Groundbreaking Ceremony for New Building of Ministry of Defense and Serbian Armed Forces General Staff
Saturday, 27.12.2025 | News
Together with Minister of Defense Bratislav Gašić and Chief of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff General Milan Mojsilović, Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces and President of the Republic Aleksandar Vučić has performed a groundbreaking ceremony today for the construction of a new building for the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff in the “Banjica” Barracks in Belgrade, marking the official start of one of the most important infrastructure projects in the defense system.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by members of the collegiums of the Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff.
At the beginning of his address, President Vučić recalled the long military history of Banjica, where the new building of the Ministry of Defense and General Staff will be built, and then emphasized the importance of this infrastructure project.
— Magnificent buildings of the Ministry of Defense and General Staff of our armed forces will be built here. The net area, usable area will be 50,000 square meters. A huge space, exactly in line with the importance of our armed forces. Everything will be completed in exactly three years, by the end of 2028. The contractor is the Military Construction Center. I believe that everything will be done on time and beautiful buildings, beautiful complexes will be built in a real security-friendly environment. I would not explain all the details further. Our buildings will be relocated from the centre of the city, and I believe that many important decisions will be made from this place in the interest of the Republic of Serbia and its citizens — said the President of Serbia.
He has pointed out that a lot of money was allocated for this project because it is important in many ways, “especially in the context of absolute uncertainty, impossibility of predicting what will happen next”.
— You have noticed that until our large parade, we were mostly silent about what our armed forces have at their disposal. We have to raise the strength of many of our units in the coming period, and do so in a very short time. We have a high level of strength for the first time in our three major special units, but we will increase the number of planned members, and the personnel strength must be over 95 percent — the Supreme Commander emphasized.
As he has said, it is 92 percent in one of them, 85 percent in the second, and 79 percent in the third one, which is much higher compared to the manpower level we had before — in the Special 72nd, 63rd Parachute and Cobras units.
— We have made a decision that their strength level must be over 95 percent and that they must increase the number of their members, new and higher limits must be set, because we think that the force in one part of the special units is something that can bring a key advantage to our country in defending its borders in the future — said President Vučić, stressing that tank, artillery, and missile-artillery units will be strengthened at the same time and that, above all, the largest amount of money will be invested in the construction of new units that will have a special place, and it is about operating the most modern air defense assets, including unmanned aerial vehicles, drones.
The President of the Republic has said that there are many investments in the armed forces and that today we have a lot of unmanned aerial vehicles, kamikaze drones and some others.
— We are purchasing and continuing to purchase. Soon, in late March, in early April at the latest, I expect the first large drone factory in our country to be opened, and I am proud to point out that it is about highly sophisticated drones. Not the “Mosquito 1”, which we are satisfied with, or “Mosquito 2”, but highly sophisticated drones that we produce with one major foreign power. The production will be here in Serbia — emphasized President Vučić.
The President of Serbia has said that he is worried about the situation in the world, and that Serbia must preserve peace.
— We can preserve peace only if our armed forces and defense system are even stronger and more powerful. That is why we are in a hurry to make our strength a deterrent for all those who do not understand that they cannot defeat Serbian people and that they cannot break the Serbian state. That is why we will continue to arm ourselves strongly, that’s why we will continue to build our domestic military industry — said President Vučić, announcing that we would soon be able to boast of having the air defense that, in terms of its complexity, strength and firepower, only few European countries have.
