Antonio Prlenda concludes his overview of the Croatian Air Force with an assessment of its training programme, firefighting fleet and prospects for the future.
Force Report: Croatian Air Force
The capabilities of the small but effective Hrvatsko ratno zrakoplovstvo (HRZ, Croatian Air Force) rest upon high standards of pilot training, which takes place at Zemunik near Zadar, on the Dalmatian coast. The Zadar area offers ideal conditions for pilot education, with 300 days of sun each year, while Zemunik air base has two runways angled at 90° to each other, enabling student pilots to experience different conditions. The 1st Pilot School was established at Zadar in 1945 with guidance from the British Royal Air Force. In the coming decades it served as the cradle of military aviation in the region.
