On 11 January 2019, at the Military Technical Institute (MTI), Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin, Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Milan Mojsilović, accompanied by Assistant of the Minister of Defense for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović PhD, attended the presentation of weapons and military equipment that have been introduced into the operational use of the Serbian Armed Forces in 2018 or are in the final phase of testing.

Serbian infantrymen displaying their sniper rifles, light machine gun and assault rifles in front of the new Lazar-3 APC (Picture source: Serbian MoD)

"In technical terms, 2018 was perhaps the best year in the recent history of Serbia. 29 different systems were introduced into the Serbian Armed Forces. 50 young engineers were welcomed at the MTI, 45 of the already retired were nevertheless retained, as their knowledge is too valuable to be dismissed at leisure and not used precisely here, at the MTI", the Minister of Defense said.Minister Vulin added that employment of another 75 young engineers is planned for 2019 and that the staffing would be significantly improved; material resources have been provided, so that the MTI will also be able to duly reward the best ones and rise the earnings in accordance with the results of their work.

"The Government and the President of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces take special care of the scientific capabilities and things that we are outstanding in. What you have seen here are complex systems that have been long in the making; all of them have been finalized and each of them are of great significance", Minister Vulin emphasized, adding that all the weapons and equipment that are presented today at the MTI are significant for the Serbian Armed Forces.

"The Serbian Armed Forces are being intensively equipped and armed, and the Serbian Armed Forces must be and are ready to protect the peace and our way of life, to protect every part of our territory and to protect all Serbs regardless of where they live", Minister Vulin warned.

Minister Vulin pointed out that "As a military neutral country that is neither a member of NATO nor of any other military alliance, nor will be, we must stand ready to implement by our own each of the functions and capabilities that are at the disposal of far larger and richer armed forces. We must be capable of responding to every challenge". According to him, "The safest way to do this is when you have institutes such as the MTI and when you possess a defense industry such as the Serbian one, when you are able to satisfy most of your needs from your own production and resort to your own mental capacity. Only what you produce yourself is yours and only the technology that you conquer is your own technology. Anything else, for political or for any other reason, can be denied to you. Thanks to the effort of these people, we can be equipped with the most modern systems, and at the lowest possible prices. All that you see here, we simply would not have had the money for, had we purchased on the world market. Even much richer countries would not be able to afford this if they were supplied exclusively from the market. However, if you invest in your people, in your engineers and in your defense industry, then you can develop and strengthen the armed forces, just as we do and are able to remain at the level of the most developed countries in the world", Minister Vulin emphasized.

Chief of the General Staff, General Mojsilović, congratulated the members of MTI for the results achieved in 2018, on projects and prospects for 2019, adding that all that was presented during the visit inspires optimism. According to him, raising the operational capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces is necessary in order to be fully capable of responding to all challenges, risks and threats.

"I have had the opportunity to see that everything that we introduced into the Serbian Armed Forces gains significance in the segment related to further modernization and upgrading a certain quality in the functional and security sense. What was introduced into the field of weapons and equipment towards the end of 2018 by the Decisions and Conclusions of the Chief Military Expert Council ensures the dynamics of continuity in further building of operational capabilities for certain categories or factors of operational capability in the long-term development plans", General Mojsilović said.

According to Assistant Minister Nenad Miloradović, "We have a very extensive task: to equip the Serbian Armed Forces to attain the desired capabilities, or to compensate for the shortcomings in a very limited time. Experts from the Serbian Armed Forces, the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense have stipulated 90 different weapon systems for equipping in the med-term. Of this, 76 should be systems that come from domestic development, the product of domestic intelligence and the domestic defense industry" Miloradović said, adding that the development of each system, especially the complex ones, is a lengthy and complex process, which even for the richer countries may extend to 14, 15 or 20 years for the most complex systems.

Second Lieutenant Tamara Šević, who has been working at the Military Technical Institute in the Electronic Systems Department for two years, expressed satisfaction that she and her colleagues were appointed with this scientific institution following the completion of the Military Academy. "At the very beginning, we had the opportunity to work on very demanding projects and the pleasure of learning from colleagues who already have ample experience and were ready to pass that experience to us, said Lieutenant Šević, who works on the upgraded “Giraffe” radar and on the perfected anti-aircraft system “Bofors” on creation of a new target data receiver intended to digitally receive wireless data on the target from the “Giraffe” radar and to guide the cannon".

During the visit to the Military Technical Institute, more than 40 different types of weapons and military equipment that were introduced in the operational use or are in the final phase of testing could be seen. Among them, the most important ones are definitely the armored combat vehicle “Lazar-3”, artillery system NORA B-52, modernized “Oganj-LRSV”, modernized rocket system of the Air Defence KUB-M, radar P-40, field vehicle “FAP” 2832, remotely controlled unmanned platform "Mali Miloš", the Remotely Controlled Combat Station, the Self-Jammer – ROSZ 1, the base of the M16 combat armored vehicle, and various missiles, ammunition and igniters. In addition, the development and upgrading of personal equipment kits, as well as a set of protective ballistic equipment M-17, were presented.

Serbian mobile radar system (Picture source: Serbian MoD)