Display of Capabilities of Serbian Armed Forces “Flag 2024”
Friday, 20.9.2024 | Stories from Units
Display of capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces “Flag 2024”, which was attended by Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces and President of the Republic Aleksandar Vučić, Minister of Defense Bratislav Gašić and Chief of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff General Milan Mojsilović, has been held today at the Military Airfield “Colonel-Pilot Milenko Pavlović” in Batajnica.
The display, where visitors had the opportunity to see the most modern weapons and military equipment with which units of the Serbian Armed Forces are equipped, as well as part of the assets from the development program of the domestic defense industry enterprises, was also attended by President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željka Cvijanović, Prime Minister of Serbia Miloš Vučević, Parliament Speaker of Republika Srpska Nenad Stevandić, Prime Minister of Republika Srpska Radovan Višković and ministers in the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
After the display, President Vučić has pointed out that he is proud of the Serbian Armed Forces.
— There is no area where we have progressed so drastically as that of the Serbian Armed Forces and the position of soldiers. Do not forget that only ten years ago the soldier’s average salary was 330 EUR, and, today, it is almost four times higher than that. That’s incredible progress. Not to mention the weapons and assets, I have just seen here the “ALAS” missiles on which we have worked so much and so hard for a long time, eight, nine years; it is one of the best missiles in the world — emphasized President Vučić.
He has said that today we have up to four and a half times more drones presented than during the last display and thanked the employees of the Military Technical Institute for their round-the-clock work.
— We have produced the first 1,000 “Kamikaze Mosquitoes”, those that do not carry large load and explosive, but the ones that inflict huge damage and cause great panic in the enemy ranks. We have the first 1,000 pieces, we transported 500 of them here — emphasized President Vučić and thanked private companies and “Yugoimport” for the displayed assets.
In his speech following the display, President Vučić has said that the defense industry companies are doing better today.
— These are great results. You could also see our aircraft, more of them than ever before. They will be reinforced soon, in just three or four years, with 12 state-of-the-art “Rafales”, but we are not going to stop there. We will continue, we have already ordered new MLRSs from abroad, but we will also acquire some of the weapons that will dominate and make both the strategic and tactical advantage for the Republic of Serbia. All that with the aim of deterring a potential aggressor on our territory, because, as it is well known, Serbia does not have any aggressive or offensive intentions — stated the President of Serbia.
President Vučić has emphasized that he is proud of the Armed Forces because it has made such enormous progress and announced the decision to introduce mandatory military service.
— Today, I expect that at the formal meeting of the Government they will pass the decision on the introduction of military service in Serbia, which would last 60 plus 15 days, 75 days in total. Incomparably, five times shorter than in our time, and I don’t have to say that getting a temporary leave will certainly be much easier than it was in our time and the level of discipline on the whole much lower than in our time, but it will have to exist. And we think that it is important that men, above all, acquire more responsibility, seriousness, and become mature people. We believe that we will also have a significant number of girls who would like to participate voluntarily, in fact, it will be mandatory only for men — President Vučić stressed.
At the end of his address, the President of Serbia has pointed out that today’s display has shown about 1,000 assets more than the previous one, and that it involved the largest number of equipped soldiers in one place, who were highly motivated.
More than 6,000 members of the Ministry of Defense and Serbian Armed Forces, about 2,500 weapons and military equipment and more than 50 aircraft were present at today’s display, and visitors had the opportunity to see the flight program, a display of part of the capabilities of the Special Forces, Air Force and Air Defense, as well as a parade of units of the Serbian Armed Forces.
The display of capabilities “Flag 2024” began with a parachute demo-jump by members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade with the flags of the Republic of Serbia and Serbian Armed Forces from the H-145M helicopter.
This was followed by a display of close air combat using defensive and offensive maneuvers involving a pair of MiG-29 aircraft. After that, air fire support was shown by the “Eagle” and “Super Seagull” planes, and then, with the aim of preparing the room for a helicopter landing, Mi-35 combat helicopters engaged the enemy.
After immediate aerial fire support, conditions were created for a helicopter landing. Special Force teams landed from Mi-8, Mi-17 and H-145M helicopters, while combat security of the facilities was performed by “Gamma” helicopters.
This was followed by a parade of units of the Serbian Armed Forces, in which the sub-echelons of the Army, Training Command, 72nd Special Operations Brigade, 63rd Parachute Brigade, Special Purpose MP Detachment “Cobras” and reconnaissance units participated, followed by a flyover of the aviation echelon — aircraft MiG-29, “Eagle”, “Super Seagull”, CASA-295 and helicopters Mi-35, Mi-17, Mi-8, H-145 and “Gamma”.
At the military airfield in Batajnica, visitors could also see the FK-3, HQ-17 and Pantsir anti-aircraft missile systems, unmanned aircraft, GM-400 and GM-200 radar systems, Kornet anti-tank missile systems, armored combat vehicles Miloš, Lazar 3, BOV OT, MRAP, Humvee, Berket, BRDM-2MS, BTR-80A, quads, unmanned vehicles Small Miloš and anti-drone jammers.
Numerous artillery assets were also exhibited, including the self-propelled howitzer 155 mm Nora B-52, the modernized howitzer 122 mm Gvozdika, the modernized armored personnel carrier KOT, modular Oganj, Tamnava, Perun , self-propelled howitzer 122 mm Sora 2 and universal mobile artillery computing station.
