Media: Serbia may purchase combat aircraft from the United States

Serbia is interested in buying American front-line bombers. This was reported on July 25 by the Serbian publication Informer, citing an unnamed source close to the country's security structures. According to the source, Serbia has already sent a corresponding appeal to Washington expressing interest in buying this type of military aircraft. If the Americans do not want to cooperate with Serbia, the state is likely to turn to the Russian Federation, which has excellent Su-25 bombers, Informer quotes the words of an unnamed source. The author of the Serbian-language aviation portal Tango six, Petar Vojinović, in a publication on the possible purchase of American bombers by Belgrade, notes that an article in the publication Informer appeared a few days after unnamed sources threw information about the weapons of the Kosovo Security Forces into the media space. Later, Serbian President Alexander Vucic on the air of the state channel RTS announced that the countries of the region are buying weapons, and his country should somehow respond to this. A day. when information about the possible purchase of American aircraft appeared in the publication Informer, an official of the Serbian Ministry of Defense Nenad Miloradovic said that Serbia had not yet finally chosen the model of the aircraft with which it would equip its air force, and that this would not be soon, since it was a long-term planning. Equipping the army is a long process that faces many formal constraints. This year, the ten-year development program of the Serbian Army ends, and at the moment the ministry and the army are in the phase of intensive strategic planning for the next ten years. These plans are developed on the basis of several documents. As you know, the country's parliament last December adopted a new national defense strategy, and now a strategic review is being developed. As part of this document, we analyzed the combat effectiveness of our army, its equipment in the previous period, and developed a scenario for future threats, Miloradovich explained. According to him, the final decision, including on the purchase of new aircraft, will be made before the end of this year. At the same time, he clarified that the Serbian army needs new military aircraft, since the Serbian models Supergaleb G-4 and Orao have their service life. Miloradovic also noted that Serbia is currently analyzing the advantages of those models that are twice as cheaper than fourth-generation multifunctional combat aircraft, among which is the American training Boing-SAAB. Nevertheless, he stressed, the Serbian army currently has other priorities, and therefore the decision to purchase the Boing-SAAB or Su-25 has not yet been made. Recall that in the fall of 2019, after joint exercises of the Serbian and Russian armies in Serbia, in which the Russian air defense systems S-400 and Pantsir-S were involved, the special representative of the State Department