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...the crewmembers' fate, NATO commanders initiated efforts recover the downed airmen. These efforts were unsuccessful.
The status of the pilots was finally determined on September 28, when French authorities learned, through diplomatic sources, that the two men had been captured by Serbian civilians and passed to Serbian ground forces. [1]
In a briefing for the press on September 22, then Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe, U.S. Navy Adm. Leighton Smith, explained this mission in detail to a packed press audience. He detailed the totality of the Allied reconnaissance and rescue efforts put forth by NATO forces to recover the two men. In doing so, he revealed that three separate efforts were launched to recover them.
These efforts failed because the two men could not be positively located and identified. [2] The recovery missions were flown primarily by U.S. special operations aircraft and crews, with the support of conventional forces from, several other NATO members. From a historical viewpoint, the efforts teach a rich lesson concerning the efficacy and necessity of combat search and rescue (CSAR) operations in coalition campaigns.
Operation Deliberate Force was a NATO air campaign. It was triggered by a mortar attack launched by Bosnian Serb forces on the central marketplace in Sarajevo, on August 28. The campaign aimed to reduce the military capability of those Serbian forces to either threaten or attack designated safe areas and United Nations forces. Its target list included fielded forces, heavy weapons, and command and control facilities.
Deliberate Force would be conducted simultaneously with Operation Deadeye, a NATO attack plan designed to disrupt the integrated air defense system (LADS) that the Serbs had created in Bosnia, thus reducing the risk to NATO aircraft involved in these missions. Specific Deadeye targets included: key air defense communication nodes, defense command and control facilities, early warning radar sites, known surface-to-air missile sites (SAMS), and support facilities. [3]
The Serbian air defenses were considerable. Based upon primarily Soviet equipment procured during the Cold War, they included vast numbers of antiaircraft guns, infrared homing missiles, and late model sophisticated radar guided SAMS. In previous operations, they had challenged NATO aircraft and scored some successes. On April 15, a French Entendard IVP had been hit and damaged by an SA-7 infrared missile. However, the plane managed to return safely to its aircraft carrier. The next day, a British Sea Harrier was also hit by an SA-7 missile. The aircraft was downed and the pilot rescued by friendly Bosnian forces and held until a French Puma helicopter recovered him. [4]
On June 2, a Serbian SA-6 in western Bosnia shot down a USAF F-16. The pilot, Capt. Scott O'Grady, evaded enemy forces for six days before being recovered by a USMC recovery team launched from the USS Kearsarge and supported by a large package of NATO aircraft. [5]
The Deliberate Force campaign began on August 30, with initial waves of...
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