Several higher military schools served as the main training source for officers of the various service branches. Secondaryschool students and a certain number of qualified active-duty NCOs could apply for competitive admission to those institutions. Applicants were required to have good "moral-political" qualities, a term generally interpreted to mean membership in the League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia (the official youth organization sponsored by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia). By 1990, however, Yugoslav youth showed diminished enthusiasm both for party activity and for a military career; applications to higher military schools dropped accordingly.
Cadets in the military schools normally followed a three- to five-year curriculum designed for line officers or for military engineers. Each combat arm and technical or administrative branch of the YPA had at least one higher military school. Once commissioned into active duty, graduates were required to remain in service for six to ten years. Military pilots had a fifteenyear obligation. After being assigned to a permanent unit, young officers learned most of their basic duties on the job. After several years of active service, they were selected for specialist training. Some commissioned officers in technical fields such as communications and aviation maintenance were sent directly to advanced training programs. Outstanding senior captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels were chosen to attend a higher military academy for two years of advanced study in tactics and operations. Selected colonels attended a one-year command-and-staff program. Battleship lieutenants, corvette captains, frigate captains, and battleship captains attended similar courses at the Higher Naval Academy in Split. In 1990 some Yugoslav officers were selected to attend prestigious Soviet military academies, which were similar to command-and-staff or war colleges in the United States.
Data as of December 1990