In light of the first anniversary of Montenegro’s membership of NATO, Igor Božinovski summarises the 12-year history of the tiny Montenegrin Air Force and analyses the current status and ongoing modernisation of Europe’s youngest air arm.
Montenegrin Air Force
Force Report
With an area of only 5,333 sq miles (13,812km) and a population of around 635,000, Montenegro (Crna Gora) is the smallest Balkan nation.
Ruled from the capital Podgorica, Montenegro has access to the Adriatic Sea to the south and shares borders with Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the southeast.
Under Ottoman rule since 1496, the then province of Crna Gora won its most important victory over the Ottomans during the Battle of Grahovac in April 1858. Consequently, it was formally recognised as the Principality of Montenegro in 1878. It became a kingdom in 1910 and was occupied by Austro-Hungary in 1916, before being liberated by the Allies in 1918. The same year, the government voted for unification with the neighbouring Kingdom of Serbia, which was renamed only days later as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, this became the Kingdo…
