President: I Expect Us to Take Control of Our Airspace Protection

Trencin, 30 March (TASR) - I expect that by the end of this year, or the beginning of next year at the latest, Slovakia will take control of its own airspace protection, President Peter Pellegrini stated during a visit to the state-owned Aircraft Repair Company Trencin on Monday. "We're witnessing the delivery of [F16] fighters, most of which are already in Slovakia. It will be necessary to fly them in and complete the service cycle so that we can soon take over airspace protection. I've also asked the relevant generals to consider this year as the year in which I expect that, with ten fighters, we'll be able to take over airspace protection so that we aren't reliant - though we're grateful for it - on the assistance of the Czech Republic, Hungary or Poland," stated the president, adding that in the coming weeks and months, new air-defence systems from Israel, combining radar and missile systems, will also arrive in Slovakia. "This is good news, because at a time when the borders of NATO-member states are being breached on an almost weekly basis by various unmanned aerial vehicles and when we are within range of ballistic missiles from Iran, it's important that the Slovak armed forces have air-defence capabilities at their disposal," stressed Pellegrini. am/df