Airforces phantoms at andravida

ith an area of only 5,333

sq miles (13,812km) and

a population of around

635,000, Montenegro (Crna Gora)

is the smallest Balkan nation.

Ruled from the capital Podgorica,

Montenegro has access to the

Adriatic Sea to the south and

shares borders with Croatia to the

west, Bosnia and Herzegovina

to the northwest, Serbia to the

northeast, Kosovo to the east

and Albania to the southeast.

Under Ottoman rule since 1496,

the then province of Crna Gora

won its most important victory

over the Ottomans

during the Battle of

Grahovac in April

1858. Consequently,
      it was formally
      recognised as the
      Principality of
      Montenegro in


1859. It became
      a kingdom in
      1910 and was
      occupied by
      Austro-Hungary in
      1916, before being
      liberated by the Allies
      in 1918. The same year,
      the government voted for
      unification with the neighbouring
      Kingdom of Serbia, which was
      renamed only days later as the
      Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and
      Slovenes. In 1929, this became
      the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which
      in April 1941 was occupied and
      partitioned by the Axis powers.
      In 1943, Montenegro became the
      smallest constituent republic of
      the communist-controlled, multi-
      ethnic and multi-faith Yugoslavia.
      With the break-up of Yugoslavia
      from the early 1990s, Montenegro
      opted to sacrifice its independence
      and remain together with Serbia in
      a new and much smaller federation

• the Federal Republic
  of Yugoslavia.
  Montenegro finally
  regained sovereignty
  after a referendum on
  May 21, 2006 followed
  by a declaration
  of Montenegrin
  independence on June
  3 the same year. Newly
  independent Montenegro joined
  NATO’s Partnership for Peace
  (PfP) programme in December
  2006 and began to increase
  its ties with the alliance.
  Recognising growing Kremlin
  influence in the Balkans, NATO
  offered the tiny nation a fast-
  track integration into the alliance


• a formal invitation was issued
  on December 2, 2015. Final
  accession talks began the following
  February and Montenegro officially
  joined NATO as its 29th member
  state on June 5 last year.

Golubovci –

Montenegro’s

aviation nest

The Vojska Crne Gore (VCG,

Armed Forces of Montenegro)

are a fully professional force

of 1,900 members organised

as an army, navy and air force.

The military lacks

combat aircraft,

main battle tanks or

submarines and is

orientated towards

national defence.

Additional missions

include supporting

civilian institutions in

case of natural and man-

made disasters and other crises,

including terrorist activities, and

contributions to building and

preserving regional and global

peace. The VCG is now in a

process of modernisation and

is working quickly to replace –

and in some cases modernise

• the military equipment
  inherited from Yugoslavia.
  The Montenegrin Air Force,
  officially the Vazduhoplovstvo
  Vojske Crne Gore (VVCG,
  Aviation of the Armed Forces of
  Montenegro) is dominated by
  helicopters and operates from
  Golubovci air base – an integral
  part of Podgorica Airport.
  Directly subordinated to
  the VCG’s General Staff, the
  VVCG is led by Lt Col Nenad
  Pavlović and currently employs
  225 personnel organised into
  a headquarters, helicopter

Small, but valuable

W

Small, but valuable

http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #369 DECEMBER 2018 // 57

Airforces

Intelligence

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