The Kosovo War can be said to be a very rare war in history, and it was almost a war in which the outcome of the war was decided by aerial bombardment, and Yugoslavia, which was the losing side of this war, that is, Serbia now, can be described as unforgettable for this war. Although the total number of Serbian troops is only more than 20,000, Serbia still insists on setting up the "Serbian Air Defense Force," which includes the strength of the Serbian Air Force and Air Defense Forces, that is to say, Serbia's fighter units are also established for "air defense," which reflects the importance that Serbia attaches to air defense forces.
However, due to various subjective and objective reasons, the development of Serbia's air defense forces has always been tepid. For a long time, the Serbian air defense forces had only the relatively old Soviet-era SA-6 air defense missile system as a medium-range interceptor weapon, as well as the equally old Czech-made M53/59 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and Serbia's self-developed PASARS-16 air defense missile system as short-range interception weapons. On the whole, although the Serbian air defense forces have established a certain air defense system, their overall combat strength is very average, and if there is another "Kosovo war," then Serbia's air defense forces will still have a hard chance of winning in the face of NATO's powerful air force.
Fortunately, however, there was a friend from afar who came to Serbia's aid. According to the public information of the Serbian Ministry of Defense, on June 28, local time, at the Serbian commemoration of the country's traditional "Vidovdan Day" commemorative activities, the Serbian Armed Forces statically displayed a series of main weapons and equipment, including the HQ-17AE air defense missile system developed and produced by the mainland, which is also the first public display of the system in Serbia.
According to information from the Serbian side, this advanced air defense system is quite powerful, capable of quickly shooting down and destroying air targets at short and medium distances, and it can maneuver at high speed through a fast carrier vehicle, and can also shoot on the move, and its deployment is quite flexible. To this end, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vucevic happily stated after the visit that he believes: the HQ-17AE can ensure a better defense of the Serbian sky.
Then, many friends may see this and ask, didn't Serbia have been equipped with FK-20 long-range anti-aircraft missiles transported by our Y-3 transport aircraft across continents? Why buy another HQ-17? You know, according to public data, the FK-3 missile was born from our army's HQ-22 anti-aircraft missile, which is a long-range missile for long-range air defense, and its maximum range can reach 100 kilometers, and only one set can cover an area of 30,000 square kilometers. And Serbia has previously purchased several sets of FK-3s, and the range is enough to fully cover more than 80,000 square kilometers of Serbia!
It turned out that the main reason why Serbia was equipped with two anti-aircraft missiles developed by the two continents in one fell swoop was that the functions and roles of these two missiles were different. The FK-3 is mainly known for long-range air defense, in order to deal with large targets such as fighters and missiles. The HQ-17AE air defense system is a short-range anti-aircraft missile, capable of attacking targets at a distance of 15 kilometers and an altitude of 8 kilometers (10 kilometers). Moreover, according to the Serbian side, one of the main tasks of this HQ-17AE is to be used to protect the FK-250 medium- and long-range surface-to-air missile launch positions of the 3rd Serbian anti-aircraft missile brigade.
To sum up, we can see that Serbia has basically established a systematic air defense force from long-range to short-range through the introduction of two types of air defense missiles developed by us, and such an air defense force is enough to support Serbia's air defense "iron network"! It is believed that in time, the Serbian "air defense force" will certainly achieve greater development, and we will wait and see.