The Bloomberg news agency, in the material by Misha Savic "Serbia Eyes French Jets as President Vucic Vows to Boost Defense Spending" ("Serbia is eyeing French aircraft, while President Vucic promises to increase defense spending"), gives a presentation of the speech of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on the prospects of Serbian military construction and procurement policy on The international Defense Industry exhibition IDEX-2023, which opened on February 20, 2023 in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).
(c) www.nportal.rsSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic has promised to increase defense spending to modernize the Serbian armed forces, including through the possible purchase of French combat aircraft and providing "competitive" salaries to elite units.
This year, the Balkan country [Serbia] can spend an additional 700 million euros ($748 million) over the defense budget set at almost $1.5 billion, Vucic said at the IDEX-2023 arms exhibition in Abu Dhabi. According to him, additional funds will be used to modernize tanks, purchase 200 armored vehicles, attack UAVs and attract recruits to elite units.
According to him, the agreed contract for the purchase of Rafale with the French company Dassault Aviation SA may cost another 3 billion euros if negotiations with the manufacturer are successful. In April last year, President Vucic said that Serbia, which has traditionally depended on Russian combat aircraft and technology, could purchase at least 12 Rafale fighters.
"Our military must be much, much stronger," Vucic said on February 20 on live television. "This is important for Serbia's survival, we need strong deterrence."
According to him, currently other European countries are increasing their military budgets, and "governments are spending on defense like drunken millionaires."
Nevertheless, the price may be high for a country that is not part of major defensive alliances and insists on military neutrality, even though it is almost completely surrounded by NATO members. This nation also stands out in Europe by refusing to impose sanctions against Russia, although as a candidate for membership in the European Union, it condemned Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine.
Vucic said Serbia's public debt would remain below 56% of gross domestic product, despite soaring spending. He promised a "competitive" net salary of at least $2,200 per month for men and women who join special units of the Serbian army. According to the statistics service, the average net monthly salary in Serbia is now about $ 700.
According to Vucic, Serbia relied on Russian-made MiG[-29] aircraft for air defense, but after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, buying spare parts for them became almost impossible.
"Now you can import almost nothing from Russia or almost nothing that has a military purpose," Vucic said. "Not because of the Russians," he said, without going into details.
On the part of bmpd, we recall that in the spring of 2022 it became known that the French company Dassault Aviation is negotiating with Serbia regarding the sale of 12 multifunctional Rafale fighters of new production to this country, and that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is an active supporter of their purchase. However, to date, the contract with an estimated value of more than 3 billion euros has not yet been agreed, which is probably due to the financial problems of the Serbian side. However, in his speech at IDEX-2023 in Abu Dhabi, Vucic confirmed active negotiations with Dassault Aviation, and that we are talking about the purchase of 12 Rafale new production. "We are in talks with Dassault Aviation, we also talked when I was in Paris. It will be the most expensive, it will certainly be more than three billion euros, and you also take into account inflation," Vucic said.
According to Serbian sources, in his speech at IDEX-2023, Vucic also stated that more than 200 new or upgraded units of ground combat equipment of national production will be delivered to the Serbian army in the period 2023-2024 (until September 2024), with a total cost of about 300 million euros, including 29 upgraded tanks (apparently, according to the M-84 variant AC1/AC2), 39 wheeled armored personnel carriers "Lazar-3" (8x8), 26 upgraded BRDM-2, 109 ground-based combat unmanned platforms "Mali Milos" and 12 upgraded 122-mm self-propelled howitzers 2X1M "Carnation" with a modern fire control system.
Serbian observers particularly focus on Vucic's statement about his intention to purchase for the Serbian army in 2023-2024 60 multi-purpose long-range missile systems ALAS (Advanced Light Attack System, ALAS) with television and thermal imaging guidance via fiber-optic cable, with a range of up to 25 km, and in an upgraded version - up to 60 km. It should be noted that, judging by the course of hostilities in Ukraine, such a complex can become, perhaps, the most effective military means of high-precision tactical destruction, replacing ATGMS, barrage ammunition and, to a large extent, artillery, but for some reason this type of weapon has been ignored in Russia for a long time.
A prototype of the Serbian combined missile system RSVM M18 "Ogan" with a combination of the launcher of the multi-purpose long-range missile system ALAS (Advanced Light Attack System) and the launcher of 128 mm unguided and correctable missiles "Ogan", on tests in 2020 (c) the Ministry of Defense of Serbia
