Croatian Navy fires first missile since 1994.
During a large-scale military exercise “Joint Force 15”, the Croatian Navy in the waters near Dugi Otok fired a RBS 15 missile from the missile boat “Dmitar Zvonimir”. That was the first firing of a missile from a Croatian Navy ship since 1994. The missile was fired at a distance of 26 kilometres by Lieutenant Maja Matković, rocket-artillery officer in the Navy, reports Jutarnji List on October 9, 2015.
Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces General Drago Lovrić pointed out that the firing was extremely important for the entire armed forces. “RBS 15 missile is the primary armament of our missile boats and the firing demonstrated the main purpose of missile boats in our fleet. Furthermore, we have shown that the Croatian Navy is ready to defend every part of our territorial sea and sink every enemy ship which would try to jeopardize Croatian territorial waters”, Lovrić said.
A few months ago, the Navy fired the same type of missile from a launcher on land and has now shown that it is capable of firing the missile from both the sea and the land.
RBS 15 missile is one of the most powerful weapons of the Croatian Army. The range of the missile is 80 kilometres. It was acquired at the end of the 1980s by the former Yugoslav Army, but it was never used. Croatian army captured the missiles in a warehouse in Žrnovnica. The only time the missile was fired was during the military exercise “Poseidon 94”.
In order for the exercise to be more realistic, the Ministry of Defence for this occasion bought an old ship which was used as the target for the exercise. General Lovrić said that the firing of the rocket was done without a problem. Now, the overhaul of the missiles will be continued and should be completed by 2017. General Lovrić noted that these overhauled missiles and launchers will be used for the next 10 years. After that period, it will be necessary to switch over to new ship and missile systems.
