Military analyst Radic: Serbia's weapons review indicates a transition to technology from the WestBELGRADE, 22 Apr - RIA Novosti.
The largest arms show of the Serbian army on Saturday demonstrates the transition from purchases of Russian-made weapons and equipment to Western and Chinese or Serbian products made on the basis of Western systems and components, a well-known military analyst Alexander Radich told RIA Novosti.
The demonstration of the capabilities of the Serbian army "Granit 2023" at the military airfield in Batajnica near Belgrade on Saturday is the largest in recent years. It involves over 5,000 military personnel, more than 60 aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), over 2.3 thousand types of weapons and military equipment, dozens of tanks and armored vehicles. According to President Alexander Vucic, who earlier invited citizens to the review, "the people will see their army and will be proud of their strength."
"Serbia ordered a large package of weapons from the Russian Federation in 2021. It includes four Mi-35M combat helicopters, three Mi-17V-5, electronic warfare systems, two batteries of the Pantsir-S1M ZRPC, this is not the whole list. It was expected that there would also be a supply of spare parts from Russia for equipment delivered earlier. So, we have a mixed MiG-29 squadron - it has planes from the Soviet period and donated later by Russia and Belarus, which were modernized in 2021," the defense expert reminded in a conversation with the agency.
According to him, when the conflict began in Ukraine, it became clear that it was impossible to provide regular maintenance of Soviet and Russian-made equipment, and the question arose for the Serbian army - how to maintain existing equipment in the long term, "but the turn in the procurement process occurred even earlier."
"Despite the list of equipment ordered in Russia in 2021, preference has been given to other suppliers in the last few years. France has signed a lot of agreements (in 2019 for 18 Mistral air defense systems - ed.) with Serbia, there will be even more of them. In the first place, if signed this year, a contract for the supply of a squadron of multipurpose Rafale fighters. Along with France in the list of countries supplying arms to Serbia: Germany, Spain, as well as China, where the UAVs and the FK-3 SAM came from," Radich said.
"The Serbian-made equipment being shown is also being created on Western components. When you see a Russian turret with a 57 mm automatic cannon or a Lazar 3M armored personnel carrier with a Russian turret and a 30 mm cannon on the Lazansky armored personnel carrier, you may get the wrong impression of what this technique is based on. The Lazar 3 armored personnel carrier, Milos armored car, Nora B-52 self-propelled howitzer, which have been in service since 2016, have American engines, transmission, suspension from France, designed in Ireland," the military analyst said.
He stressed that at the airfield in Batajnica, "a significant part of the weapons are clearly from the West or of Western origin," but there is also a lot of equipment adopted by the Yugoslav People's Army.
At the end of February, the Serbian President complained about problems with the delivery of electronic warfare systems ordered in Russia due to Western sanctions. In November last year, Vucic said that in addition to the two existing Pantsir-S1 installations, the Serbian authorities ordered the Pantsir ME in Russia, as well as the Krasukha electronic warfare complex and the Repellent mobile radio suppression system, but there were problems with delivery. On the sidelines of the IDEX 2023 international exhibition of military equipment in Abu Dhabi, he pointed out the difficulties caused by Western sanctions in repairing and servicing 14 MiG-29s in service with the Serbian Air Force due to the inability to deliver spare parts.
Earlier, he said that Serbia will acquire the first batch of kamikaze UAVs in the UAE, and then develop its own production.
Serbia is the largest importer of Russian weapons and military equipment in Europe. In 2022-2023, Belgrade planned to buy four Mi-35s, three Mi-17s, as well as 11 Mi-35s used in Cyprus.
In December 2021, the Kornet ATGM acquired in the Russian Federation arrived in the country. Over the past few years, Russia has transferred 30 upgraded T-72MS tanks, 30 BRDM-2 armored vehicles, seven Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters, and six MiG-29 fighters to Serbia. Belgrade also acquired a battery of Pantsir-S1 rocket-gun systems. President Vucic stated that the country wants to have the Russian S-400 complex, but cannot afford it yet.
