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.
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