President Mesic: Reaching the desired NATO standards
President's speech on the occasion of the Croatian Air Force and Anti-Aircraft Day
Dear soldiers, non-commisioned officers, officers, and staff of the Croatian Air Forces,
It was with great pleasure that I accepted the invitation to celebrate this 14th Anniversary of the Air Forces together with you. So, in the first place, I would would like to extend my warmest congratulations to all members, old and new, of the Croatian Air Forces.
I am very pleased that you chose to have this commemoration in Pula, which with its long tradition in the Air Force, played a very important role during the Homeland War. Renewing the airport infrastructure, acquiring weapons and putting them to use, converting sports and crop spraying aircraft, flying war aircraft over to our side and making an Air Force out of small groups of airplanes seemed to be an impossible mission. But not to you.
In those days as well as today, you were intent in fighting for a better and more secure future for your families and your homeland. Your accomplishments, the first MIG flights, the first combat flights, will all be remembered in History, together wtih your colleagues who gave their lives in the early makings of this Air Force and in the fight for the freedom of the Republic of Croatia. May the recollection of those early days give you strength to confront all the difficulties and problems you are facing today. Your brilliant accomplishments were not limited to the days of the Homeland War. You soon identified the importance and need for a good pilot training and education. It is not surprising then that such a young Air Force is now promoting the first pilots fully trained in Croatia, the first and second generation of pilots who have successfully performed the first shooting exercises with MIG-21 aircraft. This is not only the pilots' accomplishment, it is the accomplishment of all of you, the mirror of all the effort and dedication all of you put into it. The Sky Project will soo be completed and the five FPS-117 radars will be interconnected into a unified system for monitoring Croatian airspace. I would also like to highlight with great satisfaction the beginning of negotiations on the acquisition of multipurpose helicopters with which the helicopeters squadrons will be able to perform the complex duties of transportation, search and rescue, medical evacuation and fire protection faster and more easily. I am well aware that you are still facing the consequences of the economic situation in the country as well as of the temporarily slower pace in defence reforms. I am aware that know-how, equipment and maintenance in the Air Force have not reached the desired level. I also know that you are not completely satisfied with the present housing system. But to permanently solve all these matters we need patience and perserverance.
That is what I ask of you today. I also ask for something else, especially from the high-ranking officers and the highest positions in the defence system. I ask of them, in a highly professional and humanly manner, to guide your professional careers, to keep you well informed of the process of restructuring of the forces and the consequences that brings along, to promote, to motivate and to reward you, but also to sanction you when that is needed.
Only in this way will we succeed in fulfilling the objectives we have set – reaching the desired NATO standards, meeting the requirement for the acquisition and use of modern weapons and equipment and forming small, mobile and excellently trained and equipped Armed Forces. Not because someone else has said we need do so, but because we ourselves have decided we want such Forces. With your work and achievements you have proved you deserve only the best. It is our duty, above all the duty of the most responsible government officials in the Republic of Croatia to make that possible. I need to emphasize that we have gone through very demanding defence reforms, but we must be aware that it has not been completed yet. The Long Term Development Plan, the document which works out in detail the specific capacities we have to develop in the next phase, is being prepared. It is with the aim of going through the future defence reform phases following the plan and according to our possibilities that I proposed forming a special body at state level to shape security policy and to coordinate the strategic guidance in defence reforms. The intention is that, among other tasks, within such state body all the activities related to planning transformation and modernisation of the Armed Forces be discussed and coordinated with the aim of carrying out the defence reforms more comprehensively. I believe that in this way we will meet all the requisites for the transformation of our system and the formation of Armed Forces to the honour the Republic of Croatia.
Dear members of the Croatian Air Forces, on this ocassion I would like to congratulate especially all the officers that have been promoted and rewarded. And, to all of you who have lived with the Croatian Air Forces these past 14 years, once again my warmest congratulations. May you all reach your professional objectives and have plenty satisfactions and luck in your private lives! Thank you!
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