Minister Vulin: Our skies are secure and we guard them ourselves
Thursday, 2.5.2019 | News
Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin, accompanied by the Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, Major General Petar Cvetković, and the Commandant of the Air Force and Air Defence Major General Duško Žarković visited the members of the Serbian Armed Forces at the Batajnica Airport engaged with the duty unit of the Hunter Aviation within the permanently engaged forces of the Air Force and Air Defence system and attended a demonstration of readiness alert and launching of this unit.
Following his visit, Minister Vulin pointed out that there are many countries in our surroundings that are not able to protect their own skies, and they rely on military aviations of other countries to do this for them.
- Serbia is not one of them. Our skies are secure and free and we guard them ourselves. Thanks to the military-technical agreement between President Putin and President Vučić, our sky is free, our sky is safe, and our Air Force and Air Defense are fully equipped to safeguard our sovereignty when the sky is at stake – emphasized Minister of Defense.
Minister Vulin recalled that even today, at the time of the May Day holidays, while Serbian citizens are enjoying their well-deserved days off, the Serbian Armed Forces, as always, are on standby.
- Serbian Armed Forces knows no holidays, and there is no day when it does not guard its skies and its land, and there is no day when it does not preserve our way of life, our sovereignty and our freedom. I wish all citizens of Serbia would spend rewarding time with their families, but to know that they are safe with the Serbian Armed Forces – said Minister Vulin.
Commandant of 204 Air Force Brigade, Brigadier General Željko Bilić, pointed out that this duty unit is located at the Batajnica airport along with other permanent forces within the Air Defence system; that its pilots and technical staff are ready to fly at any time, in any meteorological conditions, day or night, in order to defend the airspace of the Republic of Serbia.
- Today we witnessed a demonstration flight, and we are ready to respond to all the challenges, risks and threats posed to us. A contribution to this was of course made by the introduction of new aircraft, increasing of operational capabilities and the number of hours of flight, and we hope that this will keep improving further – emphasized General Bilić.
One of the pilots who were flying today on MiG-29 aircraft is Major Dejan Janković, commander of the Hunter Aviation Duty Unit, who pointed out that a simulation of the appearance of an unknown aircraft above the territory of the Republic of Serbia was demonstrated.
- Simulation of the readiness and flight of the duty unit was simulated, and as we can see, we successfully intercepted the aircraft and performed its identification. After that, we allowed it to continue on its way, as it was a plane not jeopardizing our airspace and returned to the airport with safe landing. The duty unit was thus transferred to a lower degree of readiness – explained Major Dejan Janković.
