PHOTO BY ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Monitor ISSUE 32
Compulsory military service Serbia’s President Vucic and ministers inspect soldiers during military exercise on Serbian Armed Forces Day 2023
Serbia
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Serbia has announced it will form drone units in its army. President Aleksandar Vucic said on 30 January that the army planned “substantially” to increase its stockpiles of domestically produced kamikaze drones this year. Speaking to journalists at an arms fair at the Topcider army base near Belgrade, he stressed the need for a robust army that was fully prepared for any eventuality, considering the current global situation, public broadcaster RTS reported. “In the modern world, as you can see, the madness continues every day... And I am afraid that it will get worse. With what we are doing, we are protecting our country,” he said. He said the plans included expanding troop numbers and introducing compulsory military service later this year. For all this, there will be substantial new funding, which he said would also be needed for the 850-plus new weapons systems to be purchased from Serbia’s domestic arms industry in the next few years.
Kosovo Vucic also revealed that Serbia had imported the Russian mobile antidrone system for electronic jamming, Repellent, announcing that it would be presented on 15 February at the Nis army base as part of celebrations marking Serbia’s Statehood Day. He did not specify when the system was imported, but said it was purchased “a long time ago”, the Balkan branch of Radio Free Europe reported. On the same day, Russian outlet Sputnik in Serbian carried a summary of the system’s capabilities and features.
At the end of January, Kosovo signed a Military Framework Agreement with Turkey with a view to boosting military ties. Last summer, Kosovo bought a batch of Turkish Bayraktar drones. In autumn, a senior Turkish officer took over the command of the Nato-led Kfor forces, to Serbia’s disapproval.
Vucic also said Serbia was “close to completing the third battery of the FK-3 air defence missile system from China”, without further details. Last autumn, Defence Minister Mios Vucevic discussed the purchase of military equipment with China, especially drones and air defence systems, and announced closer bilateral defence and military ties.
Kosovo’s military experts and pundits saw Serbia’s announcements, especially Vucic’s disclosure that Serbia plans to spend some 740m euros on arms procurement, as a response to the military build-up in the region, as reported by Albanianlanguage website Koha.
Minister Vucevic, who was also present at the Topcider base alongside the army chief, Gen Milan Mojsilovic, echoed Vucic’s statements and said the drive to boost the army was in response to the general global situation and had nothing to do with Kosovo. But he said that Serbia will “respond appropriately” to the recent military agreement between Turkey and Kosovo, stressing Serbia’s “commitment to safeguarding its territorial integrity”.
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Also in January, it was widely reported that the US had agreed to sell Javelin anti-tank missiles and related equipment to Kosovo for $75m, fuelling more concern in Serbia.
Tensions have continued to brew between Kosovo and Serbia since a deadly clash between Kosovo forces and Serb gunmen in the former. Since then, the Nato-led Kfor mission has boosted its forces, with additional reinforcements announced this month.