Serbia admits that it bought an offensive weapon from China that no one in Europe has: “We have a significant number”
Serbia recently purchased CM-400AKG air-to-ground ballistic missiles from China for its air force, becoming the first European operator of the weapon, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed late Thursday.
Thus, this Balkan state “has a missile capability unmatched by anyone in Europe (at least except Russia),” according to the military analysis site The War Zone (TWZ).
“The CM-400 is a supersonic weapon, and (Chinese manufacturer) CASIC claims it can reach a speed of Mach 4.5 in the terminal phase of flight. It has often been described as a hypersonic missile, but this is probably not the case: Mach 5 is usually considered the limit between supersonic and hypersonic speed,” TWZ points out.
Only France has a supersonic, air-launched missile, but it is nuclear. Otherwise, France, Great Britain, Italy and Greece rely on Storm Shadow missiles (SCALP), and Germany and Spain on Taurus missiles, both models being subsonic.
“We have and will have more”
“We have a significant number of such missiles and we will have even more,” Vucic said in a live broadcast by Serbia's state broadcaster RTS, days after the first images of the missiles mounted on a Serbian plane were leaked online.
Vucic said the Serbian Air Force had adapted Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to carry CM-400AKG supersonic missiles.
As we reported yesterday, the Serbian Air Force showcased, for the first time, that they are in possession of Chinese-made CM-400 supersonic air-ground missiles, with a reported range of up to 400 km.
This makes Serbia the second foreign customer, after Pakistan.
Pair of missiles… pic.twitter.com/Yo2Utzf8DV
— Peter Voinovich (@PeterVoinovich) March 10, 2026
Serbia thus became the second foreign buyer of these formidable ballistic missiles after Pakistan
Serbia is struggling to balance its NATO partnership 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, Reuters notes.
Croatia – a member of the EU and NATO and an adversary of Serbia during the wars of the 1990s – has criticized the missile purchase as a threat to regional stability, an attempt to change the military balance and a sign of the intensifying arms race in the Balkans.
It is not the first military system that Serbia bought from China
The CM-400AKG, manufactured by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), is a supersonic air-to-ground ballistic missile. It can carry either a 150 kg explosive warhead or a 200 kg penetrating warhead and has a range of up to 400 km.
It was first used in combat during the 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan, when the Pakistan Air Force targeted an Indian S-400 air defense system.
Vucic declined to disclose the price Serbia paid for the missiles, saying only that it received a “slight discount.”
Serbia allocated about 2.6% of its GDP to military spending this year.
Recently, Serbia acquired from China the FK-3 surface-to-air defense system – similar to the Russian S-300 system or the American Patriot system – and CH-92A combat drones, while buying 12 new Rafale fighter jets from the French company Dassault, as well as helicopters and transport planes from Airbus.
