General Mojsilović: "The Serbian Armed Forces are ready"

He stated in an interview for Novosti that the Serbian Armed Forces (VS) are fully capable of carrying out assigned missions and tasks, primarily to protect Serbia and its citizens from armed external threats.

Mojsilović emphasized that the Serbian Armed Forces this year mark their holiday—April 23, in memory of the day in 1815 when the Second Serbian Uprising began—with better equipment and training for conducting both offensive and defensive operations, a more efficient organization, new capabilities, new units, new modern combat systems, and new weaponry.

Responding to the question of how much the formation of a military alliance between Zagreb, Pristina, and Tirana represents a real threat to Serbia, Mojsilović expressed the belief that the military alliance of Zagreb, Tirana, and Pristina is directed against Serbia and Serbs in the region and represents a factor of pressure on the country and a serious security challenge, as well as an attempt to establish the so-called Kosovo Security Force as a real army.

He added that this alliance is in contradiction with UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the Dayton Agreement, the Subregional Arms Control Agreement, and the Military-Technical Agreement.

“The Serbian Armed Forces, in defining the necessary capabilities, have taken into account the existence of this trilateral alliance and are already capable of independently confronting it, and I can tell you that they will be even stronger,” Mojsilović said.

Army ready for the return of compulsory military service

Speaking about the reintroduction of compulsory military service, Mojsilović said that the Serbian Armed Forces are ready and that all necessary regulatory documents, training plans, methodological manuals have been prepared, as well as facilities for accommodation and training, and new equipment has been acquired that will be ready for the first generation of conscripts.

He emphasized that capacities for receiving conscript contingents are being further strengthened, along with improvements in conditions for future soldiers, which, he said, will be significantly better than those in which their fathers completed their military service.

“Work is being accelerated on preparing the Ministry of Defence centers that will carry out registration and recruitment, as well as on increasing the capacities for medical care of soldiers. Draft legislative solutions have been prepared and, once they are adopted, we will very soon be in a position to receive the first generation of conscripts for military service. We have indications that this will be in the spring of next year,” Mojsilović said.

Speaking about the recruitment competition for military schools, he stated that there is currently a solid response from candidates and that a greater number of highly trained, quality personnel is needed because, as he said, the Serbian Armed Forces have been modernized, are technologically more complex, and are equipped with modern combat systems that require highly skilled people.

He added that enrollment quotas for certain branches have been increased and that a second competition for the admission of future Serbian Air Force pilots will be announced in May.

When asked whether, 27 years after the NATO aggression against the FRY, he can compare the readiness and equipment of the army then and now, Mojsilović pointed out that the Yugoslav Army entered the 1999 aggression weakened by sanctions and the lack of investment in equipment maintenance and procurement of modern weapons and military equipment, but with an experienced officer corps, highly motivated and determined to defend the homeland.

“The country was economically exhausted, with limited supplies of fuel, spare parts, modern electronics... Despite that, the Army bravely stood against the most powerful alliance in human history and, thanks to the high level of training, resourcefulness, and adaptability of soldiers and officers, offered stubborn resistance that few could have expected,” Mojsilović said.

He emphasized that, unlike that period, today’s Serbian Armed Forces represent a significantly stronger, technologically more advanced, modernly equipped, and professionally trained military force, with greater mobility, operational efficiency, and capabilities it did not possess at the time, and that it represents a credible deterrent factor for any potential aggressor.

The Day of the Serbian Armed Forces is marked on April 23, in memory of the day in 1815 when the Second Serbian Uprising began, which was a turning point in the creation of the modern Serbian state and army.