NATO partner Serbia admits buying Chinese missiles after photos leaked online

BELGRADE – Serbia recently purchased Chinese CM-400AKG air-to-surface ballistic missiles for its air force, becoming the weapon’s first European operator, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on March 12.

Serbia is striving to balance its partnership with NATO and aspirations to join the European Union with its centuries-old religious, ethnic and political alliance with Russia and strategic ties with China, a major investor.

“We have a significant number of those missiles and we will have even more,” Mr Vucic said in a live broadcast by Serbia’s state RTS TV, days after the first images of the missiles mounted on a Serbian plane were leaked online.

He said the Serbian air force had adapted its Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to carry the CM-400AKG.

Croatia – a NATO and EU member, and Serbia’s foe during the wars in the 1990s – criticised the missile purchase as a threat to regional stability, an attempt to alter the military balance, and a sign of a growing arms race in the Balkans.

The CM-400AKG, manufactured by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, is a supersonic air-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of up to 400km. It can carry a 150kg blast warhead or a 200kg penetrator warhead.

It was first used during the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict when Pakistan’s air force targeted an Indian S-400 air defence system.

Mr Vucic declined to disclose the price Serbia paid, saying only that it received a “slight discount”.

Serbia has allocated around 2.6 per cent of its gross domestic product for military expenditures in 2026. In recent times, it has purchased the FK-3 surface-to-air defence system – similar to Russia’s S-300 or the US Patriot system – and CH-92A combat drones from China, as well as 12 new Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault, along with helicopters and cargo planes from Airbus. REUTERS