Yugoslav People's Army: Difference between revisions

The Yugoslav People's Army (YPA) (Serbian and Macedonian: Југословенска народна армија - JHA; Macedonian and Serbian Latin forms: Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and Bosnian: Jugoslavenska narodna armija - JNA; Slovene: Jugoslovanska ljudska armada - JLA) was the military force of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The origins of JNA can be found in the Yugoslav Partisan units of World War II. In 1942 they became the People's National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (Narodno Oslobodilačka Vojska i Partizanski Odredi Jugoslavije – NOV i POJ). In March of 1945, the NOVJ was renamed the Yugoslav Army (Jugoslovenska Armija) and finally on December 22 1951 received the adjective People's (i.e. Narodna). The JNA's national celebration day was on designated for December 22nd of every year.

Once considered fourth largest in Europe, JNA consisted of the ground forces, air force and navy. They were organized in four military regions. The regions were further divided into districts that were responsible for administrative tasks such as draft registration, mobilization and construction and maintenance of military facilities. The regions were: Belgrade (responsible for eastern Croatia, Serbia with Vojvodina and Bosnia and Herzegovina), Zagreb (Slovenia and northern Croatia), Skopje (Republic of Macedonia, southern Serbia and Montenegro) and Split Naval Region. Of the JNA's 180,000 soldiers, more than 100,000 were conscripts.

In 1990 the army had nearly completed a major overhaul of its basic force structure. It eliminated its old divisional infantry organization and established the brigade as the largest operational unit. The army converted ten of twelve infantry divisions into twenty-nine tank, mechanized, and mountain infantry brigades with integral artillery, air defense, and anti-tank regiments. One airborne brigade was organized before 1990. The shift to brigade-level organization provided greater operational flexibility, maneuverability, and tactical initiative, and it reduced the possibility that large army units would be destroyed in setpiece engagements with an aggressor. The change created many senior field command positions that would develop relatively young and talented officers. The brigade structure also was more appropriate at a time of declining manpower.

The arms industry took up the majority of Yugoslavia's heavy industries. With annual exports of $3 billion, it was twice as large as the second largest Yugoslav industry, tourism. It had modern infrastructure with underground air-bases and control centres in several mountains. The biggest and best known was the Bihać underground Integrated Radar Control and Surveillance Centre and Air Base also known as "Željava" in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Several companies in Yugoslavia produced airplanes and specifically combat aircraft, most notably Soko of Mostar, with the Soko J-22 Orao being the best known, as well as Utva in Serbia. Regarding ground combat, Yugoslav military-industrial complex produced tanks (most notably, modern M-84), armored vehicles (BOV-M, BOV-1 M-83, M-80), various artillery pieces (mortars, MLRS, howitzers etc), anti-aircraft weapons, as well as various types of infantry weapons and other equipment.

The ground forces led in personnel. It had about 140,000 active-duty soldiers (including 90,000 conscripts) and could mobilize over a million trained reservists in wartime. Reserve forces were organized along republics' lines into Territorial Defence Forces and in wartime they were to be subordinate to JNA Supreme Command as an integral part of defence system. Territorial Defence (reserve force) was made up of former conscripts and they were occasionally called up for war exercises.

The ground forces comprised of infantry, armour, artillery, air defence, as well as signal, engineering and chemical defence corps.

Yugoslav tank brigades comprised two or three battalions. They operated about 750 Soviet T-54 and T-55, 290 Yugoslav M-84, and some United States-made M-47 tanks. The army's tanks were in many respects its most obsolete forces. The T-54/-55 was a frontline model during the 1960s. Domestic production of the M-84 (an improved version of the Soviet T-72 built under license in Yugoslavia) was providing the army with a late 1970s and 1980s model.

The Yugoslav army had over 400 M-80 armored combat vehicles and 300 M-60P armored personnel carriers produced domestically. The infantry also operated more than 200 Soviet-made BTR-152, BTR-40, and BTR-50 armored personnel carriers (APCs), which had been purchased in the 1960s and 1970s. It had 100 M-3A1 half-tracked personnel carriers produced by the United States and a small number of new Romanian TAB-72 armored personnel carriers. Armored reconnaissance vehicles included a few older Soviet BTR-40s, newer BRDM-2 and BTR-60 models, and domestic BOV and M-8 vehicles.

Yugoslav Artillery regiments were well equipped with Soviet, US and domestic systems. Soviet artillery in these units consisted of approximately 1,000 towed 122 mm howitzers, 130 mm guns, 152 mm gun/howitzers, and 155 mm howitzers. There were about 700 older United States 105 mm and 155 mm towed guns and domestically produced models such as the M-65 in the artillery regiments. Towed pieces were very important for operations in the country's mountainous terrain.

Artillery units operated Soviet 100 mm and 122 mm and Yugoslav-produced 105 mm M-7 self-propelled guns. Those units had over 6,000 82 mm and 120 mm mortars, including a self-propelled 82 mm mortar mounted on an M-60PB variant of the standard armored personnel carrier.

Yugoslav Artillery units operated several battlefield missile systems including 160 128 mm YMRL-32 and M-63 multiple-rocket launchers. The arsenal included four launchers for Soviet FROG-7 surface-to-surface missiles. First fielded in 1967, the unguided FROG-7 had a range of 100 kilometers.

Yugoslav Anti-tank regiments had towed anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles, and Soviet anti-tank guided missiles. Antitank guns included 75 mm, 90 mm, and 100 mm models. They were Soviet produced with the exception of the 90 mm M-63B2, which was manufactured domestically.

The recoilless rifles were manufactured domestically and included 57 mm, 82 mm, and 105 mm models. Two self-propelled 82 mm recoilless rifles could be mounted on an M-60PB armored personnel carrier.

Anti-tank guided missiles were the Soviet AT-1 (NATO: Snapper) and AT-3 (NATO: Sagger). They were used in both anti-tank and infantry units, but because of their early vintage, effectiveness against advanced armor was uncertain. The four wheeled BOV-1 armored reconnaissance vehicle could be equipped with six AT-3 launchers to serve as a highly mobile anti-tank platform.

Larger Yugoslav army units had considerable tactical air defense assets, designed to defend major troop concentrations against enemy air strikes. The ground forces had four surface-to-air missile regiments and eleven antiaircraft artillery regiments. The former operated large numbers of Soviet SA-6, SA-7, SA-9, SA-13, SA-14, SA-16 missiles. Short-range systems also were employed in infantry units.

Yugoslav antiaircraft artillery regiments operated over 5,000 guns. Self-propelled gun systems included the Soviet-made 57 mm dual ZSU-57-2 gun systems and the domestically produced triple 20 mm BOV-3 and dual 30 mm BOV-30. Large numbers of towed antiaircraft guns of many calibers were in the inventory. Of both domestic and foreign origin, they included pieces purchased from the United States, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and Sweden.

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 88 mm, 122 mm, 130 mm, and 152 mm artillery pieces obtained from the Soviet Union, the United States, postwar Germany, and Yugoslav manufacturers.

Serbia and Montenegro (i.e. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) inherited most of Yugoslavia's military arsenal, though some of its infrastructure was destroyed or left behind in other Yugoslav republics.

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 and 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 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 seventy 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 15 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).

The Yugoslav Air Force conducted a large pilot training program with almost 200 Galeb, Jastreb, 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.

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, Priština, Golubovci (Titograd), Skopski Petrovec, Sarajevo, Mostar, Bihać, Pleso (Zagreb), Divulje (Split), Pula, Zemunik (Zadar), Cerklje ob Krki.

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 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 bases located at Split, Sibenik, Pula, Ploce and Kotor on the Adriatic and Novi Sad on the Danube. 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 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.

The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) had a unique operational doctrine for a conventional military force. Yugoslavia based its defence doctrine upon the concept of "Total National Defence" (opštenarodna odbrana), which drew upon Yugoslavia's rich partisan history during World War II. 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.

At the beginning stages of the Yugoslav Wars there was a great sense of confusion and concern as to what the Yugoslav People's Army stood for. Due to the fact that roughly 80% of the JNA's upper leadership was ethnically Serbian and that a war was raging in 2 different countries at the time - Bosnia and Croatia - lead to the absolute crippling of the JNA and it's basic fundamentals as a fighting 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 lead to desertions 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.

Further complications arose when Republic of Macedonia and Bosnia declared their independence and an already unpopular war back home in Belgrade caused conscription levels to be only 13% of what they were required to be. 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.

Serbia and Montenegro now being the sole union that was still considered to be Yugoslavia for legality reasons then decided that it was best to wash their hands of the conflicts which were occurring in near by nations. The decision was made to abolish the JNA.

In May 1992, the United Nations Security Council confirmed independence of the new republics and accapted 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, place of origin), along with the majority of the 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 or Radical parties in Serbia proper. These two separate satellite defence forces were formed and JNA was officially dissolved and 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 moderniziation did not begin until nearly the war's end. ^[1]

• Vojnik (Private)
• Razvodnik (Private First Class)
• Desetar (Lance Corporal)
• Mlađi vodnik (Corporal)
• Vodnik (Sergeant)
• Vodnik 1. klase (Sergeant First Class)
• Stariji vodnik (Senior Sergeant)
• Stariji vodnik 1. klase (Senior Sergeant First Class)
• Zastavnik (Sergeant Major)
• Zastavnik 1. klase (Sergeant Major First Class)
• Potporučnik (Second Lieutenant)
• Poručnik (First Lieutenant)
• Kapetan (Captain)
• Kapetan 1. klase (Captain First Class)
• Major (Major)
• Potpukovnik (Lieutenant-Colonel)
• Pukovnik (Colonel)
• General-major (Major-General)
• General-potpukovnik (Lieutenant-General)
• General-pukovnik (Colonel-General)
• General armije (General of the Army)
• General JNA (General of the People's Army)[Army only] - Rank was abolished in 1980s. Although General Ivan Gosnjak, while serving as a defence minister with a rank of General armije (i.e. General of the Army - 4 star), was considered for promotion, no officers were promoted to this rank.
• Maršal (Marshal) - Maršal of Yugoslavia was an honorary title and a military rank of a Supreme Armed Forces Commander. The first and the only one was Josip Broz Tito, who (beside the rank of Maršal and Supreme Army Commander), also held the lifelong function of the president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

• History of Yugoslavia
• Military of Yugoslavia
• Partisans (Yugoslavia)
• Titoism
• Organ Zaštite Naroda (Armije) - OZNA
• Kontra-Obaveštajna Služba - KOS
• SOKO
• Veljko Kadijević
• Blagoje Adžić