Udbin airfield bombing

In 1993, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 816, which prohibits “all flights and helicopters in the airspace of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” with the exception of UN sanctions. This ban included combat aircraft of all warring parties in the Balkans. The implementation of this resolution was carried out by NATO aviation ^[1] .

In the fall of 1994, the Republika Srpska Armed Forces, with the support of the Republika Srpska Army, launched a successful counterattack on the Muslim enclave of Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which defended the 5th Corps of the Bosnian Muslim Army . Since Serbian Krajina had a common border with this enclave and hostilities in the border zone became more frequent, its troops supported the Bosnian Serbs and Muslim autonomists, who also fought against the 5th Corps. However, the situation for the Serbs was complicated by the fact that Bihac was proclaimed by the UN Security Council as a “protected zone”. According to Russian researcher Alexander Ionov, under the guise of UNPROFOR and NATO forces, Muslims were free to conduct military operations from Bihach, retreating to a protected enclave if necessary. Attempts by the Serbs to destroy it ran into threats of the use of military force by NATO countries ^[2] .

Despite the ban imposed by the UN, Serbian combat aircraft took part in the fighting near Bihac. The first air strikes of the RSK inflicted on the Muslim enclave on November 9 , then they continued. Serbs used free-falling bombs and guided missiles AGM-65 . NATO aviation repeatedly tried to intercept the Krainsky planes, but did not manage to do this, and it did not intrude into the airspace of the RSK ^[3] .

On November 18, two J-22 “Orao” aircraft of the Krai army set off from Udbin airfield on a combat mission. The aim of the flight was an arms factory near Bihac. The pilots successfully completed the mission, destroying the production complex, but on the way back, Captain Boro Novich’s plane crashed into a pipe at a very low altitude and crashed, the pilot died. The remains of the aircraft served as evidence of the participation of ICS aircraft in hostilities ^[4] .

On November 19, 1994, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 958, which allowed attacks if requested by the UNPROFOR command ^[5] . The bombing of Udbina was approved by the UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Gali . Also, by consent of Croatia , the no-fly zone was expanded - in addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina, it included the space around Udbina. UNPROFOR Commander French General Bertrand de Laprel allowed a "limited" air attack on the Serb airfield ^[6] .

Planning for the operation was carried out at the Air Operations Center of the 5th NATO Tactical Command at the Dal Moline Air Base, near Venice . The operation was led by the commander of the NATO Air Force in Southern Europe, Major General of the US Air Force Hal Hornburg. Due to the threat of actions by the Serbian anti-aircraft artillery, an air strike was to be launched from medium heights ^[6] .

ICS

Udbina was covered by air defense units from the aerodrome guard. At the airfield there were batteries of anti-aircraft guns L-70 Bofors and a battery of air defense systems Kub-M , located not far from the runway. At the airport itself, the aircraft of the 105th air brigade were based ^[7] .

NATO

NATO forces were a combined air group, it included planes from several air bases in Italy . In total, four British Jaguars * ^[8] from the Gioia del Colli air base, two Jaguars of the French Air Force from Istran air base, two Mirage-2000N-K2 from Cervia air base, four Dutch F-16A from Villafranca air base took part in the raid , six F / A-18D US Marine Corps from Aviano Air Base, six F-15E from the 492nd US Air Force Squadron from Aviano Air Base, ten F-16C from the 555th US Air Force Squadron from Aviano Air Base, and one EF-111A from 492nd Squadron EW US Air Force Air Force Base. It was also planned to use four F-16C Turkish air forces from the Chedi air base, but their dense and low cloud cover prevented their departure. The coordination of the attack was carried out on board the aircraft EC-130E from the 42nd squadron of the US Air Force. Monitoring of the situation in the air was carried out by the crews of the E-3A Sentry of the US Air Force and the E-3D of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain. In the event of possible losses, an evacuation team was prepared consisting of A-10A attack aircraft from the 81st squadron of the US Air Force, HC-130 aircraft and MH-53J helicopters of the US Air Force special operations forces and French Super Cougars ^{[3] [6]} .

On the afternoon of November 21, a NATO combat air group attacked Udbin. Although NATO did not receive the approval of the UN Secretary General for the bombing of Serbian air defense, the first wave of attack aircraft attacked it. Two Hornets from a distance of 21 kilometers fired AGM-88 HARM anti-radar guided missiles at the radar of the anti-aircraft missile system, then two more F-18A / Ds launched the AGM-65 missile defense already at the positions of the anti-aircraft missile systems themselves. As a result, one SAM system and aerial for detecting air targets were damaged. After that, the aircraft remained over the airfield in order to destroy, if necessary, air defense systems that were not previously detected. After them, attacks on air defense positions were also inflicted by the F-15E. The next stage of the attack was the destruction of the aerodrome infrastructure. The French Jaguars and the American F-15E dropped laser bombs on the runway and taxiways. The British "Jaguars", the Dutch F-16s and the French "Mirages 2000", but with the usual Mk.84 bombs, worked on them. Photographing the results of the bombing showed that the GB-87s dropped by the F-15E fell along the axis of the runway. In total, about 80 bombs and missiles were dropped during the strike on Udbin. No attacks were made on aircraft and helicopters of the Serbian Krajina Aviation, and not one of them was damaged. The village of Visucha, located a few kilometers from Udbina, was also hit. As a result of the hit, several civilians were injured. The jammer EF-111A did not allow the Serbian radars to operate normally, so the Serbs responded only with anti-aircraft gun fire and MANPADS launches, which did not damage the attacking aircraft. The attack lasted about 45 minutes, then the planes returned to their bases. According to the Krainsky general Milisava Seculich, the runway of the airfield was damaged in five places ^[9] .

During the bombing, an incident occurred with Czech peacekeepers, whose observation post was not far from the airfield. General Milos Joshan, who commanded the air defense of the army of Serbian Krajina for some time, wrote in his memoirs that Czech peacekeepers guided NATO aircraft ^[10] . This was established by Serbian soldiers at the airport, when they heard the corresponding talks on the air. One of the air defense calculations opened fire on an observation post from ZSU M53 / 59 “Prague”, after which the peacekeepers fled, leaving there a radio station, pictures of the airfield and observation equipment. At the same moment, the raid stopped. This led to extreme aggravation between the Serbs and peacekeepers, who were accused of espionage in favor of the enemy ^[10] .

The NATO air attack caused significant damage to the infrastructure of the Udbin airfield. The Serbs were able to restore it only after two weeks. During the bombing, two soldiers died - Branko Jerkovich and Darko Galovic ^[9] , and Ratko Bjelobaba, Djuro Egić, Zeljko Uzelac and Zeljko Ivanishevich were injured. Zhelko Ivanishevich was injured in the spine and remained paralyzed ^[10] . According to the Serbian historian Boyan Dimitrievich, there were five of the injured ^[11] .

Serbian aviation at the airport did not suffer, as it was not the target of the raid (in accordance with UN regulations ^[12] ).

NATO aviation had no losses ^[13] .

• Air battle over Banja Luka
• Operation Deliberate Power

• Guskova E.Yu. The history of the Yugoslav crisis (1990-2000). - M .: Russian Law / Russian National Fund, 2001. - 720 p. - ISBN 5941910037 .
• Joshan, Milos. Od aggression to the tribunal. - Beograd: Draslar partner, 2010. - ISBN 978-86-908615-2-1 .
• Novakovi, Costa. Srpska Krajina: - Beograd; Knin: Srpsko kulturno drutstvo Zora , 2009 .-- 602 p. - ISBN 978-86-83809-54-7 .
• Dimitrijević B. Vazdušni rat nad Republikom Srpskom i Republikom Srpskom Krajinom. - Beograd: Planeta print, 2017 .-- 374 p. - ISBN 978-86-87877-07-8 .
• Sekulić, Milisav . Knin je pao u Beogradu . - Nidda Verlag., 2000 .-- 295 p.
• Ripley, Tim. Conflict in the Balkans 1991-2000. - Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2001 .-- ISBN 1841762903 .

• NATO set to bomb Serbs in Croatia . Date accessed August 27, 2015.
• Ratno krštenje u Bosni i Hercegovini (Serbian) . Date accessed August 27, 2015.