Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is not able to defend its airspace in the event of an air strike. The reason is that it has old and worn-out equipment. This is what the Ministry of Defense of BiH claims.
Although the Ministry of Defense plans to modernize the Armed Forces of BiH (AFBiH) by acquiring modern radar and air defense systems, there is no money for that. The budget funds allocated for defense are insufficient, and combat aviation is not even thought about.
NATO mandate for the defense of BiH’s skies
If an attack occurs, NATO, or EUFOR, has the mandate to take control of the airspace over BiH. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Defense of BiH.
For the former Deputy Minister of Defense of BiH, Mirko Okolic, there is nothing controversial in the fact that BiH does not have modern air defense systems. He says that it does not need it, because “he has not seen that anyone has aspirations towards BiH”.
“The EUFOR forces are in charge of peace in BiH, but they do not have the operational power to do it all. However, they have the prescribed possibility to ask, specifically from NATO, to act with its necessary means,” explains Okolic.
Who controls the sky above BiH?
In addition to not being able to defend its airspace, BiH does not even fully control it, which is why part of the money it should receive for flight control services over its territory goes to neighboring Croatia.
Thus, it was proposed that this year Croatia will receive 3.3 million euros out of a total of 40.7 million euros that BiH should receive from the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL).
The borders of the area that will be controlled by BiH were determined by a simulation conducted by EUROCONTROL in 2008, in which representatives of BiH, Croatia, and Serbia participated.
Thus, BiH delegated certain airspaces in the northwest and southwest of the country to Croatia Control Ltd (HKZP).
Omer Kulic, former chairman of the Council of BiH Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA) and traffic aviation engineer, claims that there is no need to leave anything to neighboring countries for control, because, he says, BiH is fully trained to monitor its skies.
He points out that there are agreements between countries in which control of a part of the airspace is left to the neighbors, but much smaller than is the case in BiH.
Part of the border airspace in Herzegovina, from Neum to the border with Montenegro, is also delegated to Croatian controllers, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
