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B92 (Serbia and Montenegro)
September 26, 2005
Defence Ministry "planning to abolish air force"
PODGORICA – The federal Defence Ministry has floated a
plan to abolish Serbia-Montenegro's ailing and
under-resourced air force, according to Podgorica
daily Dan.
The plan is apparently linked to budget problems in
maintaining the air wing of the army in operational
status, as well as to the national defence strategy
which predicts that there will be no war threatening
the country in the next ten years.
Plans for Defence Minister Prvoslav Davinic to discuss
the scheme with Serbian President Boris Tadic came
unstuck when the Mile Dragic military procurement
scandal intervened.
The Defence Ministry believes that the state of the
air force is disastrous, with aircraft in poor
condition, no fuel and few young men interested in a
military flying career.
Dan quotes military analyst Miroslav Lazanski as
saying that if the needs of the air force are ignored
there will be no operational aircraft all within three
years.
"If by any change this plan is implemented we will be
forced to pay somebody to guard our air space, as the
Slovenes do. They pay a lot of money to the Italians
for this service," said Lazanski, adding that it would
cost about 150 million dollars a year to have Hungary,
Bulgaria or Romania take over the job.
He also says that twelve million dollars is urgently
needed to overhaul the air forces five MiG 29s because
their maintenance had been ignored for years.
....
"There are many incompetent people in this ministry.
Most of them are civilians who know nothing about what
the Serbia-Montenegro Army really needs because they
have been appointed in political deals among the
ruling parties," he added.
The headquarter of the Army's air wing says that its
main priority at the moment is overhaul of the
helicopter fleet at a cost of about 3.6 million
dollars.
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Serbian News Network - SNN
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