Serbia Seeks to Purchase Aircraft from Bosnia

Bosnian Serb J-22 Orao

Serbia’s Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said that Serbia is interested in purchasing a number of combat aircraft from Bosnia that have remained in the country after the fall of Yugoslavia.

“Serbia is interested in purchasing or exchanging other material for the aircraft from Bosnia, as it did with Montenegro,” the minister told reporters in the House of the Army, following launch of the monograph “The Army of Serbia.”

He added that he expects to seriously discuss the issue, “because those planes are never used by the forces of the Bosnian Federation or Republika Srpska”

Sutanovac recalled the attitude of colleagues from BiH Selma Cikotic, who said that “if they (the aircraft) are not bought by Serbia, they will be turned into scrap”.

Sutanovac said that the purchase or exchange of aircraft for something that is necessary for BiH will be of “mutual interest, but there must come through the political will of the Bosnian leaders”.

He recalled that “the Serbian delegation already went to see the condition of the aircraft which was subsequently stalled.

In the Bosnain Federation and Republic of Srpska a number of aircraft of former Yugoslav manufacture remain, mainly “Galeb”, “Orao” and “Jastreb”, as well as various weapons and military equipment used by the army of the former common state.

Serbia is particularly interested to aircraft that could be used for training of Serbia’s young pilots.

Source: Beta