Serbian Air Force and Air Defence

BELGRADE - Twenty-two Serbian Armed Forces servicemen departed for Slovenia on Wednesday to join flood relief efforts in the country.

The servicemen, who come from the Serbian Air Force and the 63rd Parachute Brigade, took off from the Colonel Pilot Milenko Pavlovic Air Base in Batajnica near Belgrade aboard H-145 and Mi-17 helicopters.

According to the unofficial information of "Novosti", negotiations are underway for five aircraft that the Cypriot army owns in its air force. The first aircraft could arrive as early as this year. After this delivery, the fleet of flying "tank killers" in the Serbian Army will number a total of nine helicopters.

The MiG-29 crashed on June 9 during joint military exercises with Serbia in the Black Sea, while the pilot was killed. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

The 47-year-old Major Valentin Terziev is the pilot of the MiG-29 fighter jet missing in action over the Black Sea, colleagues of the pilot said. He is among the most experienced aces at the air base in Graf Ignatievo as per flight hours.

The joint exercise is held under the name "Slovenian Shield 2019", and it started with missile firing by Anti-Aircraft Defense Units of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Russian Air Force.

Serbian Air Force Helicopter "Gazela" crashed during a training flight on Thursday evening. Two crew members have minor injuries, the Ministry of Defense said.

The incident happened about 200 kilometers south of Belgrade, near the village of Rutevac in Aleksinac municipality.

This will come as part of a military-technical agreement reached between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Serbia, Vulin said.

He spoke while visiting the Batajnica military airport near Belgrade, where works are underway to overhaul and upgrade MiG-29 jets donated by Russia last year.

BELGRADE - The Serbian Armed Forces will continue to acquire new equipment, in particular in departments worst hit by the NATO aggression, says Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, noting that the addition of six Russian MiG-29 jets had made the Serbian air force not only powerful, but probably one of the strongest in the region.

The six MiG-29s that Russia has donated and delivered to Serbia will enter service in 2018, RTS is reporting.

All six warplanes will be assembled by October 20, Belgrade Liberation Day, and shown for the first time during the celebrations.

After they have been overhauled and modernized, the MiGs will be classified as generation 4+ military jets.

MOSCOW - Pilots of the Serbian Air Force and Air Defence and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces on Wednesday kicked off BARS 2017, their third joint flight and tactical exercise.

This year, BARS is held at the Lipetsk-2 airport in the city of Lipetsk, 500 km southeast of Moscow, the Serbian Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

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