Yugoslav People's Army
The coastal artillery batteries had both surface-to-surface missiles and guns. They operated the Soviet-designed SS-C-3 and a truck-mounted, Yugoslav-produced Brom antiship missile. The latter was essentially a Yugoslav variant of the Soviet SS-N-2. Coastal guns included over 400 85 mm, 88 mm, 122 mm, 130 mm, and 152 mm artillery pieces obtained from the Soviet Union, the United States, captured and refurbished WW2 German and Italian pieces, and Yugoslav manufacturers.
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Air Force
The Yugoslav Air Force had about 32,000 including 4,000 conscripts and operated over 700 aircraft and 200 helicopters. It was responsible for transport, reconnaissance, and rotary-wing aircraft as well as the national air defense system. The primary air force missions were to contest enemy efforts to establish air superiority over Yugoslavia and to support the defensive operations of the ground forces and navy. Most aircraft were produced in Yugoslavia but missiles were produced domestically or supplied by the Soviet Union.
The Yugoslav Air Force had twelve squadrons of domestically produced ground attack fighters. The ground attack squadrons provided close air support to ground force operations. They were equipped with 165 new Orao-2, Super Galeb and J-21 Jastreb, and older P-2 Kraguj fighters. Many ground attack fighters were armed with AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles purchased from the United States. Others were armed with Soviet AS-7 and AS-9 missiles. The air force also had about ninety armed Mi-8 helicopter gunships to provide added mobility and fire support for small ground units. A large number of reconnaissance aircraft were available to support ground forces operations. Four squadrons of seventy Galeb, Jastreb, and Orao-1 fighters were configured for reconnaissance missions.
The Yugoslav Air Force had nine squadrons of 130 Soviet-made MiG-21 interceptors for air defense. First produced in the late 1950s, the MiG-21 was largely obsolete in 1990 and represented a potential weakness in Yugoslavia's air defense. The MiG-21s were armed with Soviet AA-2 (NATO: Atol) air-to-air missiles of a similar vintage and some more modern AA-8 (NATO: Aphid) missiles as well as twin 23 mm cannons. One Yugoslav aircraft manufacturer also was developing a new domestic multirole fighter to replace the MiG-21.
In 1987, Yugoslavia acquired 16 MiG-29 interceptors. It had two squadrons with over thirty Soviet-made Yak-40, Antonov An-12, and Antonov An-26 transport aircraft. It had seven helicopter transport squadrons with Soviet Mi-8 and domestic Partisan helicopters (French Aérospatiale Gazelle built under licence). They were supposed to retire the MiG-21s they had and replace them with the "Novi Avion", which was something like the Rafale, but because of the break-up, it wouldn't be built for a test flight and be added to the Air Force.
The Yugoslav Air Force conducted a large pilot training program with almost 200 Galeb, Super Galeb, and UTVA-75/-76 aircraft. The propeller-driven UTVA trainers had underwing pylons capable of carrying light weapons loads. A new UTVA Lasta trainer was under development in 1990. After practicing instrument and night flying, gunnery, bombing, rocket firing, and aerial maneuvers in the Lasta, student pilots progressed to the Super Galeb. Twenty Partisan helicopters were used for pilot training.
One of the most impressive structures operated by the JNA Air Force was the underground Željava air base near the town of Bihac in Bosnia. The structure was made to withstand a nuclear explosion and was destroyed by the JNA in 1992 to prevent it's capture. Željava vas base of 117th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which has compose of 124th and 125th fighter squadrons equipped with MiG-21Bis fighters and 352th rece squadron equipped with MiG-21R aircraft.
The Air and Air Defence forces were headquartered at Zemun and had fighter and bomber aircraft, helicopters, and air defence artillery units at air bases throughout the former Yugoslavia: Batajnica (Belgrade), Niš, Slatina (Priština), Golubovci (Titograd), Skopski Petrovec, Sarajevo, Mostar,Željava (Bihać), Pleso (Zagreb), Divulje (Split), Pula, Zemunik (Zadar), Cerklje ob Krki and many other smaller air bases.
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Navy
Minor surface combatants operated by the Yugoslav Navy included nearly eighty frigates, corvettes, submarines, minesweepers, and missile, torpedo, and patrol boats in the Adriatic Fleet. The entire coast of Yugoslavia was part of the naval region headquartered at Split (now part of Croatia).
The Partisans had operated many small boats in raids harassing Italian convoys in the Adriatic Sea during World War II. After the war, the navy operated numerous German and Italian submarines, destroyers, minesweepers, and tank-landing craft captured during the war or received as war reparations. The United States provided eight torpedo boats in the late 1940s, but most of those units were soon obsolete. The navy was upgraded in the 1960s when it acquired ten Osa-I class missile boats and four Shershen-class torpedo boats from the Soviet Union. The Soviets granted a license to build eleven additional Shershen units in Yugoslav shipyards developed for this purpose.
In 1980 and 1982, the Yugoslav navy took delivery of two Soviet Koni class frigates. In 1988 it completed two additional units under license. The Koni frigates were armed with four Soviet SS-N-2B surface-to-surface missile launchers, twin SA-N-4 (NATO: SA-8 Gecko) surface-to-air missiles, and anti-submarine rocket launchers.
The Yugoslav navy developed its own submarine-building capability during the 1960s. In 1990, the main combat units of the submarine service were three Heroj-class patrol submarines armed with 533 mm torpedoes. Two smaller Sava-class units entered service in the late 1970s. Two Sutjeska-class submarines had been relegated mainly to training missions by 1990. At that time the navy had apparently shifted to construction of versatile midget submarines. Four Una-class midgets and four Mala-class swimmer delivery vehicles were in service in the late 1980s. They were built for use by underwater demolition teams and special forces. The Una-class boats carried five crewmen, eight combat swimmers, four Mala vehicles, and limpet mines. The Mala vehicles in turn carried two swimmers and 250 kilograms of mines.
The Yugoslav navy operated ten Osa I-class and six Rade Koncar-class missile boats. The Osa I boats were armed with four SS-N-2A surface-to-surface missile launchers. In 1990, domestic Kobra boats were scheduled to begin replacing the Osa I boats. The Kobra was to be armed with four SS-N-2C launchers or eight Swedish RBS15 anti-ship missile launchers. Armed with two SS-N-2B launchers, the Koncar-class boats were modeled after the Swedish Spica class. The navy's fifteen Topcider-class torpedo boats included four former Soviet Shershen-class and eleven Yugoslav built units.
The Yugoslav navy's mine warfare and countermeasures capabilities were considered adequate in 1990. It operated four Vukov Klanac-class coastal minehunters built on a French design, four British Hamclass inshore minesweepers, and six 117-class inshore minesweepers built in domestic shipyards. Larger numbers of older and less capable minesweepers were mainly used in riverine operations. Other older units were used as dedicated minelayers. The navy used amphibious landing craft in support of army operations in the area of the Danube, Sava, and Drava rivers. They included both tank and assault landing craft. In 1990, there were four 501-class, ten 211-class, and twenty-five 601-class landing craft in service. Most of them were also capable of laying mines in rivers and coastal areas.
The Yugoslav Navy had 10,000 sailors (4,400 conscripts, 900 marines). This was essentially a coastal defense force with the mission of preventing enemy amphibious landings along the country's rugged 4,000-kilometer shoreline or coastal islands, and contesting an enemy blockade or control of the strategic Strait of Otranto. The entire coast of Yugoslavia was part of the naval region headquartered at Split. The naval region was divided into three smaller naval districts and a riverine flotilla with major naval bases located at Split, [[Sibenik], Pula, Ploce and Kotor on the Adriatic sea, and Novi Sad on the river Danube. The strategic islands of Vis and Lastovo were heavily fortified and unauthorised entry was denied. The fleet was organized into missile, torpedo, and patrol boat brigades, a submarine division, and minesweeper flotillas. The naval order of battle included four frigates, three corvettes, five patrol submarines, fifty-eight missile, torpedo, and patrol boats, and twenty-eight minesweepers. One antisubmarine warfare helicopter squadron was based at Divulje on the Adriatic sea coast for coastal operations. It employed Soviet Ka-25, Ka-28, and Mi-8 helicopters, and domestic Partisan helicopters. Some air force fighter and reconnaissance squadrons supported naval operations.
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Doctrine
The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) had a unique operational military doctrine for a conventional military force. Yugoslavia based its defence doctrine upon the total war concept of the "Total National Defence" (Serbian: Opštenarodna odbrana; Croatian: Općenarodna obrana; Slovenian: Splošna ljudska obramba; Macedonian: Општонародна одбрана; abbr.: latin: ONO, cyrilic: ОНО), which drew upon Yugoslavia's rich partisan history during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War in the Second World War. The Total National Defence gave the JNA the role of defending borders against aggressors with the intention of delaying an invader long enough for Territorial Defence Forces to enter the field and start wearing the invader down with partisan tactics. The entire Yugoslav population under this concept was to be engaged in armed resistance, armaments production, and civil defence. The concept of Total National Defence was believed by the Yugoslav planners to be the best method by which a smaller nation could properly defend itself against a much stronger invader.
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Dissolution
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During the early stages of the Yugoslav wars, and in general during the breakup of Yugoslavia, there was a great sense of confusion and concern as to the role that would be played by the Yugoslav People's Army.
Due to the fact that roughly 80% of the JNA's upper leadership was ethnically Serbian[citation needed], when war broke out in Croatia in 1991 (Croatian War of Independence), the Croatians increasingly treated the JNA as a hostile force. During the Battle of Vukovar, the JNA's diverse ethnic composition of lower fighting units with no real stake or interest in the war in Croatia led to instances of desertion and confusion in the area. This was primarily caused by a lack of understanding as to where they stood with both the Croatian defence forces and the Serbian paramilitary units who were promoting a purely Serbian agenda in Eastern Slavonia.
The morale in parts of the JNA became very low as the war intensified. On September 29, 1991, the navy admiral Vladimir Barović committed suicide while stationed at the Vis naval base, leaving a suicide letter which stated that he could not reconcile his feeling of honor as a Montenegrin with the aggression of JNA against Croatia.[citation needed] At the beginning of war in Croatia, JNA targeted civilians[2], killing three children near auto-camp Grabovac at Plitvice Lakes.
By the end of 1991, when both Slovenia and Croatia had practically seceded, JNA was crippled as a joint army of the SFRY, and was deprived of its basic fundamentals as a fighting force.
Further complications arose when Republic of Macedonia and Bosnia declared their independence and an already unpopular war caused conscription levels in Serbia to drop to only 13% of what was required to maintain a functioning army. Many in Macedonia or Bosnia and Herzegovina felt that the war was none of their concern and that their people should not have anything to do with the conflicts developing in the region. By mid-1992, war spread to Bosnia (War in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and it was clear that JNA was representative of the Serbs alone.
Serbia and Montenegro now being the sole union, replacing SFR Yugoslavia with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, for legality reasons decided that it was best to wash their hands of the conflicts which were occurring in nearby nations. The decision was made to abolish the JNA.
In May 1992, the United Nations Security Council confirmed independence of the new republics and accepted them into the UN. In accordance, the Yugoslav Army was asked to withdraw from Bosnia (as it was now deemed a hostile armed intervention in another sovereign state) or face sanctions. On May 12, 1992, JNA units were split between the FR Yugoslavia army and the Army of Republika Srpska (mostly in accordance with geographical location or place of origin), along with the majority of officer staff. In reality, this meant that many units changed nothing except their names and markings.
Some ex-JNA troops and commanders found their way to the Army of Republika Srpska Krajina while many loyalist Serbian paramilitaries remained operational in Bosnia, usually supporters of nationalist and radical parties in Serbia proper.
After the satellite army forces were officially formed and JNA was officially dissolved, the Army of FR Yugoslavia was re-formed with the new democratic intentions overshadowing the old socialistic fundamentals of the Yugoslav People's Army. Although, the changes to the Yugoslav Army (now Army of Serbia) were very slow and modernization did not begin until near the war's end. [3] The calcification of Army cadre helped keep Slobodan Milošević in power, but when eventually the October 5th overthrow happened, the army did not intervene.
In the end, Serbia and Montenegro inherited most of Yugoslavia's military arsenal, though some of its infrastructure was destroyed or left behind in other Yugoslav republics. Croatians captured some of the arsenal in the Battle of the Barracks, but much of it was extracted. The complete navy was moved to Montenegro.
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Exemplary Soldier
If a JNA recruit completes basic training with distinction, he will earn the Exemplary Soldier plaque. This means that the soldier has shown that he has gone above and beyond the call of duty. The plaque's text is addressed to soldier's parents and sent to them upon completion of training. It lists that the recruit has excellent understanding of basic military training, military doctrine and politics. The plaque also states that the recruit has shown excellent commitment to brotherhood and unity and has shown honor in defending the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
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Modern militaries from territories of former Yugoslavia
- Military of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Oružane snage Bosne i Hercegovine)
- Military of Croatia (Oružane Snage Republike Hrvatske)
- Military of the Republic of Macedonia (Армија на Република Македонија)
- Military of Montenegro (Vojska Crne Gore)
- Military of Serbia (Војска Србије)
- Military of Slovenia (Slovenska vojska)
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See also
- Territorial Defense Forces (Yugoslavia)
- History of Yugoslavia
- Military of Yugoslavia
- Partisans (Yugoslavia)
- Titoism
- Organ Zaštite Naroda (Armije) - OZNA
- Kontra-Obaveštajna Služba - KOS
- SOKO
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References
- ^ p.202, Trifunovska
- ^ [1] Masacre at Grabovac, Plitvice Lakes, article from Glas Koncila
- ^ Bosnian Institute News: The JNA: a broken army
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Sources
- Trifunovska, Snezana, Yugoslavia Through Documents: From Its Creation to Its Dissolution, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1994 ISBN 0792326709
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