Enhancement of Ability to Perform Operations in Vicinity of River
Thursday, 6.3.2025 | Training
Members of the 1st Pontoon Battalion of the River Flotilla train regularly on the river to sustain and improve their ability to provide operational support to combat units of the Serbian Armed Forces while conducting operations in the vicinity of inland waterways.
This week, at the Mačva Partisan Detachment Training Ground in Šabac, members of the pontoon and amphibious unit have been perfecting their skills in overcoming water obstacles in order to allow the maneuver for Army units.
In accordance with the assigned tactical task, they practiced setting up a pontoon crossing over the Sava River, loading motor vehicles onto the pontoon ferry and their transportation, along with camouflage and direct protection of the unit from reconnaissance and enemy action.
The establishment of the pontoon crossing on the Sava was managed by Commander of the Pontoon Company, Captain 1st Class Nebojša Dokmanović, who explains that, to set up a 40-ton ferry, it is necessary to have well-trained soldiers and officers, and, of course, functional technical assets.
— The training is conducted to condition the battalion’s professional staff to be ready to respond to a challenge at any moment. The unit’s ability to set up a pontoon ferry in a short time and thus enable evolution units to cross the river in the event there is no proper crossing point is of key importance - emphasized Captain 1st Class Dokmanović.
Tugboat operator, Lance Corporal Miloš Obrenović, who has been working in the Serbian Armed Forces for 15 years, says that the pontoon battalion is a specific unit since 90 percent of its work is done on the water.
— We feel best when we are working on the water, because we are on our own there. Although we are not sailors, we are very attached to the water. When working, we have to be united, because only a well-coordinated team can successfully do this physically demanding job. For example, one pontoon ferry, on which we are standing, weighs seven tons, and the lightest thing you can take in your hands is a pontoon lever weighing eight kilograms, said LCpl Obrenović.
The training of all specialties in the pontoon battalions of the River Flotilla ensures high skills of the unit members, which is, along with functional technical assets, the most important prerequisite for conducting efficiently engineering operations on the river, as well as responding quickly when rescuing citizens and their property and providing assistance in case of natural disasters, technical-technological hazards and accidents on the waterways.
