Croatia

Let’s discuss the Croatian AF, and its future.

The webpages I have found which list Croatian AF inventory are outdated and contradictory to each other so I am counting on you guys.

Is the following information correct: The Croatian AF has 32 Mig-21’s and 20 PC-9M’s. They are all in good condition. The helicopter fleet is made up of 25 Mi-8’s and 15 Mi-24’s. For transport they have 3 An-32’s and 13 An-2’s.

They also have a number of older aircraft like J-20’s (an old Yugoslav aircraft from the 50’s) but these are not in active service.

Does anyone know how many of which types of Mig-21’s they have?

How do pilots go from the PC-9M straight to the Mig-21? Or are they not even training new Mig-21 pilots? Any chance of Croatia signing up for the NTFC program (Nato Flight Training in Canada)?

Now about the future… Does Croatia have any intention of doing what Slovenia did and completely disbanding their fast jet fleet and keeping only helicopters and transports?

There was a plan to receive 12 F-16’s from the US. I have not head anything about this since 1998. I have heard it claimed that the reason they never got them was because the US did not want to sell them, another source says the reason is because Croatia couldn’t afford them, and a third source claims that the US refused to sell the AIM-120 with them and that’s why Croatia wouldn’t buy them. So which is the truth? Does anyone know more about this?