Serbia joins NATO codification system for arms, equipment

BELGRADE, Nov 21 (Tanjug). The Serbian Ministry of Defence and the NATO Support Agency have signed in Luxemburg the Tier 2 certificate of Serbia's full capability in the NATO codification system for tasks of codifying arms and military equipment. The document, which will also facilitate sales of Serbian defence industry products abroad, was signed at a meeting of the Main Group of the NATO Codification Committee, the Ministry of Defence said on its website on Thursday. The Certificate was signed by NATO Codification Committee Chairman Colonel Marek Dalkovski and the head of the Directorate of Standardisation, Codification and Metrology, Colonel Zoran Spasojevic. The process of implementing the NATO codification system in the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces began in 2010, ending in May 2013 with tests of the capabilities of the National Codification Bureau of Serbia. The Republic of Serbia has become the tenth non-NATO country that independently performs codification of equipment manufactured in its territory. Codification is important for improving logistic support in all Serbian Armed Forces missions by providing the information required for managing the lifespan of arms and military equipment. At the same time, codification is a necessary requirement for imports, as well as exports of domestically made products as part of military-technical cooperation with other countries. Since the codification system today includes nearly 70 countries, the conditions have now been created for Serbian defence industry products to become visible on the global market, which will facilitate sales, the statement said.