Operation Deny Flight

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Map of Bosnia Herzegovina

The Operation Deny Flight ( German about surgery flying preventing ) was a military operation of NATO during and after the Bosnian war , the enforcement of the no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina and the protection of peacekeepers of the United Nations aimed.

aims

The operation was carried out in three parts:

The first part consisted of aerial surveillance and the associated enforcement of UN resolution 816, which banned fixed and rotary wing aircraft flights over the airspace of Bosnia-Herzegovina .

The second objective was to provide close air support to the United Nations peacekeeping forces stationed in the Balkans under Resolutions 836, 958 and 981 .

The third objective of Operation Deny Flight was to carry out air strikes on targets within the UN protection zone .

organization

The responsibility of the operation lay with the American NATO general, who held the post as SACEUR . This delegated responsibility to the commander of the Allied Forces Southern Europe , which has its headquarters in Naples. Control of day-to-day operations was transferred to the 5th Allied Tactical Air Force, another NATO facility based in Vicenza , Italy .

The protection force sent by the United Nations operated under the acronym UNPROFOR .

The coordination between the United Nations was ensured through the exchange of personnel from the 5th ATAF and the local UN headquarters in Zagreb and Sarajevo .

procedure

Forerunner of Operation Deny Flight

Operation Sky Monitor , the forerunner of Operation Deny Flight, began on October 16, 1992 . This was intended to ensure compliance with UN resolution 781, in which a flight ban for all military flights over Bosnia-Herzegovina was laid down.

On March 31, 1993 the flight ban was extended to all flights not authorized by UNPROFOR . On April 8, the decided NAC ( North Atlantic Council , NAC ) that NATO is ready to enforce the resolution to ensure and informed and the UN.

Operation Deny Flight

The Operation Deny Flight was on 12 April at 12:00 GMT starts at this time seemed aircraft from France , the Netherlands , and the US Air Force in the operation with. In the following weeks, among other things, aircraft for close air support were relocated to the region to protect the UN troops against attacks.

On August 2, 1993, the North Atlantic Council decided to extend the measures taken as part of Operation Deny Flight to include air strikes , with the aim of protecting the civilian population against the prevailing oppression and violence. These plans were put into practice on August 9th and, in addition to air surveillance, became the main part of the mission during the autumn and winter of 1993/1994. On February 8, US F-16 fighter jets shot down four Serbian fighter jets that disregarded the flight ban over Novi Travnik.

Destroyed houses near Sarajevo

The next change in NATO's strategy came in February 1994 when the NAC decided on February 9th that within ten days from February 10th, all heavy weapons in a protected zone of 20 kilometers around the city of Sarajevo should be withdrawn or under Supervision of the UN would have to be provided. All positions in which there were still weapons after the end of the ultimatum were now the target of further air strikes. These targets, including artillery and mortars , were assigned to the NATO air forces by the blue helmet soldiers, and positions outside the protection zone were sometimes attacked if the UN determined that these were being used to attack civilian targets. The measures were successful in that at the end of February most of the heavy weapons there had either been destroyed or handed over to the UN.

AWACS early warning aircraft

The first aerial battles took place on February 28th. An early warning aircraft ( AWACS ) type Boeing E-3 C Sentry discovered the radar signatures of unknown and unauthorized aircraft south of the city of Banja Luka and showed two American General Dynamics F-16 fighter planes the way to the intruders, who successfully identified the planes as Serbian fighter planes and asked to turn off. When they began to drop bombs instead of following orders, three of the six intruders were shot down by NATO planes. A second pair of F-16s shot down a fourth aircraft, the other two Serbs escaped and left the no-fly zone . However, just a few days later, on March 8 , a Spanish CASA C 212 transport aircraft was shot at and had to make an emergency landing, injuring four people on board.

The first call for close air support came on March 12th, when French blue helmets came under fire near Bihać , but the airmen did not need to attack during this first CAS ( Close Air Support ) mission, as the situation was cleared up before they even arrived.

However, these were the final quiet weeks of Operation Deny Flight. The first situation in which CAS became necessary occurred on April 10th. UN military observers requested protection from NATO aircraft near the town of Goražde , which consisted of two F-16Cs that dropped bombs on attacking Bosnian Serbs - a situation that was repeated the following day, with the aircraft here McDonnell Douglas F. / A-18 of the US Marine Corps . On 15 and 16 April NATO planes were shot, with a French Transportation escaped with minor damage, while the pilot of a British Sea Harrier with the ejection seat had to drop out when he flew CAS missions. The pilot was rescued by UN soldiers later that day. Both incidents also occurred in the Goražde area.

A week later, on April 22nd, the decision was made, similar to the one around Sarajevo, to establish protection zones around the cities of Bihać , Srebrenica , Tuzla and Žepa in the event that heavy weapons should be fired from there. In addition, the Serbs were given an ultimatum to withdraw from the region around Goražde, otherwise they would have to reckon with air strikes on all positions in the region. This ultimatum was fulfilled, so no attacks took place.

On August 5th, fighting again took place in the protection zone around Sarajevo. Despite the continued ban, the Bosnian Serbs had brought heavy weapons (including flak tanks ) into the region and stolen them from UN camps, which were then destroyed by NATO aircraft, in this case the Fairchild Republic A-10 , or a short time later returned to the UN. This was enough for the Serbs to withdraw their weapons. However, just under a month later, a French troop transport was attacked again near Sarajevo, and a subsequent air attack destroyed a Serbian tank within the protection zone.

Airfields were also under fire in November. On November 21, 1994, Udbina Airport was destroyed by 30 British, French, Dutch and US fighter planes within 4 hours after attacks on UNPROFOR troops near Bihać were carried out from there.

Captain Scott F. O'Grady (center)
A HARM anti-radar missile

On November 23, for the first time in the course of the war, a NATO AWACS was illuminated by the radar of anti-aircraft missiles , so that escorts destroyed the Otoka and Dvor radar stations with AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles.

After further attacks on anti-aircraft positions in the course of the winter, fighting began again in May 1995 for Sarajevo, where the Bosnian-Serbian army had built an ammunition dump that was destroyed on May 25th.

On June 2, 1995, the NATO forces lost an F-16 over western Bosnia, the whereabouts of the pilot Scott O'Grady was initially unclear. However, he was rescued by US marines on June 9th .

In July and August, NATO flew further attacks on targets identified by the UN troops, including on ground targets near Srebrenica on July 11 and on radar and SAM ( surface-to-air missile ) positions near Knin and Udbina on August 4th.

After these events, Operation Deliberate Force was launched on August 30th , during which many more ground attacks were carried out. After this one-month operation was over, routine missions as part of Operation Deny Flight began again, with bombs and rockets still being fired in the last few weeks of the operation.

On December 15, 1995, UN resolution 1031 was finally passed , which replaced resolutions 781, 816, 824 and 936, which ended NATO's mandate for Operation Deny Flight. The mission officially ended on December 20, 1995.

meaning

Operation Deny Flight contributed significantly to the outcome of the Balkan conflict. Due to the strong Serbian military presence in the region, an intervention by UN troops without their own air superiority would presumably have led to high losses. However, the constant presence of NATO aircraft in the airspace prevented major attacks on the blue helmets. The operation also put pressure on the Serbs, which ultimately led to their approval of the ceasefire agreement.

statistics

General statistics

Almost 4,500 soldiers from twelve NATO countries (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany (484 soldiers), Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States) took part in Operation Deny Flight. The operation lasted exactly 983 days, during which time the participating aircraft took off a total of 100,420 times. Of these, 23,021 were flights to monitor the no-fly zone, 27,077 flights for the purpose of close air support and bombing, 29,158 flights concerned the support and logistics flights of tankers, reconnaissance and transport aircraft, the remaining 21,164 flights were training missions. The following countries contributed the following aircraft to Operation Deny Flight:

Participating countries with equipment

France

A Mirage 2000C

Germany

Panavia tornado
  • 14 × Panavia Tornado (UN Rapid Reaction Force support), Piacenza AB, Italy.

Italy

A C-130 Hercules transporter

Netherlands

Norway

Spain

A CASA C-212 of the Spanish Air Force

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States

An F-16 takes off from Aviano AB (picture from 1999)

NATO Airborne Early Warning Force aircraft ( AWACS )

  • 8 × Boeing E-3A in Geilenkirchen (Germany), Trapani (Italy) and Aktion (Greece).

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