Operation Allied Force: 20 years on

In March 1999 NATO launched Operation Allied Force to drive Serbian forces from the contested Yugoslav province of Kosovo. Tim Ripley looks back at the 78-day air campaign. Air War Analysis On a wintery March evening, six giant B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers could be heard starting their engines on the parking aprons at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. The ‘BUFFs’ taxied out and took off, heading south towards the English Channel. Their target was Serbia. Operation Allied Force was under way.