Training for Serbian Armed Forces Divers
Friday, 5.12.2025 | Training
On the part of the Danube near Novi Sad, the implementation of the Serbian Armed Forces’ light divers course is underway, attended by NCOs and professional soldiers — candidates for the roles in the River Flotilla diving unit.
Light divers training lasts six weeks and includes theoretical and demanding practical training to enable participants to perform complex diving tasks on the rivers, canals and lakes in all weather conditions. The training is conducted by instructors from the diving unit of the River Flotilla.
In this phase, in accordance with the training program, the participants first perform conditioning in a hyperbaric baro-chamber, and then they practice diving procedures on the river, diving in azimuth and isobath, as well as tactical actions that are applied while providing anti-sabotage security of ships in an organized basing area.
This training segment is conducted at very low water temperatures and in limited visibility, which requires exceptional skills, physical fitness and mental strength and stability of the divers.
One of the instructors, leader of a diving group, Sergeant 1st Class Miša Obradov, states that the leader’s duties are to take care of the candidate’s readiness and ability to perform the diving task.
— The basic duties of the dive leader are to determine the diving pairs, to determine whether all the divers are capable of performing today’s task, to determine their task and to announce with which diving equipment they will dive, as well as to check immediately before the dive whether the divers feel physically and mentally capable of performing the task —said Sergeant 1st Class Obradov.
Sergeant Mirko Ćelić, a candidate for the basic light diver course, has emphasized the positive impressions he had after successfully completing the diving task.
— The training lasts six weeks, we are currently in the fifth week of training, after which we will have the final exam for divers. Training is psychophysically demanding and difficult. I was motivated for this course by the fact that this job is very exciting and interesting, and just what I was looking for from the army and the profession - said candidate Ćelić.
Successful completion of the light diver course is the first requirement for admission to the River Flotilla diving unit. Upon admission to this unit, training continues for higher diving categories, and therefore for more complex tasks such as underwater mining, anti-mine and anti-sabotage security of important facilities on inland waterways and search and rescue in all hydrometeorological conditions.
