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Minister Šarec handed over the C-Astral drones to Montenegro

03. 07. 2024

During his one-day visit to Montenegro on Tuesday, 2 July, Minister Marjan Šarec, at the invitation of the Minister of Defense of Montenegro, Dragan Krapović, attended the ceremonial handover of the Belin-V unmanned aerial vehicle systems, which the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia purchased according to the government-government model for the needs of the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro.

Apart from Minister Krapović, also the Vice-President of the Montenegrin Government, Aleksa Bečić, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Danilo Šaranović, attended the handover of the aircraft at the airport in Podgorica.

The Belin-V systems were handed over to the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro on the basis of a previously concluded Agreement between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro on cooperation in the field of military reconnaissance and aerial surveillance, based on the joint procurement of unmanned aerial systems Belin, signed on August 23, 2023, the Ministry of Defense announced.

The Belin UAV system is intended for reconnaissance, observation and aerial supervision. It enables the acquisition of image data, which is used for intelligence support to commanders at the tactical level, as it is explained on the website of the Slovenian Army.

At the handover, the C-Astral team introduced the system, performed a demonstration flight and a presentation of functionality for members of the Montenegrin military forces and the government delegation. The handover also includes documentation and training provided by the supplier.

This is the first case of an agreement between Slovenia and another country for the purchase of military armaments and equipment under the government-to-government model, in the framework of which Slovenia provided the ordered equipment to another country.

You can see some footage of the UAV systems and highlights from the official handover event in the following video: