Photos of two F-16s that landed at Batajnica AB today morning. They were escorted by a Mig-21Bis and Mig-21UM. Photos from http://www.airserbia.com

What exactly is your factual basis for believing the F-16 is a piece of garbage?

Hehe same thing that you said to GarryB:) You will clear that up with them.

Anyways,i think he was refering to the early A models that are probably the only thing we can afford. I do not know what kind of upgrades are available and what life time they have, but if they were armed with AMRAAMs(which i doubt we would be allowed to use),they become very potent. The latest models are a piece of art of course.

Hey gents…I’m back. Sorry for the vacation…but between losing Crna Gora and the navy and our balls in general, I’ve been in a drunken stupor. I can’t imagine the G-4Ms being that expensive of an upgrade. A new one would probably run for less than 15-20 million, but definitely not more than half of what an f-16 would cost. So did you guys read the article about f-16s visiting batajnica?

What do you think Djnik, a precursor to purchasing those pieces of garbage?

Since the two F-16s are from 555th Squadron from Aviano Base,i guess they came to pick up the pieces of the one that got shot down in ’99 😀

Seriously now, i still think it is too early for that kind of visits. It is ironic that these F-16s will come to visit Batajnica, the base 204. Fighter Wing whose two pilots Zoran Radosavljevic and Milenko Pavlovic have died fighting the NATO airplanes. One cannot forget the 4 year old Milica Rakic that died at Batajnica when the bomb directly the house she lived in.

Therefore,i am of the opinon that it is too early for this kind of cooperation,because our recent history is painfull and a lot of people cannot forget what has happened. But in order to progress more and show we are worthy Allies,i guess we need to bend over,just like we have always done in the past.Shamefull!

I would prefer that we wait longer and get something decent than to buy something in the near future that will not fullfill our needs and be efficient.

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Thanks a lot!

Any further help is more then welcome!

yeah i saw it on airserbia forum. I heard about the missile grom air to surface missile, has Serbia put them into production and are they being used by the J-22 orao, also is Serbia still planing to upgrade the G-4s to G-4M.

Grom I was unfortenutely a failiure.It was basically a copy of AS-7 Kerry with some improvements. Nowdays,there is a Grom II model,but it just exists as a prototype.

There are plans,if you can call them that,for upgrade to G-4M standards,but as you know,no money.

Djnik,

Thanks, good stuff. I already knew that Krusik once made rounds for artillery rocket systems… But I think they also make guided missiles (or used to). It would be interesting to know what they’re selling, and to who.

I don’t think that SDPR (which is as i suppose negotiating the sale) ever discloses what weapons they are exporting and to whom they are going. It has always been like that.

In today’s Politika newspaper there was a small report about the Krusik factory:

The Valjevo factory, “Krusik”, has agreed the export of rocket armarments worth 18.1 million dollars… blah blah blah.

Now I’m pretty curious as to what specifically is selling that well but because I have a really slow internet connection I can’t really be bothered to search around for more info – I was hoping somebody else could work up the energy to do that instead.

This is from November of 2005:

The Valjevo-based Krusik Holding Corporation has concluded a contract on the export of long-range missiles [S/C: raketa velikog dometa] to a EU buyer; the total value of the deal is 5m dollars, Krusik Director General Jovan Davidovic announced today. He said that the Krusik military factory resumed production of these missiles after a 10-year break. Davidovic added that this export deal, together with a previously agreed 3m-dollar deal, was of great significance for the revival of the company, which has for decades represented the mainstay of Valjevo’s economic development. During the NATO air strikes in 1999 the Krusik company was levelled to the ground and that is why it has entered into cooperation with other companies to cover part of its production programmes. Krusik, which used to employ around 10,000 workers, is in the process of restructuring. A total of 638 workers have left the company since March this year as part of a redundancy drive, 275 of whom had been employed in the weapons and military equipment factory. There are currently 1,320 employees in the weapons and military equipment factory and 2,160 employees in other affiliated factories.

Then i found this :

Krusikî Department for Military Equipment Manufacturing, which produces
Air Force and Air Defense rocket missiles, is one of the largest suppliers to the Army of Yugoslavia.

And finally:

June 22, 2002The Yugoslav weapons producer “Krusik” (http://www.krusik-flm.co.yu/ ) is desperately seeking an investor ready to help to revive and transform the company from Cold War-style weaponry to domestic goods and higher-tech weaponry. Once the country’s main manufacturer of 60-120 mm caliber ammunition and rockets, Army orders have dwindled and the rocket line halted. Exports were slashed tenfold from the $100 million in orders a decade ago. In the 1980s, Yugoslavia’s arms exports averaged over $400 million a year. “Jugoimport SDPR” military trading firm figures indicate that the industry earned $12 billion between 1981 to 1990. Yugoslavia exported $2 billion worth of weapons to Iraq during its 1980s war with Iran and made huge sales to Libya. Zimbabwe was one of the last major customers, up until about 1997.

The firm is unable to collect over $1 billion owed for past deliveries and with a lack of demand at home, “Krusik” marketing manager Milan Popovic told Reuters that “our production is almost at a standstill”. Popovic sees further conversion to civilian production as the only way out for the idle sector but they need partners to invest in their projects, since they lack the cash to do it alone.

Yugoslavia was also known for multiple rocket launchers, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, fighter bombers, gunboats and submarines. Disinvestment and U.N. sanctions imposed during Slobodan Milosevic reign ruined an industry that had 10,000 employees in the 1990’s and now only has 3,500 workers. Located in the western Serbia of Valjevo, “Krusik” once made the M84 tank (which was the crown jewel of its production until the break-up of the old Yugoslav federation in the 1990s). The “Krusik” collective of 12 firms now focuses on infantry weapons and ammunition, as well as suspension components, batteries, tools, faucets and other commercial goods. Military production still accounts for 70 percent of their business.

NATO air raids in 1999 dealt a final blow to the battered sector, destroying large parts of its facilities and bombing some plants which would never be replaced. According to official estimates, the raids inflicted $947 million of damage. The Krusik facility was hammered pretty hard during the US/NATO “Allied Force” air campaign. See http://www.sramota.com/nato/valjevo/ for damage inflicted and a ‘before’ photo at http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Apr1999/990428-O-9999K-004.html

NATO targeted the “Krusik” industrial facilities from 15 April to 30 May 1999. Popovic said that those NATO bombs destroyed 95 percent of Krusik’s capacity. The Lucani plant near Kosovo (which made explosives and propellants) was worst hit. To date, only half of the facilities have been rebuilt.

If the status quo is maintained, the West is not interested in buying and those countries who are willing are politically undesirable. The arms producers think that Yugoslavia’s future membership in NATO’s Partnership for Peace could aid a revival of the crippled sector. Some skeptics think that the situation may well be reversed, where western arms makers dictate sales to the newcomer and the industry subsequently withers away. – Adam Geibel

Smotra umeća čuvene 63. padobranske
Padobranski višeboj

NIŠ – Elitna 63. padobranska brigada Vojske Srbije danas i sutra domaćin je 9. međunarodnog padobranskog višeboja, na kojem, osim naših, učestvuju i vojni padobranci iz Rumunije i sa Kipra.

Inače, učesnici višeboja su na zajedničkim pripremama od 5. juna. Višeboj će se odvijati na terenima kod Oblačinskog jezera i na Malom Jastrepcu, a padobranci će odmeravati veštine i borbenu gotovost u više izuzetno teških disciplina, koje zahtevaju izuzetnu fizičku i psihičku pripremljenost. Pobednik prethodna dva višeboja bila je prva ekipa prve čete 63. padobranske iz Niša, a prošle godine njen pripadnik poručnik Dejan Tutoš bio je i najbolji strelac na višeboju.

I wonder what airplanes they will jump out?An-26 like sime time ago?