Presenting their activities at Ljubljana airport yesterday, Lieutenant Colonel Igor Lanišnik said the army understood the involvement in rescue operations as major value added to their principal activity.

This year, the army helicopter teams have been involved in 193 mountain rescue operations, 162 medical emergency cases, as well as provided aerial firefighting and helped in the search of missing persons.

According to Lanišnik, the army provides one helicopter for urgent medical aid and one for mountain rescue during the daytime which take off within 15 minutes from receiving a call for assistance.

A helicopter unit is available for mountain rescue, emergency medical aid and firefighting round the clock throughout the year within 120 minutes, as is the Falcon jet for transport of organs for transplantation.

In a decade between 1 January 2007 and 28 December 2016, the army provided 1,786 medical emergency interventions, transported 1,891 injured or ill persons in a total of 2,351 flying hours.

An average intervention takes about an hour and a half between receiving an emergency call and returning to the base, said Lanišnik, the commander of the 151st Rotary Wing Squadron.

The Slovenian Armed Forces have 12 helicopter units trained for demanding rescue operations. Next year four units will be available for winch mountain rescue with the help of night vision goggles.

Since recently the army units are also capable of providing transports of sick infants in incubators.

Army spokesman Simon Korez said that the cost of the army helicopter units' involvement in rescue operations this year amounted to EUR 1.5m, which he said was a considerable financial burden.

Army members are also involved in the work of the Slovenia's highest altitude weather station at Kredarica, at 2,515 metres above sea level.

First meteorological measurements and weather forecasts from there were available in August 1954, with the Armed Forces joining in a decade ago based on an agreement signed with the Environment Agency (ARSO).

The army provides four meteorological observers, as well as helicopter supplies for the station and transport of army and ARSO meteorologists as they change at their ten-day shifts.

However, the shifts depend on weather conditions and a few years ago a team of meteorologists was forced to prolong their duty to 23 days, army meteorologist Franc Mežan told reporters.

The data collected at the weather station are sent to the ARSO headquarters in Ljubljana and from there in international exchange.