Yugoslav People's Army

From Freepedia

The Yugoslav People's Army (Serbo-Croatian Jugoslavenska/Jugoslovenska narodna armija, JNA, Slovene Jugoslovanska ljudska armada) was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

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1 Origins
2 Infrastructure
3 Ranks
4 See also
5 External link

Origins

The YPA has originated in the Yugoslav Partisan bands of WWII, they in 1942 become the People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (Narodno Oslobodilačka Vojska i Partizanski Odredi Jugoslavije – NOV i POJ). In March of 1945, the NOVJ was renamed the Yugoslav Army (Jugoslovenska Armija) and finally on December 22nd, 1951 received the adjective People's (i.e. Narodna).

Infrastructure

During its relatively long history it had its own arms industry and extensive modern infrastructure, even built-in underground air-bases and control centers in several mountains (the biggest and best know was Bihac underground Integrated Radar Control and Surveilance Center and Air Base in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Several companies in Yugoslavia produced airplanes, most notably Soko of Mostar with Soko J-22 Orao being the best known, as well as Utva in Vojvodina.

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With the fall of Communism in most of the world, in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, this ultimately led to the demise of the country, and the Yugoslav People's Army dissolved into many waring factions. Thus the Yugoslav Civil War started (although there was a complex combination of factors that precipitated this).

Serbia and Montenegro (i.e. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) inherited most of the Yugoslav People's Army arsenal, though much of its infrastructure was destroyed or left in the other Yugoslav republics.