something like this drill with live ammunition for decades.

"We used to have no tires, fuel, planes. Thanks to the Military Technical Agreement reached between presidents Vucic and Putin, we now have 14 MiG-29 planes, thanks to the good condition of our budget, we have fuel and tires and airworthy aircraft, and we have always had extraordinary pilots," Vulin stressed.

Thanks to the current level of the army's equipment, says Vulin, members of the Air Force have the opportunity to train with live ammunition in their own country, which was not the case before.

He said that about 20 years have passed since a MiG-29 last fired an air-to-ground missile, and there has been a whole generation of pilots who never fired a missile or tested live ammunition, except at a range in Bulgaria once a year or once every two years.

(Telegraf.rs)