Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced on Tuesday that Belgrade will present a Russian drone defense system next month, called Repellent, which it purchased earlier from its ally, Russia.
Its presentation will take place on Serbia’s National Day on February 15 in the southern city of Niš, according to him.
Vučić did not disclose exactly when Serbia acquired the new system but added that “it is in our hands”, and Serbia paid for it a long time ago.
During a visit to the Topčider barracks in the Serbian capital on January 30, Vučić said funds had been allocated from Serbia’s budget for “701 complex arms systems from the domestic industry” and that “more than 850 others will be procured in the years to come”.
He reiterated that Serbia is a “regional tank superpower” and that Serbia is “close to completing the third battery of the air defense missile system, FK-3, from China”.
Vučić announced the new anti-drone system a few weeks after the United States accepted a request from Kosovo to purchase antitank missiles, Javelin, which will be reviewed by the U.S. Congress, a decision the Serbian leader described as a “major disappointment”.
Serbia declares itself militarily neutral and purchases weapons both from the East and the West.
It aims for EU membership but has been consistently criticized by Brussels for its cooperation with Russia and China in defense.
Since 2016, Serbia has continuously bought military equipment and weapons from Russia.
However, since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, no new contracts for arms procurement have been concluded. Vučić stated in September 2022 that some of the previous shipments had not arrived due to the war in Ukraine.
Among those previous shipments, at that time, the anti-drone system, Repellent, was mentioned.
Due to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is under sanctions from the European Union, the United States, and other Western countries. Serbia refuses to respect these sanctions.
Decision on compulsory military service in spring
During Tuesday’s visit to Topčider, Vučić also spoke about a new initiative to reintroduce compulsory military service in Serbia.
He said he had received a “convincing argument” from the military representative as to why compulsory military service is necessary but that the decision on this will be known after May 1.
“We will see if the military service will last 90 or 100 days, or maybe 110 days. Also, when it will be, how we will fulfill the financial and logistic assumptions, but we will talk,” Vučić said.
The initiative to reintroduce compulsory military service for four months started on January 4 by the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff.
As declared at the time by the Ministry of Defense, this was done “with the aim of increasing the defense capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces, through the repetition and improvement of the filling and training of active and reserve forces”.
“The proposal of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces comes after a detailed review of the overall security situation and contemporary challenges faced by Serbia as a militarily neutral country,” the Ministry announced at the beginning of the year.
This is not the first such initiative since Serbia abolished compulsory military service 30 years ago.
