Serbia Chooses French Fighters Over Russian Jets, Ending Military Dependence: Details of New Defense Contract

Recently, information appeared in the European press about interesting defense agreements, clearly showing how Russia tends to lose a military-industrial complex not only capacity, but even traditional markets for the military equipment.

We are talking about the plans of Serbia, a country that has traditionally been opposed to Russia in the field of defense policy, to abandon Russian fighters who have been provided there since the Soviet era. According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, the Belgrade official is considering the possibility of buying 12 Rafale multirole combat aircraft from France.

According to the Associated Press, Serbian President Vucic visited Paris on April 15, where he met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, as well as officials from the French Ministry of Defense and representatives of Dassault Aviation, which manufacture of Rafale fighter jets. According to the President of Serbia, he had a conversation with Macron, during which they reached “a special agreement on the purchase of Rafale fighter jets.” In addition, President Vučić said that contracts for the purchase of jets will be signed in the next two months, in the presence of the French president.

According to the Serbian head of state, the purchase of these military aircraft will greatly expand not only military, but also economic and political cooperation between Belgrade and Paris. As President Vučić said, “We are committed to acquiring new aircraft that will significantly increase our combat capabilities. ” In turn, French President Emmanuel Macron noted, after the visit of his Serbian counterpart: “Our economic relations have received a real boost … our friendship has expanded.”

According to the Financial Times, financial details of the agreement were not announced, but, according to the calculations of journalists, it could be around 3 billion euros. Accordingly, acquiring the Rafale fighters will allow Serbia to upgrade its air force, which mainly consists of MiG-29 aircraft produced in the USSR, as well on former Yugoslav G-4 attack planes and J-22 fighters.

there wereIt should be noted that at the end of 2021, Serbia was considering the possibility of continuing to buy Russian combat aircraft. However, this was ultimately prevented by the sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; moreover, they made it impossible to maintain even the Soviet MiG-29 fleet. Even then, President Vučić complained that it was not possible to import military equipment and spare parts from Russia, but he called for the modernization of the Serbian military forces.

Indeed, now the Serbian leadership is forced either to live without the ability to repair and restore Soviet-Russian aircraft, or to give preference to the purchase of Western models of military equipment from NATO countries. President Vučić said: “We relied on Soviet-style technologies, but due to the geopolitical situation, it is now impossible to buy them from Russia even if we wanted to.”

Therefore, Serbia’s plans to replace Soviet-Russian ones with Western models has several positive consequences, both in the short and long term.

First, Russia is gradually losing contracts for the supply of very valuable military equipment, and this applies not only to the supply of aircraft to Serbia, but to several countries that have traditionally received Russian military equipment. buy the widest range worth hundreds. of millions of dollars. In fact, the losses of the Russian army in the war against Ukraine are so great that the Russian military-industrial complex barely has time to bring them back with the production. In the long term, Serbia’s transition to Western technology in such an important area as aviation will mean a gradual but undisputed transition of official Belgrade to an even greater military-political dependence on Western countries, on the one hand, and at the same time, a reduction in military-technical dependence on Russia.

In fact, NATO countries, expanding military technical cooperation with Serbia, will gain even more important tools of influence on this barren country, which is still a dangerous place in southern Europe.