Kurti: Our army is stronger than ever, except the boots on the ground with Bayraktar drones, with eyes in the sky

Speaking of achievements at 2/3 of his ruling mandate, Kurti stressed the military, saying Kosovo already has it stronger than ever before.

To further highlight the transformation, Kurti said that “besides boots on earth, our army has eyes in the sky through Bayraktar drones”.

We're stronger than ever, we've divided the budget twice as much as it did, and we're growing it every year. We added 1852 to the new soldiers, and 600 were in advance for next year. There are more weapons because the investments have increased 191%, almost triple”, Kurti said.

Bayraktar Drons TB-2 has been bought by Turkey, and Kosovo officers have been trained by Turkish officials for their use.

“Bayraktar TB” was developed by Selcuk Bayrakar, who is chief of technology at Baykar defence company and in 2016 married to Turkey's president's daughter, Recep Tayip Erdogan.

The Drone can stay in the sky for up to 27 hours and can fly up to 150 miles [150 km] from the base. Drone can be equipped with four rockets that can destroy armoured vehicles from several miles away. “Bayraktar TB” is 6.50m long, 12m wide and weighs 420 kg.

Meanwhile, the Kosovo chief's statement comes just days after next year's budget presentation, where Kurti declared that out of 3.3 billion euros, 370m are dedicated to defence and Interior Ministry portfolios.

“will be the defence and security budget where we have allocated 370m euros or 22% more than currently. 153m euros for the defence ministry and 216m euros for MPB. Our army that we have increased the budget for more than twice as long as we have come to rule and the number of soldiers for more than 2/3 will add 600 more soldiers to next year. Our police, which have 850 new police officers during our government, will have another 500 recruits next year and 21.7m euros for capital investments or 9m euros more than this year”, Kurti said a week ago in the Assembly.