Minister Kotromanović visited Croatian Air Force and ZTC d.d. Company

Minister Kotromanović was welcomed by the Commander of the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence, Brigadier General Dražen Šćuri, who presented the structure, operational deployment, assets, basic tasks of the Air Force and Air Defence, and the activities of this service of the Armed Forces in the past year. In addition to the tasks of monitoring and protection of Croatian air space, the activities of Air Force and Air Defence in international missions ISAF and KFOR in which currently 41 members of the Air Force and Air Defence were deployed, General Šćuri also pointed out a number of tasks that members of the Air Force carried out during the year in helping civil society. The General particularly noted that the Air Force in 2011 spent 581 flight hours and 1379 flights for emergency medical flights in which they transported 490 patients, while in search and rescue operations the Air Force in 2011 spent 51 flight hours. As for the fire fighting activities, General Šćuri noted that in 2011 they had 1870 flight hours of fire fighting aircraft and helicopters throwing 54 647 tons of water on fire sites across Croatia.

Minister Kotromanović on behalf of all Croatian citizens particularly thanked members of the Air Force on their activities in the medical transportation, fire fighting and participation in search and rescue operations, adding that general public should be constantly informed about it. These are tasks performed in harsh weather conditions, where the pilots and ground staff give maximum and thank you once again for this, Kotromanović said. My desire and desire of this government is that we keep the capabilities of the fighter aircraft and we will do everything possible to do so, Minister Kotromanović said when addressing the members of the Air Force. He also informed them about the activities of the restructuring of the Ministry of Defence, as well as on amendments to the Law on Defence and Law on Service in the Armed Forces that have been prepared. All these activities will go in the direction of cost reduction, reduction of administration, but also to clearly regulate the rights and obligations of professional soldiers so we would avoid lawsuits. The focus of our work needs to be on training of the armed forces, he concluded.

Minister Kotromanović also visited the two fighter aircraft on duty, where members of the Air Force demonstrated their speed and skill in accordance with NATO procedures.

To get acquainted with the activities and work of the ZTC, and verify how current preparations of the fire fighting aircraft were going, Minister Kotromanović visited the ZTC Company. On this occasion ZTC CEO Zdravko Delic introduced the Minister with the situation in the company, which was separated from the CAF in 2010 and currently employs 192 employees. Delic emphasized the priorities in the work, and stressed that thanks to good coordination with the Armed Forces, but also with planning and redistribution of jobs, already in January this year they fully prepared 5 of 11 fire fighting aircraft, while till the beginning of fire fighting season they all would be prepared.