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Yugoslavia Armed Services
In 1990 the YPA consisted of the ground forces, air force,
and navy. They were organized into four military regions
including the Split Naval Region. 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. Of the YPA's 180,000
soldiers, airmen, and sailors, more than 100,000 were conscripts.
Ground Forces
The ground forces, or army, led the armed services in
personnel. In 1990 the army had 140,000 active-duty soldiers
(including 90,000 conscripts) and could mobilize nearly 450,000
trained reservists in wartime. The army comprised several major
service branches, including infantry, armor, artillery, and air
defense, and smaller support branches such as the signal,
engineering, and chemical defense corps.
The army was organized into three military regions and ten
army corps headquarters. The military regions and corps
headquarters were responsible for forces and operations in three
strategic areas: Slovenia and northern Croatia; eastern Croatia,
Vojvodina, and Serbia; and Kosovo and Macedonia. 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 antitank 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.
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 LCY held about 550 Soviet
T-34 and United States-produced M-4 tanks in storage as reserves.
The army's tanks were in many respects its most obsolete forces.
The T-54/-55 was a frontline model during the 1960s. The M-47, T34 , and M-4 were tanks of World War II and the early postwar era.
Domestic production of the M-84 (basically a version of the
Soviet T-72 built under license in Yugoslavia) was slowly
providing the army with a late 1970s and 1980s model
(see Arms Procurement
, this ch.).
Mechanized infantry brigades lacked sufficient mechanization.
In 1990 fewer than 1,000 armored combat vehicles and personnel
carriers served almost 50,000 troops in frontline infantry units.
Far fewer than one-half of all brigades were substantially
mechanized. The majority of mechanized units were concentrated in
eastern Croatia, Vojvodina, and Serbia along what would be the
main axis of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Yugoslavia.
The army had over 400 M-980 armored combat vehicles and 300
M-60P armored personnel carriers produced domestically. The
infantry also operated more than 200 Soviet-made BTR-152, BTR40 , and BTR-50 armored personnel carriers, 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 models, and domestic BOV and M-8 vehicles.
Artillery regiments were well equipped with Soviet, United
States, and domestic systems. Soviet artillery in these units
consisted of approximately 1,000 towed 122mm howitzers, 130mm
guns, 152mm gun/howitzers, and 155mm howitzers. There were about
700 older United States 105mm and 155mm 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
100mm and 122mm and Yugoslav-produced 105mm M-7 self-propelled
guns. Those units had over 6,000 82mm and 120mm mortars,
including a self-propelled 82mm mortar mounted on an M-60PB
variant of the standard armored personnel carrier.
Artillery units operated several battlefield missile systems
including 160 128mm 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.
Antitank regiments had towed antitank guns, recoilless
rifles, and Soviet antitank guided missiles. Antitank guns
included 75-mm, 90-mm, and 100-mm models. They were Sovietproduced with the exception of the 90mm M-63B2, which was
manufactured domestically. The recoilless rifles were
manufactured domestically and included 57mm, 82mm, and 105mm
models. Two self-propelled 82mm recoilless rifles could be
mounted on an M-60PB armored personnel carrier. Antitank guided
missiles were the Soviet AT-1 and AT-3. They were used in both
antitank and infantry units, but because of their early vintage,
effectiveness against advanced armor was uncertain. The fourwheeled BOV-1 armored reconnaissance vehicle could be equipped
with six AT-3 launchers to serve as a highly mobile antitank
platform.
Larger 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 Soviet SA-6 mobile medium-range surface-to-
air missiles as well as large numbers of shorter-range portable
SA-7 and vehicle-mounted SA-9 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
20mm BOV-3 and dual 30mm 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.
In general, the army's major deficiencies were its lack of
adequate firepower and mobility. Infantry units were
insufficiently mechanized to maneuver on a modern battlefield,
and tank forces were largely outdated. Using equipment from the
Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries, the ground
forces had serious logistical problems, including irregular
ammunition supply and maintainance of many nonstandard weapons
systems. The army lacked sufficient fire support from the air
force, although by 1990 the latter was acquiring additional
ground attack aircraft and helicopters to perform this mission.
The army emphasized developing or obtaining more effective
vehicle-mounted and portable antitank guided missiles and
antiaircraft missiles. A shortage was evident in advanced target
designation systems including infrared sights and laser
rangefinders.
Data as of December 1990
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