Serbian ADS have been repaired

Date Posted: 15-Jun-2004

JANE’S MISSILES AND ROCKETS – JULY 01, 2004

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Serbia and Montenegro has repaired its air-defence radars
Serbia and Montenegro has reconstructed most of its defensive radar network, repairing the damage done by NATO air strikes in 1999. Students from the Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering who visited the Novi Banovci radar station in May 2004 were told that more than 90% of the radar equipment was in good working order.

Colonel Raica Boskovic, commander of the 126th Brigade for Air Reconnaissance, Warning and Guidance (VOJIN) of the Serbia and Montenegro Army, told the students that in 2000 only about 30% of the radars had been operational. Most of the radars that had been hit by NATO air strikes have now been overhauled and repaired by the Belgrade Military-Technical Institute. This reconstruction had to be done with local resources, since financial problems and international arms embargos made it very difficult to obtain equipment and spare parts.

Before the start of hostilities in 1999, the Serbia and Montenegro Army VOJIN had a total of 12 radars. These were attacked by 15 cruise missiles, 13 air-to-ground missiles, 29 anti-radiation missiles and 98 bombs, Col Boskovic told the students.

To counter these air strikes, the network carried out a total of 169 redeployments around a network of 165 locations, which included 49 newly built reserve positions. This amounted to more than two redeployments a day over the 78 days of combat. The 126th VOJIN Brigade’s air defences fired six Strela 2M (SA-7 ‘Grail’) man-portable SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) in self-defence, and downed one Tomahawk cruise missile.

The network remained operational throughout the campaign, said Col Boskovic, and his own unit tracked and took part in the successful engagement of the F-117 Black Hawk stealth fighter which was shot down on 27 March 1999.

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