Seven months after Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, the Army of the Republic of Macedonia (ARM) was established on 10 April 1992. The development of the Macedonian Air Force and Air Defence Force started from scratch because the former Yugoslav military controlled all aviation equipment, including combat and training aircraft including the J-22 Orao and J-21 Jastreb. On 10 June that year, the first air force flight took place using a UTVA 75 A21 basic training aircraft leased from the Macedonian Aeronautical Union. To commemorate this historic flight, this date is now celebrated as Day of the Air Force (the Macedonian air arm is officially named the Aviation Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia).
Colonel Robert Malezanski, Commander of the Aviation Brigade, with flight experience on the MiG-21 and Super Galeb and an instructor on the Zlin 242, spoke about Macedonia’s sole Mi-17 squadron: “The Air Force was formed with a combat helicopter squadron, a transport helicopter squadron and a fixed wing aviation squadron. The first helicopters, Mi-17s, were bought in 1994, painted white because at that time the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had imposed an embargo on purchasing weapons and military equipment. But since the Mi-17 is civilian version of the Mi-8, they could be purchased.” The embargo was lifted in 1995, and the white Mi-17s were re-painted in their distinctive green camouflage patterns and provided with military serial numbers.
In February 2001, a militant group called the Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) began attacking the security forces of the Republic of Macedonia. In order to increase its capabilities during this conflict, the air force fleet was substantially expanded in short time.
The first major delivery of new aircraft to the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces was made on 23 March 2001: Ukraine donated four Mi-8MT combat helicopters that had served with Ukrainian contingent of KFOR to Macedonia, and as a part of an earlier agreement, delivered two Mi-24V Hind-E gunships. Greece also demonstrated solidarity with the Macedonian Government with delivery of two UH-1H Huey helicopters. Later that year eight more Mi-24s followed from the Ukraine. In December 2001, the Macedonian Air Force received two Mi-24K Hind-G2 (photo-reconnaissance and AOP version of the Mi-24) helicopters from Ukraine.
The Ohrid Framework Agreement, signed on 13 August 2001, brought a formal end to the armed conflict. In the following years, the Aviation Brigade was reorganised. The former Greek UH-1s were taken out of service.
Bases
Near Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, is named Alexander the Great Airport. Part of this international airport serves as the Republic’s only military air base, Petrovec. The base houses the Combat Helicopter Squadron and the Transport Helicopter Squadron as well as the Pilot Training Centre and Technical Maintenance Centre.
Missions
Colonel Malezanski introduced the Transport Helicopter Squadron: “The squadron has six helicopters, two of them are Mi-17, and the rest are Mi-8MT.” There used to be two more, but they were lost in accidents. “We’ve lost one in 2001 and the second one in 2008 on its way back from a EUFOR mission in Bosnia near the airport.”
Malezanski explained missions of the transport squadron: “The main mission of the squadron is to transport the troops of the Macedonian Army. Additionally, they are trained to perform forest fire fighting, search and rescue, transport of cargo including external cargo, sling loads and of course, the training of new pilots. We don’t receive fully ready pilots in the squadron.”
Mi-8 and Mi-17 instructor Lieutenant Colonel “Taurus” Bogdanoski, with over 1,100 flight hours added: “We fly VIP transport for our government, our Minister of Defence, and our general staff as well.” Casualty evacuation is also among the unit’s tasks, although the Mi-17 and Mi-8s are not fully equipped for MEDEVAC missions. “Because of this, we are performing just casualty evacuation, have no medics on board, but provide transport out of an area of conflict.”
Colonel Malezanski noted: “Most of the civilian missions for search and rescue are executed by the police in the past couple of years. But we do search and rescue for the military, and of course combat search and rescue.”
The Mi-8 is of course a combat helicopter, can carry weapons and rockets, while the Mi-17 is used only for transport. Bogdanoski said: “We are using the Mi-8 with launchers to fire S-5 unguided rockets. The Mi-8 is not used for attack missions, the weapons are mainly for self-protection from ground troops.”
Mi-17 at Petrovec
Many missions are flown in cooperation with special forces. Fast roping techniques, infiltration, and exfiltration techniques are taught, as well as parachute training with the special units. But the most demanding task is firefighting. In the summer time, there are several mountain and forest wildfires. Lt Col Bogdanoski explained: “You have to take a lot of water in one hour. For example, one cycle is around five or ten minutes, which means every five minutes, you have to take water, and in the next five minutes you have to drop the water on the target.” He recalls a particularly hard fight: “In 2007 we flew firefighting missions seven hours per day for a few days in succession. It was totally exhausting.”
Because of its lack of equipment, the Macedonian Aviation Brigade has not participated in missions or exercises abroad in recent years. Bogdanoski’s last exercise abroad was in 2012, at Szolnok in Hungary. “In that exercise pilots from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary were flying the same types of helicopters. At the end of the exercise, we had a crew exchange, where we flew in each other’s aircraft. When you are using one type of helicopter, for example, Mi-17, you must follow the rules for that type, flying with more or less the same principles. It was a good experience for us to fly with other helicopters.”
Maintenance
Maintenance is done on base at Skopje-Petrovec as well, but the budget is tight. Colonel Malezanski explains that there are three stages of maintenance: “On these types of helicopters, the first level of maintenance is done at the squadron, the second level is done at the maintenance squadron, and the third level of maintenance is the overhaul, generally in the overhaul factory.” During our visit, the Mi-24s were in overhaul at the AVIAKON Aviation Repair Facility located in the town of Konotop in Ukraine.
But Bogdanoski loves the Mi-8/17’s ruggedness : ”This type of helicopter is very robust, it’s very useful and you have a lot of power, and can carry a lot of cargo. You are able to land on high mountains. Because I started my career flying fixed wing aircraft, before I continued on helicopters, I can say that flying helicopters may be two or three times harder than flying fixed wing.”
Experience
So what is it like to fly the Mi-8/17 ? Bogdanoski explains: “I have experienced flying the Gazelle helicopter, while I was already flying the Mi-8. When I was flying the Gazelle, the first few hours I was thinking: I don’t know how to fly a helicopter anymore, because the difference between the Gazelle and the Mi-8 was very big.”
“Every flight in a Mi-8 or Mi-17 is a special experience. You can find something interesting in every flight. We have a lot of flights, we have a lot of missions.” The most interesting flights are international ones for the colonel. “When we have a mission in Bosnia, we fly from Macedonia to Bosnia over Albania and Croatia. Flying over the sea is special, as Macedonia is a landlocked country. The views are spectacular.”
This type is transport backbone of the Air Force, “In the basic version, we have 24 seats in the cargo compartment. But there is a possibility to mount a fuel tank inside to extend the range, limiting the capacity to 15 fully armed personnel. Inside we can carry four tonnes of cargo. Without the extra fuel tank, the range is about 500 kilometres, with the additional fuel tank inside it is 750 kilometres.”
Pilot Training Centre
Training of Mi-8 and Mi-17 pilots also takes place on the air base. ELMAK (Elbit Macedonia) has won a 43 million euro ($61 million) contract to set up a helicopter pilot training facility for Macedonia’s military and police.
Shraga Yaari, director of the Helicopter Pilot Training Centre (PTC), has an impressive track record of over 7,000 flight hours, most of which were on the AH-1 Cobra. He retired as a Squadron Leader in Israel before Elbit selected him to set up and run the Pilot Training Centre in Macedonia. Candidates for the PTC start with an air screening process on the Zlin 242, “This is a kind of evaluation, we have special drills, our examiner will perform first, and the student has to try to copy it, and we try to analyse if they can complete this specific course in a set time frame,” says Yaari. After a year of ground schooling, and more training on the Zlin, students transfer to the Bell 206B-3. “The first six months on the Bell are what we call basic training session, that is kind of a transition to the helicopter world, including a solo, and touching all of the relevant manoeuvres that the helicopter can perform. After that comes an additional six months of advanced training, related to instruments, emergencies, tactical air navigation, and missions.”
Bell 206s are used for training
Every pilot in the Aviation Brigade must clear a certain number of hours on the helicopter in real flight, and a number of flight hours on the simulator every year. The simulators are also used for new pilots to make transition from the Bell 206 to the Mi-17 and from Bell 206 to Mi-24. The training centre has two advanced simulators, Mi-17 and Mi-24. Those two simulators, produced by Elbit subsidiary Simultec in Romania, are for use by military and police pilots. And it is not only Macedonian pilots that make use of the simulators: “We have a lot of slots for international trainees. Just recently we’ve had pilots from Cameroon that made their transition to Mi-24, so we did all the ground schooling here. We’ve placed one of the Mi-24 in our hangar to study the systems. We’ve had Nigerian trainees, we’ve had trainees from Bosnia, and some from Croatia.” Mr Yaari is very proud of the simulators, and not without reason: “In the world, there are many simulators for the Mi-17 and even for the Mi-24, but none of them are full motion, and none of them are equipped with such specific upgraded avionics.”
The PTC is in close contact with the Macedonian Aviation Brigade, and Yaari tries to see the centre as a unit of the Brigade. “Any of our changes in the flying syllabus, or ground school topics we do in consultation with the Military Academy and with the Aviation Brigade. We are limited by the Israeli Ministry of Defence on transfer of doctrines, but helicopter flying is the same whether it is a Cobra, Mi-17 or Bell 206. We believe we can share a lot of our experience and that is what we try to do.”
Upgrade programmes
Elbit however does more in Macedonia: they have started modernisation programmes for the Mi-24 and Mi-17. In December 2003 the Macedonian Government awarded Elbit a US $2 million contract for an upgrade of two Mi-17 and two Mi-24V helicopters. The helicopters have been upgraded with the Aviators Night Vision Head-Up Display (ANVIS/HUD) system, a helmet mounted display. By equipping its aircraft with this system, the Macedonian Air Force became one of the very few operators of nightoperation Mi-24 helicopters worldwide, even before NATO-member countries Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
All four aircraft involved in this modernisation are now operational again and have redesigned cockpit layout, adapted for night vision goggle (NVG) operations, and are also equipped with ANVIS/HUD System.
According to Colonel Malezanski, there will be a second stage of upgrade for the two Macedonian Mi-17s that were involved in the first stage: “The second level will include an ILS (Instrument Landing System), a moving map, a mission computer with multifunctional displays and a new type of radio for communication.” The new Talon radios and secure communications are also important as Macedonia wants to join NATO, but in order to be compatible, has to adopt NATO standards for communication. There are also plans to equip the helicopters with chaff and flares, as they presently lack countermeasures.
The future
For now, NATO membership for Macedonia is not in sight. Macedonia’s budget for the entire military was just over 91.5 million Euro, or just 1.09% of the Macedonian GDP, while NATO requires members to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence. Budgets remain an issue with the Aviation Brigade. The current transport fleet is estimated to be able to operate for seven more years in its current condition. After that, it will be hard to conduct maintenance, and a replacement will have to be in place. There are a lot of uncertainties when it comes to the equipment.
Text and photos: DutchAviationPhoto.com