It would be much better, I think, to revert back to issues pertaining to Air Force and stop fueling old prejudices and misperception that dates back to the end of the Ottoman empire and the consolidation of the state- nation concept in the Balkans. Indeed the region is very rich in history and it is worth studying it, but it should be done, in my oppinion, from the new prospective of having to live together in peace learning at the same time from the mistakes of the past, and not in this thread.

During the last decade the Italians came back to the issue of the Yugoslav ethnic cleansing in Istria where 300 thousand italians were forcefully expelled by Tito with the pretext of having been all fascists. The recent TV movie “Le foibe” (local name for carstic wells where thousands of Italians wee barbary killed by the Yugoslavs) sparked reactions from Slovenia and Croatia with courageous admisions of historic responsabilities. In my oppinion what happened in Cameria is quite similar with Istria but it is being handed now in a coprehensive and modern way.

Why didn’t Albania buy anything from Yugoslavia?

In fact the begining of the AAF in the post WWII are closely linked with then Yugoslavia. The first Albanian fighter pilots were trained there from 1945 to 1948. During that time some Albanian pilots even served operationally in the Yak-3 fighter squadron based in Scopje.

In terms of trade, during the 80′ in particular the two countries had an active trend. Albania bought machines and home electric appliances from Iskra, Koncar, Obodin ecct and exported raw materials, semi produced items and food stuff. In terms of Defence trade, probably the Albanians didn’t feel the need to buy anything from the Yugoslavs.

It is interesting also to compare the respective models of Defence in the two countries during the Communist period because they were in fact quite similar.

Mirage F-1 of the French Air Force

Osa, what do you think about this article ? The author doesn’t mention the modernisation you talk about. It is true you still have 12 Mi-2″4 ?

Macedonia’s Powerful Helicopter Fleet

On a regional level, in the fighter helicopter department, Macedonia comes second only to Greece. Too bad it had to accept no-fly zones over its own occupied territory during the Albanian aggression, when NATO-imposed ceasefire constrained only the victim, and not the NLA.

By Igor Bozhinovski
Translation by Zlatko Arsenievski

On several occasions during the past week, the media questioned the condition of the aircrafts in the Macedonian Air Force. This was a direct consequence of lack of knowledge of the fact that, there is no 100% fault-free aircraft fleet in the world. The world experiences say that level of fault-free readiness for even the most powerful armies is between 80% and 90%. Dropping of readiness to bellow 70% is considered a reason for alarm, but the aircrafts in the Macedonian Air Force are far above that. In one of my past reviews, I’ve exposed my personal perspective about the military condition of the Macedonian Air Force, which by my opinion, after Greece, has the most powerful helicopter fleet in the near region. In addition, I would like to explain this perspective, which is based on the readiness, number and types of aircrafts owned by Macedonia’s neighboring countries.

In the beginning, I would like to point out, that because of many objective and subjective facts, the comparison between the armed forces of the Greek Republic and the Macedonian Army, or any other country in the region might not be considered suitable. Greece, the only Balkan member of the NATO and EU, today has 180 helicopters aimed at various purposes, from which only 20 are AH-64A Apache. Macedonia, on the other hand, has 12 Mi-24 fighter helicopters, all in excellent shape.

Krumovo air-base, near Plovdiv, is the site of the complete helicopter fleet of the Bulgarian Air Force. Bulgaria uses fighter helicopter Mi-24 as basic air support for the ground forces. The reform of the Bulgarian armed forces, envisages retaining 24 helicopters of this type, which are currently in rather desperate condition. Already catastrophic condition of Bulgarian helicopters Mi-24D/V worsened even more after a storm hit the helicopter base Stara Zagora in the summer of 1999. The strong hail destroyed the main rotor blades of all helicopters parked there. So far, the Bulgarians managed to repair only four helicopters of the Mi-24 type. 25 Mi-17 helicopters reside in Krumovo, also. In the transport/fighter configuration are 19 of them, while four of them are in ECM – electronic counter messure configuration (Mi-17PP). Level of technical readiness of all of these helicopters is catastrophically low. In the 1999 the helicopter base of Krumovo was reinforced with 6 new helicopters of the type Bell 206B-3, and in the 2000 with the luxury helicopter Bell 430 used for transport of high state officials. With the exception of the helicopters “Bell”, the greater part of the Bulgarian Air Force is grounded due to lack of resources or reserve parts.

The condition of Yugoslav Air Force is not much better either. Readiness level of approximately 120 various helicopters is critically low, due to the many years of international embargo for import of weapons and military equipment, and the cut-backs in the military budget. Yugoslav Air Force uses about 40 helicopters of the type Mi-8 for transport and transport/fighter tasks. They also have about 40 anti-tank helicopters of the type SA.342L Gazele-GAMA. Additional 40 aircrafts of the type SA.341H Gazele-HERA are used as light multi-purpose helicopters. Yugoslav police also has two Mi-24V fighter helicopters.

Albania is a country which definitely has the weakest and most obsolete Air Force in Europe, and is at the low end of World scale, also. Most of Albanian aircraft have been grounded or put out of service during the late 1990’s, due to severe lack of fuel and reserve parts. The only refreshment of the Albanian Air Force was the several light multi-purpose helicopters donated by USA and Switzerland. Currently, Republic of Albania is the only country in the region without fighter helicopters.

Further equipping of the Macedonian Air Force with light multi-purpose and transport helicopters in combination with already established norms for adequate service of the aircrafts, would establish it as the second-most powerful helicopter fleet in the region, after Greece.

(The author regularly writes for many eminent local and foreign military and aeronautical magazines).

Any more information about which types of machinery that was supplied, and which kind of aircraft components that were built?
What was the value if the deal, and for how long was Saab involved in the Albanian air industry?

It is generally quite difficult to find reliable information on the past of the AAF due to the obsesively secretive nature of the Communist regime in the country. Apparently Saab was called in in the begining of the 80′ when the Albanians were experiencing many difficulties especially in the maintenance of jet engines, following their break with China in 1978

Saab appears to have brough in sofisticated precision metal cutting machineries, apositely forged metals, and electronic test devices, all neccesary for the rebuilding of jet turbines of the type WP-6 ( for the J-6).

It seems this was accomplished by 1983 and the Albanians could rebuild, recondition and prolong the life span of the jet engines they were using.

The Saab assitance was anyway paid in hard currency which is totally diffrent from the “internationlist help”they were used to receive from China.

hope you like this one

Swedish involvement in Albanian air industry in the 1980s was news to me. Any more details about that available?

The following lines are taken from “Albanian Air Force, from red star to roundel” written by Achille Vigna and published in Military Aviation International, issue N.1 of 1998. It took me some time to trace it back from the usual pile of books.

“In 1978, when Albania severed relations with China and became even more isolated, Enver Hoxha soon found himself without any form of air defence at all. Approaches were made to Sweden ( which incidentally was and is the archetypal role model for Albania) and SAAB assumed responsibility for maintenance of the wing tanks. Unfortunately, due to an error which may have arisen from the specification or the translation of technical materials the first installation of wing tanks remanufactured in Sweden proved defective, giving rise to dangerous loses.

At the outset, however, the cause went undiscovered and Albania’s high regard for the Swedish firm meant that SAAB’s ability was not questioned. Instead it was attributed to sabotage and a number of Albanian officials were sacked with at least two unfortunate individuals reportedly being executed for treason.