More soldiers, more weapons and the new pride of the Albanian army. Minister of Defense, Pirro Vengu was invited to "Of the Record" where he spoke about the process of strengthening and modernizing the Albanian army and its goals for the future, influenced by recent geostrategic developments.
While describing the removal of military assets over the years as an unforgivable mistake, the number one Defense official told journalist Andrea Danglli that today our country is equipped with anti-aircraft defense, artillery systems, drones, and will soon have 2 aircraft that will be used for pilot school, but also for emergencies.
"We intend to take the threats in the region seriously. We have hybrid threats that are becoming aggressive and Albania is no exception. We intend to revive the military industry. We need certain systems and to be structured in preventing threats. Often people associate national power with prestige. But our strategy is not linked to nostalgia. Today we do not have any military aircraft or bombers. This was an unforgivable mistake that we have removed many assets by reducing the Armed Forces to a modest force. We are on the recovery curve. I do not want to say who is responsible.
They tell me why Albania doesn't buy tanks. What are we going to do with them? We are arming ourselves like NATO countries. The entire alliance is in a rearmament phase. We are getting artillery systems, air defense, we haven't used them for 3 decades. We have the drone fleet that we have chosen and we will get other equipment. The fact that we don't have any aircraft is not worrying. We are part of a collective security. It is not the intention that all allies have F-16s or Rafales. We will have an element of pride in terms of armaments. We will invest in two aircraft to have a pilot school for aircraft. This is a problem. These aircraft will also serve for civil emergencies. We have fulfilled our obligations to the Alliance", Vengu said on A2 CNN.
When asked whether Albania will reinstate compulsory military service, the Minister of Defense replied that the primary goal is to make the Armed Forces attractive to young people and to open up career opportunities within the military for them. Vengu explained the passage of the law on the reserve force in parliament and its objectives.
"We want to multiply the number of mobilized people. We passed the law on the reserve force. We aim to have 2,000 reservist soldiers and maintain this proportion at 1/5. We want to have active soldiers, but also reservists. We have done an analysis and compared ourselves with NATO and there are some countries that have succeeded and others have failed. Those that have succeeded in recruiting young people have made the Armed Forces attractive to young people. There are thousands of young people in Norway who have the honor of becoming part of the Armed Forces after completing academic credits and taking up a profession. We want to make it attractive for the moment. We want to open career paths for young people who come from good faculties. We will need 10 weapons engineers. They will definitely be created in engineering faculties and we will offer them education, military status and employment in the army. "This opens up career paths for civilians," the Minister of Defense said on A2 CNN. (A2 Televizion)
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