VJ Chief of NBC Administration Interviewed Belgrade Vojska 25 Sep 97 pp 8-9 Interview with Col. Slobodan Petkovic, VJ chief of NBC administration, by S. Nedeljkovic, "An Arm for the Army and Society" Col. Slobodan Petkovic, chief of administration for the Yugoslav Army Nuclear-Biological-Chemical [NBC] defense: The formation of Nuclear-Biological-Chemical defense units on the Yugoslav Army [VJ] model is foreseen to provide for successfully conducting combat actions under nuclear-chemical conditions. [Nedeljkovic] Colonel, how do you assess the situation and the developmental trends of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons in current international relations and in the distinctly tense military and political situation? [Petkovic] Although there is talk in the world today of reaching agreement on reducing and destroying nuclear-biological-chemical weapons, they still are considered a means to achieve military and political objectives. The game of outwitting each other among those negotiating an agreement still involves inventing new kinds of nuclear-chemical-biological weapons to replace systems that are old and dangerous, even to the country that possesses them. Nuclear tests are being conducted, and existing nuclear warheads are being modified. Tactical nuclear weapons are being produced. The research and production of new generations of binary poisons is under way, new biological agents are being researched for military purposes, and delivery systems are being perfected. New nuclear-biological-chemical weapons and the technology for producing them are being delivered even as the world powers evaluate their potential to influence the military and political balance and maintain specific pressures. I do not exclude this possibility within the territory surrounding us. Because of the existing double standard and divergent evaluations of one's own and one's opponent's actions, because there is a global ban on producing and employing weapons of mass destruction, and because of our experience and knowledge from the past war and the situation in our immediate and wider surrounding region, I do not believe that we on this territory are secure. [Nedeljkovic] A significant number of international conventions, agreements, and contracts have been signed on banning and controlling the production, sale, stockpiling, and employment of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons. What is your opinion of how well these regulations and agreements are respected? [Petkovic] It is a fact that a significant number of international agreements have been signed on banning and controlling the production, sale, stockpiling, and employment of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons. Well-known agreements on limiting production of strategic nuclear weapons include SALT and START, the CWDA agreement on destroying chemical weapons, the Geneva protocol on banning the military use of asphyxiating, poisonous, and similar gases and bacteriological methods, and the most recent convention on chemical weapons that was ratified by a large number of countries this year. In specific periods, these agreements were respected and many countries observed them. However, it should be emphasized that research still continues on developing and producing nuclear-biological- chemical weapons, despite the various agreements and conventions. The fact that nuclear and chemical weapons exist and that international agreements and conventions have not prevented further research, development, and production in that field forces a conclusion about the reality of possible employment of that weaponry, especially in local wars, such as are waged, or could be waged, in our surrounding region. [Nedeljkovic] The new situation in Europe and our surrounding region is effecting significant changes in the military strategy of many countries. How does that influence the further expansion of Yugoslav Army antinuclear-biological-chemical security, and what tasks are being assigned to the Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm? [Petkovic] As a concept or general idea of waging war, the strategies of the countries around us are undergoing truly significant changes but have not yet been completely defined, for a number of reasons. Most important is the uncertainty of acceptance into NATO. Membership in this military alliance brings obligations that basically influence the formulation of military objectives and, thereby, views on how to achieve them. In addition, acceptance means equipping armed forces at a specific level in accordance with NATO standards, the expansion of command, informational, and communications systems, and so forth. Except for Croatia and the Muslim-Croat Federation, the financial situation of the armies of the countries around us is such that the development of their armed forces will stagnate, regardless of whether they are accepted into NATO. That means further technological backwardness, and probably cadre weakening and the reduction of combat readiness as well, so that only after a longer period will the armies of the countries around us be in a situation to implement any radically new changes in their strategy. The development of antinuclear-biological-chemical security is conditioned by the development of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons, on one hand, and by the development, equipment, and tactics of utilization provided by the VJ. The first condition imposes the necessity of technical modernization and the introduction of new devices and improvement of existing devices for discovering and identifying danger in time to undertake effective protective and preventive measures. On the other hand, equipping the VJ in general, thereby including antinuclear-biological-chemical security armaments and materiel is conditioned by the financial capabilities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We are making an effort to place the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm in the framework of the VJ technical modernization so that the antinuclear-biological-chemical security tasks of that modernized army can be completely realized. The basic task of the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm is to train the Yugoslav Army to organize and implement antinuclear-biological- chemical security measures. The potential for great destruction in wartime-- and in technological or other accidents in nuclear and chemical plants in peacetime -- require us to undertake appropriate measure that must be organizationally and technologically covered. Therefore, according to its financial capability, the Antinuclear- Biological-Chemical Defense arm will aspire to bring its technology and cadres into condition to successfully execute its basic task in the future, and to prepare appropriately and involve the wider social community in preventing peacetime nuclear-chemical accidents. [Nedeljkovic] It is a fact that significant changes have occurred in the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm because of the transformation of the VJ. What are those changes, and how do they reflect on the organization of the VJ's antinuclear-biological-chemical security? [Petkovic] The transformation of the VJ, especially changes in the organizational structure of its formations, has effected changes in the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm. The focus was on adapting the organizations and formations of Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense units to changes carried out at the operational and strategic level of the VJ. The basic characteristic of changes in the Antinuclear- Biological-Chemical Defense arm consists in the grouping of Antinuclear- Biological-Chemical Defense units at those levels to provide an elastic approach to the utilization of units, the possibility of expressing focus, and increasing efficiency. The reduction of the numerical size of Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense units at a tactical level demands better training of commands and units for undertaking general measures of nuclear-biological-chemical protection, radiological-chemical-biological reconnaissance, and decontamination. That also means better equipment of those units with more up-to-date and effective devices of antinuclear-biological-chemical defense armament and materiel. By forming larger organizations of Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense units on an operational and strategic level, conditions were created for their more rational employment in combat actions through engagement in threatened operational and tactical directions. Of course, the enlargement of Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense units also leads to changes in the manner of commanding those units. [Nedeljkovic] Top-quality cadres and up-to-date antinuclear-biological- chemical defense armaments and materiel are necessities for the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm... [Petkovic] Certainly. Considering the existence of nuclear-biological- chemical weapons and the real possibility of their utilization on our territory, the tasks and role of the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm require cadres who will use their knowledge and training to prepare the VJ commands, units, and institutions to wage war under those conditions. We have those cadres. Regardless of all the problems the VJ has had in the past years, we have filled a very high level of positions in this arm's formations. Distinct backwardness is evident in appropriate equipment for contemporary armies. However, the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm, like the Yugoslav Army as a whole, is investing maximal efforts to gradually transcend its existing condition. Under difficult economic circumstances in the past period, we succeeded in developing and adopting 10 devices, and we are beginning to equip units and institutions. We are on the road to soon solving the development and adopting the production of as many devices from the field of protection, detection, measurement, and decontamination. Thereby we shall create a solid basis for a more aggressive approach toward the technical modernization of equipment for the needs of the Antinuclear-Biological- Chemical Defense arm and the VJ's antinuclear-biological-chemical security. Our further orientation is toward developing devices of high efficiency and resistance to environment influences and the effects of highly automated self-propelled nuclear-biological-chemical weapons. Despite limited funds, existing long-range and middle-range development and equipment programs are already showing initial results toward reaching that goal. [Nedeljkovic] Updating the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense arm is under way. What will be the arm's focus and tasks in the coming period? [Petkovic] The level reached in the development of devices and methods of deploying nuclear-biological-chemical weapons, their role in the strategy of contemporary armies in the world, and nuclear-chemical plants in our immediate vicinity, which are increasingly subjected to damage in peacetime, impose the need for the development of the Antinuclear- Biological-Chemical Defense arm through achieving several important tasks in the coming middle-range period. Above all, these include: automation of the gathering, processing, transmission, and presentation of data about nuclear-biological-chemical weapons; rapid and reliable detection and control of nuclear-biological-chemical danger for the purpose of informing units and local populations in a timely manner; high resistance of individuals, crews, and units to the effects of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons; top-level training in preventing and mitigating the consequences of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons; and a high level of protection, mobility, and autonomy of Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense units. Reality demands reliance on our own production in the field of nuclear- biological-chemical control, protection, and radiological-biological-chemical decontamination and the need to import nuclear-biological-chemical armaments and materials of a high technological level. In the coming period, we are planning intensive activity in introducing devices of high reliability, safety, and productivity. On the "Yugoslav Army model" we have foreseen the formation of Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense units that will enable successful conduct of Yugoslav Army combat actions under nuclear-chemical conditions. Therefore, activities will focus on protecting arm units and services from the effects of nuclear-biological- chemical weapons; providing efficiency in Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense units in preventing, reducing, and eliminating the consequences of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons; and creating the most favorable conditions for successfully performing and achieving the objectives of combat actions. [Nedeljkovic] The Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense School Center is a university-level educational institution for the top-level training of cadres for the needs of the Yugoslav Army. How do you assess its contribution to the development and further expansion of the Antinuclear- Biological-Chemical Defense arm? [Petkovic] You are entirely correct. The Antinuclear-Biological- Chemical Defense School Center is of inestimable importance to the arm, and not just because of tradition or for sentimental reasons. It was the only arm center at this location in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It has a complete infrastructure and fundamental material base, as a basis for the quality of the cadres that it schools. The tasks that the arm must execute, and in which it is specialized, require very complex studies that are largely multidisciplinary. The basis is chemistry, but also nuclear physics, the detection and measurement of ionized rays, nuclear- biological-chemical protection, and toxicology. Last but not least are the tactics that Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense officers must prepare in order to practically apply the principles of utilization of Antinuclear- Biological-Chemical Defense units, besides solid familiarity with the utilization principles of all VJ arms and services. We are aware that the arm's further prospects lie in strengthening its cadres, and in that sense we maximally support the postgraduate specialization of our officers, either at civilian faculties in scientific fields of interest for the arm, or at the PDS [expansion unknown] of military skills, the KSS [Command Staff School], or the National Defense School. In this period, there is a particular emphasis on the attainment of academic knowledge by the instructional cadre, because of obligations resulting from the law on military schooling. Finally, I congratulate all arm members on Antinuclear-Biological- Chemical Defense Arm Day. I wish them success in carrying out their tasks, good health, personal happiness, and better days in the future. [Box, p 9] Successful Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense Member Col. Slobodan Petkovic, chief of administration of the VJ Antinuclear- Biological-Chemical Defense, is an experienced officer who has spent his entire career in devising ways to prepare VJ commands, units, and institutions to wage war under conditions of the existence of nuclear- biological-chemical weapons and the real possibility of their application. In the opinion of Col. Slobodan Petkovic: A successful officer of the Antinuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense Arm is one who knowledgeably transmits and uses his knowledge and experience in the organization he heads. He is highly educated and professional; he loves and respects his vocation and the men with whom he works; he is familiar with the nuclear- biological-chemical weapons of opponents and the capabilities of his own unit, which he skillfully engages. He has foresight and takes initiative, is courageous and brave, and -- by his own personal example -- he protects the dignity and honor of the men he commands, his profession, and the nation he represents. THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.