For example Greece took no part in combat operations. Portugal also did not take part in any bomb dropping. Portuguese & Turkish F-16s were assigned to operation Deny Flight to monitor the no fly zones over Bosnia under UN mandate. Poland also did not deploy combat aircraft and took no part in bombing operations. Would you also care to enlighten me about 'new NATO members' taking part in combat operations against Yugoslavia? Please enlighten me of Hungarian or Czech Republic combat aircraft taking part. They didn't. For example your then propaganda ministry had German aircraft dropping bombs on Yugoslavia. They even had them in F-4 Phantoms and claimed that they were shot down inside Yugoslavia with the pilots captured. Luftwaffe aircraft did not take part in any bombing, but solely SEAD missions. Suppression of enemy air defences. No bombs but anti-radar missiles.
A country like Belarus can take on NATO and America and defeat them intoto-completely in a total drawn out war. Obselete MIG-29s shot down a lot of allied fighters.
Here you are showing stunning naivety! No Yugoslav MiG-29 pilot made any claims against any NATO aircraft. If you would like to give me some instances of this then please feel free. Please don't refer me to the NATO down table website. That is the worst of the propaganda compiled during the conflict. After the conflict the pilots of 127 Fighter Squadron spoke out and gave interviews to aviation researchers about their experiences. If you pick up the most recent edition of Air Forces Monthly you will see a photo article of a visit to Batajnica (MiG-29 base). Interviews with base commander and not one claim of any NATO aircraft shot down using fighters. The pilots of the 127 LAE were most upset that their post combat reports were altered to reflect claims against NATO aircraft. The ghost writers of the the then Ministry of Information had altered their post combat reports to reflect NATO losses. In reality they never even got a missile off the rails before being shot down. Some of those MiG-29 pilots even gave testimony after charges were brought against the Yugoslav air force commander due to the state of those airframes. The charges were that he neglected his duty in puting into combat aircraft that were long overdue in-depth maintenance.
From the reporting of the court case:
Lawyer Dragisa Vukasinovic, files criminal charges against the Yugoslav Army Anti-Aricraft Defense Commander, general Spasoje Smiljanic. Participants: Dragisa Vukasinovic, lawyer, Slobodan Peric, lt. Colonel , Air Force pilot PILOTS ACCUSE SUPERIORS OF MALFUNCTIONING AIRCRAFT Lt. Colonels of the Yugoslav Air Force, Slobodan Peric and Predrag Milutinovic today, told the public about the problems encountered with malfunctioning aircraft during the NATO aggression. Lt. Colonel Peric speaking at a press conference in the Media Center called on the occasion of filing criminal charges against the Anti-Aircraft Defense Commander of the Yugoslav Army general Spasoje Smiljanic, that his aircraft had been downed due to the malfunction of vital equipment in action.
His aircraft was hit on March 26 after having engaged in a fight with NATO planes, although his radar and equipment signaling he had been spotted by the enemy craft became inoperative. Peric saved himself by ejecting at an altitude of 7,000 meters. Zoran Radosavljevic who flew with him was killed in action.
Peric and Milutinovic noted that Smiljanic was directly responsible for the malfunctioning of the plane, since as the first man in the chain of air force command he must have known the state of repair of its equipment. Lawyer Dragisa Vukasinovic yesterday filed criminal charges against Smiljanic for the criminal offense of non-acting for the protection of a military unit. Vukasinovic said he had knowledge that a Yugoslav Air force MIG 29 had not been overhauled despite the fact that it was due for repair. The charges state that the malfunctioning of the vital equipment caused the downing of six aircraft in the same unit, and that two pilots were killed. Vukasinovic says the criminal offense Smiljanic is charged with is punishable with 15-year imprisonment Six Yugoslav MiG-29s were shot down and one combat damaged. Over the course of the conflict 11 MiG-29s were lost to ALL causes. Today the five survivors are in storage at Batajnica (4 single-seater and 1 two-seat trainer). They were withdrawn from service due to lack of funding and the fact that they need an intensive overhaul.
On the 24th March 1999 Major Arizanov, Major Nikolic and Major Milutinovic all ejected from their MiG-29 after being shot down. Lieutenant Colonel Illic made an emergency landing after his aircraft was combat damaged. Not one of these pilots make any combat claims of NATO aircraft. All revealed in post combat reports that they didn't even get a chance to launch any air-to-air missiles. On the 26 March 1999 Major Peric ejected from his MiG-29 over Bosnia after being shot down. His wing man Captain Rodsavljevic was killed. Peric was one of the pilots present at the court case. Even he nor his wingman even got a chance to launch any air-to-air missiles before being shot down. Both MiG-29 fell inside Bosnia with their missiles (R-27s and R-73). On the 4th May Lieutenant Colonel Pavlovic was killed on a lone mission. He apparently broke all rules and regulations after MiG-29s earlier losses to get his aircraft into the air. A sole MiG-29 was on a hiding to nothing and he was shot down by a USAF F-16 that turned around from an egressing strike package.
Don't tell me 850 SAMS got destroyed, they don't have that much. Perhaps some few,how do you know?.
Please get real here. Do some math. Even 10 x 78 days brings 780 SAMs. That number gives you 10 SAMS launched every day.Think about the strike and recce packages flown over Yugoslavia over that period? Even the air defence forces themselves admit to launching 800+ SAMS during the conflict. This was SAMs of ALL types. Most were noted barraged launched. More in an effort to get NATO aircraft to jettison their loads prematurely. The Yugoslavs admitted the numbers of combat mission flown during the war and SAMs fired. With no possible means of re-supply - the Russians had hung you out to dry - R-60 and R-73 air-to-air missiles were converted into SAMs. These missiles were mounted on vehicle and anti-aircraft gun chassis in an effort to bolster the depleted SAM arsenal.
The number of SAMs fired is not known, but may not be near the number you claim. The following quote is from a report for the U.S. House of Representatives on the war over Yugoslavia:
"Dozens of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) were fired by Yugoslavia against NATO aircraft and more than 50 SAM
sites were attacked."
The choice of words here in a post war assesment is interesting, esp if 750+ missiles had been fired. Of course, alot of sorties were flown by NATO, but weather was a huge factor during most of the war for both sides. We flew at high altitude and the weather hampered our air campaign (partially for political reasons) and it probably hampered their ability as well.
At the tactical level, we claimed to have destroyed a great number of Serb tank, APC, and artillery pieces, but that may not be accurate. A famous Newsweek article pointed out the good conditions of the Serb forces and the large number of tanks and other equipment that they took with them. Equipment in numbers and condition that contradicted claims from NATO sources about the amount of damage they had inflicted. The same report to the U.S. House hints at the same thing:
"As post-bombing assessments continue, reports indicate that the extent of damage inflicted on the Yugoslav
military was not as extensive as previously believed. Many of the targets struck by allied pilots were judged
to be decoys. The approximately 47,000 Yugoslav troops, paramilitary, and police forces that withdrew
from Kosovo took with them 220 tanks, 300 armored personnel carriers, 308 artillery batteries, and hundreds
of other military vehicles and pieces of military equipment. Damaged tanks and other heavy weapons were
also removed by withdrawing Yugoslav forces. An official U.S. review of the air campaign is to be conducted,
led by Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General
Joseph Ralston."
In terms of losses, we officially lost one F-16, one Harrier, one AH-64, and the infamous F-117.
But, our bombing ability is still second to none, and we were able to pound fixed targets with near pin point accuracy from high altitude out of "effective" range of their air defenses. This created enough pressure to force the Serbs to leave Kosovo.