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Yugoslavia Table of Contents

Yugoslavia

DEFENSE ORGANIZATION

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Figure 16.Organization of the Armed Forces, 1990

Source: Based on information from "Defense School: The Yugoslav Armed Forces--Bulwark of Our Defense," Front [Belgrade], November 28, 1980, in Joint Publications Research Service, Translations on East Europe, February 4, 1981, 89-93.

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Figure 17. Command and Control of the Armed Forces, 1990

Source: Based on information from Milan N. Vego, "The Yugoslav Ground Forces: A Look at the Past and the Present," Military Review, 60, November 1980, 21; and Marko Milivogevic, "The Yugoslav People's Army," Armed Forces, 6, 1987, 19.

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Soldiers of the Yugoslav People's Army in field exercise
Courtesy Embassy of Yugoslavia, Washington

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Officer inspecting paratroop equipment
Courtesy Embassy of Yugoslavia, Washington

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Member of Territorial Defense Force
Courtesy Embassy of Yugoslavia, Washington

In 1990 the armed forces consisted of the Yugoslav People's Army (YPA) and the Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) (see fig. 16). The professional YPA in turn included three service branches: the ground forces, or army, the air force, and the navy. The TDF was a large militia force with local units throughout the country. The passing of virtually the entire Partisan generation, beginning with the death of Tito in 1980, removed a major source of inspiration from the Yugoslav military establishment. In 1990 the leadership abilities of the younger officers, who had experienced neither combat nor invasion, remained untested and largely unknown.

Data as of December 1990