07 April 2019 - Minister of Defence Predrag Bošković participated in the Bell Helicopter Textron Demonstration Day, organised by the Ministry of Defence, the Embassy of Canada and Bell Helicopter Europe.
At the military airport "Knjaz Danilo" in Golubovci, numerous guests and representatives of the media had the opportunity to see characteristics of the Bell 412 EPI, which is owned by the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Montenegro, but also the new type 505 Jet Ranger X.
Minister Bošković stressed that the fleet of gazelles, which the Montenegrin Air Force owns are rather old since they are older than 30 years and that the Ministry of Defence is considering replacing the entire fleet of gazelles with helicopters of similar characteristics over the next five years, and one of them is undoubtedly Bell 505. This will provide more safety and security to the pilots in carrying out tasks.
"Our armed forces are small but, as part of the Alliance, I believe that we have a significant role in this part of the Western Balkans, which we can perform with this type of equipment even better," Minister Bošković said.
"Everybody helped us do this job quickly and easily," Bošković said, pointing out that the entire job was done for an incredible period of fewer than nine months.
Furthermore, cooperation with the Canadian Commercial Corporation and the Embassy of Canada enabled the Armed Forces of Montenegro and its aviation to be the first country in the Balkans to have Bell's multifunctional helicopters, the 412 EPI.
The Demonstration Day was also attended by Ambassador of Canada to Montenegro Kati Csaba and Bell managing director for Europe Duncan Van de Velde. Ambassador Csaba pointed out that Canada will continue to support Montenegro's overall efforts to improve the Montenegrin defence system, and expressed its satisfaction that the cooperation between the two countries in the field of defence resulted in the procurement of three multifunctional helicopters.
Van de Velde said that his company is particularly proud of cooperation with Montenegro, and expressed hopes that the collaboration will be continued and improved in the future.
