The Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff visited the Serbian Armed Forces during Exercise WHIRLWIND 2024 at Pešter.
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Press Release, Belgrade, 17 April 2024: [auto-translated] Minister of Defence Miloš Vučević and Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović, today visited the forces of the Serbian Armed Forces, who are conducting tactical exercises at the Pešter temporary training ground as part of the Joint Tactical and Live Fire Exercise WHIRLWIND 2024.
Exercise WHIRLWIND 2024 is carried out based on the directive of the President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, with the aim of further improving the training and capability of the commands and units of the Serbian Armed Forces to solve tactical and fire tasks during the preparation and execution of combat operations. Minister Vučević made sure that the army is ready to carry out tasks in all weather conditions and said that he is very proud of all members of the Serbian Armed Forces and grateful for everything they do every day, week, month and every year, protecting the homeland of Serbia.
“I hope that we will have the opportunity and that the weather conditions will allow us to see on Friday what the members of the Serbian Armed Forces were preparing to show, as part of their training and everything they have. Many systems will be shown for the first time. More than 2,000 members of the Serbian Armed Forces, more than 500 weapons systems, among which there are the most complex, the most important, the most expensive, the most lethal. Something that has not been seen before,” said the Minister of Defence and thanked the Chief of the General Staff and his colleagues for everything they did every day.
Minister Vučević told the citizens of Serbia to sleep peacefully, that the Serbian Army is guarding our homeland, and that those who are not well-intentioned towards our country should bypass us, because, as the Minister of Defence emphasised, it is in their interest. The Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces pointed out that the realisation of the content at Pešter is being planned and organised, taking into account the weather conditions.
“We learn from everything. We are analysing, in the doctrinal sense, there will be new solutions that will be presented to the Serbian Armed Forces in the future, not only when we talk about training, but also about capacity building. I would like to express satisfaction and pride in what this tactical group on Pešter has achieved so far, and I hope that the weather conditions on Friday will allow us to show everything that we imagined in the planning process,” said General Mojsilović. Assistant Minister of Defence for Material Resources Dr. Nenad Miloradović emphasised that during the exercise, they had the opportunity to test the latest technology systems, especially unmanned aerial vehicles of various types, reconnaissance and killer drones of the latest generation, in rather difficult weather conditions.
“We are satisfied. The technology met expectations, but so did the personnel who had little time to train on it. Very valuable experience was gained in the integration of the latest command-reconnaissance systems of unmanned aerial vehicles, ground unmanned platforms and other techniques in such weather conditions,” pointed out Assistant Minister Miloradović.
The ground and air components of our Army and Special Forces are taking part in the exercise and, according to the number and diversity of combat forces engaged, it is one of the largest and most comprehensive that the Serbian Army has carried out.
Among the assets participating in the exercise are M-84 and T-72M tanks, BOV OT armoured fighting vehicles, Miloš UGV, Lazar-3 MRAP, Nora-B52 155mm self-propelled howitzer, modernised and digitised Oganj multi-barrel rocket launchers, and Humvee vehicles. MiG-29, modernised J-22 Orao and G-4 Super Galeb aircraft, Mi-35M, Mi-17 and H-145M helicopters, CASA C-295 and An-26 transport aircraft were also involved in the exercise. CH-95 remotely piloted aircraft, FK-3 anti-aircraft systems, PASARS-16 and PANCIR-S1 air defence systems also participated, as well as Repellent systems for detection and jamming of unmanned aircraft.
Exercise WHIRLWIND 2024 is, among other things, an opportunity to demonstrate the operation of modernised assets and assets under development, among which are the Pegasus unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle, the Sparrow short-range drone, the Senka armed short-range unmanned aerial vehicle, the Osica killer drone and the Obad armed drone, as well as the Mosquito armed mini quadricopter.
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