October 03, 6:31 UTC+3
Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin,
Chief-of-Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Ljubisa Dikovic and Air Force
Commander Ranko Zivak were present at the Batajnica air field as An-124 landed
MiG-29 © Donat Sorokin/TASS
BELGRADE, October 3. /TASS/. Russia’s first two of six
fighter jets MiG-29 have been delivered by a cargo aircraft to a military
airport near the Serbian capital of Belgrade, the Serbian Defense Ministry
announced in its statement on Tuesday.
The Russian fighter jets were delivered by an Antonov
An-124 military transport aircraft to Serbia’s Batajnica Air Base, located some
25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away from Belgrade.
"Two MiG-29 aircraft were handed over to the Serbian
Air Force," the statement said. "Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar
Vulin, Chief-of-Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Ljubisa Dikovic and Air Force
Commander Ranko Zivak were present at the Batajnica air field as the An-124
plane landed."
Defense Minister Vulin told journalists at the airport
that on July 4 Russia stated its intentions to begin delivering warplanes to
Serbia starting on October 2.
"As you all can see, it did happen on October
2," Minister Vulin said. "Four remaining fighter jets will arrive
before Friday and we can now proudly state that our Air Force received new
combat aircraft for the first time since 1987."
"It is extremely important that we are managing to
make our armed forces stronger, more organized and modern," the Serbian
defense minister added.
Serbia is receiving six Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting
name: Fulcrum) fighter jets from Russia on an earlier agreed gratuitous
delivery between two countries.
According to reports earlier in the year, the delivered
to Serbia aircraft were to undergo maintenance works either in Russia or to be
taken care of by a team of Russian specialists in Serbia. The upgrading of the
combat aircraft was reported to be carried out for Serbia in three stages at
the price of 180-230 million euros ($211-270 million).
During the MAKS 2017 airshow in July outside the Russian
capital of Moscow, Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical
Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev said that Russia was planning to complete the
delivery of MiG-29 fighters to Serbia by the end of 2017.
Belarus was also reported earlier to deliver eight MiG-29
fighter jets to Serbia in 2018 free of charge, but on the condition that
Belgrade had to pay for their overhaul and maintenance.
Belgrade also signed earlier in the year a contract to
purchase nine H145M combat aircraft, manufactured by Airbus Helicopters.
Original post: tass.com
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