Serbian newspaper Blic website reports that six global supersonic jet manufacturers have so far made presentations of their planes to the Serbian Air Force, but it is not yet known which of the aircraft – or when – will replace the MiG-21s and MiG-29s in the Army of Serbia’s fleet of fighter planes.
At Air Force Command, they have analysed how far Europe’s Eurofighter, the French Rafale, the Russian SU-30 and MiG-29 MM2, the US F-16, and the Chinese JF-17 meet the standards set in the Defence Ministry’s official request for the procurement of a new multipurpose plane.
According to analyst Aleksandar Radic, in order optimally to equip the Air Force, it would be necessary to buy at least 20 planes, which would cost at least 1 billion euros. “It is not just about the money that would have to be paid for buying the planes, there are also the costs of use and maintenance of the aircraft. However, the military budget at present is about half a billion euros and there is a very real chance that it will be reduced in the forthcoming budget revision,” Radic says.
“Eurofighter planes are very good, but too expensive for our means. For the price of one of these planes, we could buy two excellent passenger planes,” an expect tells Blic, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Source Balkans
