Photo: Wikipedia.orgAfter buying 12 French Dassault Rafale fighter jets worth 999 million euros, Croatia will also buy French anti-aircraft systems for 72 million euros. Aleksandar Vučić had announced that Serbia would also buy 12 of the same French fighter planes and 12 others from someone else.
The Croatian government has announced that it will buy the French Mistral air defense system for 72 million euros, it says Radio Free Europe (RSE).
The decision came after last year's purchase of 12 French fighter jets Dassault Rafale worth 999 million euros, which will replace the Croatian squadron of Russian MiG-21 aircraft dating back to the period of the former Yugoslavia, of which only a few are still operational.
"The circumstances that occurred with the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the downing of the drone in Zagreb showed that it is important and necessary to adjust priorities and plans for equipping the Croatian army," said Croatian Defense Minister Mario Banožić. He did not specify when the deal will be concluded.
No one will be stronger than Serbia
The Serbian leadership did not, of course, silently observe the military procurement of neighboring Croatia.
Until recently, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić boasted that the Serbian Army, with 14 MiG-29 aircraft, was the strongest air force in the region. Four were overhauled before the SNS came to power, 6 were allegedly donated by Russia and 4 by Belarus. The overhaul of those four (out of a total of five, one fell during preparations for the air show) cost about 25 million dollars, the overhaul of the five donated Russian ones cost 185 million euros (official statement of the Assistant Minister of Defense for Material Resources, Nenad Miloradović), and the price of the overhaul of Belarusian donations is not known.
After a day-night exercise of the Army in the Pasuljanski meadows in April of this year, Vučić stated that he has been negotiating with France for a year for the acquisition of 12 modern Rafal fighters, and with "another country for another 12 second-hand ones". Good news for the ears of the average consumer of state and parastate media, but what would the legendary Mica Trofrtaljka say in the cult film Beautiful Village, Pretty Flame: "Do you guys have money for this hike?", "Vreme" wrote in the text A burst into a healthy brain.
According to the "I can do better" system, Vučić decided to acquire new "bursts", and that perhaps the French manufacturer of those aircraft Dassault aviation he doesn't even know about it. Because if ordered now, the new aircraft can, at best, be delivered in 10 years. And not all, but at most six.
Croatia has been a member of NATO since 2009, Serbia rules out any possibility of joining the North Atlantic Military Alliance.
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Until yesterday, the president of the Serbian Progressive Party and Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, boasted that the Serbian Army, with 14 MiG 29 aircraft, was the strongest air force in the region. And then comes his triumphant statement that he has been negotiating with France for a year about the acquisition of 12 modern Rafal fighters, and with another country about 12 more used ones.
All in all, literally nothing new or modernized could be seen at the weapons review, which is actually being introduced into the Serbian Army. All of these are known means, already in use, or those that have not been tested and who knows when they will be accepted
