Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

FACTBOX-Balkan candidates offer NATO leaner military muscle
28 Mar 2008 15:40:37 GMT
 Source: Reuters
March 28 (Reuters) - NATO membership candidates Croatia, Macedonia and Albania have trimmed down and tightened up the armed forces they inherited from the communist period to offer the Western allies leaner and more usable military muscle.

Here are some key facts about the forces NATO will add if it admits one or all of the three hopefuls at its summit in Bucharest next week.

* Croatia and Macedonia are former republics of the now defunct Yugoslav federation, which steered a non-aligned course between the West and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, flirting with NATO at times but stocking mainly Soviet-made or designed weapons for one of the largest land forces of its time in the post-World War Two period. Albania was ruled for four decades by the Stalinist and increasingly paranoid dictator Enver Hoxha, who fell out with Moscow and then fell out with Beijing but amassed a huge arsenal of arms from both.

* Croatia abolished compulsory service from Jan. 1 and plans to downsize the army to around 16,000 professional soldiers. It purchased Patria armoured vehicles from Finland last year and plans to buy a dozen fighter planes this year. The choice is between Sweden's Gripen, the Eurofighter, the U.S. F-16 and the Russian MiG 29. Modern navy ships will also have to be purchased. Overall, Croatia tentatively plans to invest around 2 billion euros in modernising its armed forces by 2015.

* Albania's conscription will end completely at the beginning of January 2010 and the forces will become all-professional. The armed forces number 14,500. Their old Soviet MiG fighters and obsolete tanks are being sold for scrap. Albania plans to buy armoured vehicles, not tanks, and helicopters, not fighter aircraft. Its four rusting Odessa Class submarines will be replaced by three fast patrol boats. The Kalashnikov assault rifle remains the weapon of choice. Albania had so many it donated some to Iraq.

* Macedonia abolished compulsory service in 2006, and has downsized its army to a present 7,800 professional soldiers. The weapon of choice for a Macedonian soldier is the Kalashnikov assault rifle, while the special forces use Western made automatic and sniper rifles. The army plans to withdraw the Kalashnikov, but has not decided what to buy. Most of the old Russian tanks have been melted down for scrap, while there is still a tank battalion with 32 Russian T-72s. The army has 14 helicopters, 10 are the MI-24 Russian helicopter gunship.

* Croatia's army is the most experienced in modern warfare, having fought for independence from 1991 to 1995 against far more heavily armed Serbs using the arsenal of the Yugoslav army. U.S. advisers were brought in secretly in the middle of the war and modern weapons funnelled to Croatia which scored a stunning victory over rebel Serbs in two lighting offensives in 1995.

* Macedonia's army fought an Albanian guerrilla insurgency for 6 months in 2001 and was hard pressed to keep the fighting under control. It turned to using tanks against the more lightly armed insurgents and brought in Soviet-made Hind helicopter gunships flown by Ukrainian crews before NATO and the European Union intervened diplomatically to stop the drift to all-out war.

* Albania's ramshackle post-Communist army was actually disbanded in 1997 follow the national debacle when rioters infuriated by the collapse of a pyramid scheme ransacked poorly guarded arsenals and stole 1 million Kalashnikovs and other weapons, triggering days of total chaos which required the intervention of a European paramilitary force. The reconstituted force is now among contributors to Western-led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

* All three have troops in missions abroad. Albania has a total of 280 troops serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Georgia. Macedonia has 237 soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia. Croatia has 45 officers in 12 U.N.-led missions abroad, while 200 troops are stationed in NATO-led ISAF in Afghanistan. Other locations are Eritrea/Ethiopia, India/Pakistani border, Western Sahara, Liberia, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Cyprus, Georgia, Sudan, Lebanon and Sierra Leone. (Reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic, Igor Ilic, Kole Casule, Benet Koleka; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Alison Williams) (For a story on Balkans and NATO, click on [nL27824795])


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

NGO latest

•  Direct Relief International Recognizes World TB Day 2008
DRI - USA

•  Empowering women through microcredit ensures benefit for all
World Vision MEERO - Cyprus

•  Tensions in Balkans spurs World Vision to continue against greater instability
World Vision MEERO - Cyprus

•  Microfinance Institutions in MEER reach 100,000 active clients
World Vision MEERO - Cyprus

•  ‘New’ Kosovo gets example from Kids for Peace
World Vision MEERO - Cyprus

MORE >>

Latest news

•  FACTBOX-Balkan candidates offer NATO leaner military muscle

•  EU urged to seize chance for new Russia ties

•  Poland suggests Ukraine may have to wait for NATO

•  U.N. court to rule on ex-Kosovo PM on April 3

•  Russia to Georgia: don't use NATO to quell regions

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Related articles

Breaking stories
FACTBOX-Balkan candidates offer NATO leaner military muscle (1 minute ago)

EU urged to seize chance for new Russia ties (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
MEDIAWATCH: Women's Day, a time to grieve, a time to be inspired (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
Direct Relief International Recognizes World TB Day 2008 (1 minute ago)

Blogs
Kosovo recognition update (1 minute ago)

Maps
Post-Explosion Satellite Imagery of Gerdec Munitions Depot - Affected High Risk Zone (800m) – Albani (1 minute ago)


Country information

Facts & figures
Croatia Kosovo Macedonia Albania Romania Bulgaria Hungary

Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-03-27T164338Z_01_BLA01D_RTRIDSP_2_BOSNIA-SERB_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/BLA01D.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-03-25T134157Z_01_BEL05_RTRIDSP_2_KOSOVO-SERBIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/BEL05.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-03-25T133152Z_01_BEL01_RTRIDSP_2_KOSOVO-SERBIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/BEL01.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-03-19T161556Z_01_PRI05_RTRIDSP_2_KOSOVO-SERBIA-UN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PRI05.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-03-19T161124Z_01_PRI03_RTRIDSP_2_KOSOVO-SERBIA-UN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PRI03.htm

Members of the 'Serb public league' display a poster of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and wave flags during a protest meeting against Kosovo's declaration of independence, and the signature for referendum ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Fri Mar 28 15:40:01 2008