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C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000659 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FROM DATT 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE AND EUR/RPM 
ALSO PLEASE PASS TO EUCOM PLANS AND ANALYSES STUTTGART GE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/17/2018 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPAO MOPS MARR NATO HR DEFENSE REFORM
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR THE DEPUTY SECRETARY,S VISIT TO 
CROATIA 
 
Classified By: COL Brendan McAloon, DATT, for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) Sir, yours is the highest level visit since President 
and Mrs. Bush, and Secretary Rice visited after the Bucharest 
Summit in April 2008.  Since that time, Croatia has continued 
its MAP process with an eye to full membership soon and 
increased its ISAF contribution from 200 to a maximum of 300 
soldiers on the ground.  There are 277 Croatian soldiers in 
Afghanistan now. 
¶2.  (C)  Atmospherics.  You have a good set of meetings with 
the MOD, MFA, PM and President scheduled for your time here. 
The NATO invitation completed the first part of Croatia,s 
goal to be accepted as an advanced European state.  The 
second more distant step is an invitation to join the 
European Union.  The Prime Minister has been a reliable 
supporter of U.S. positions, for example in the UNSC, while a 
sense of nostalgia for the good ol, non-aligned state days 
sometimes leads President Mesic to take what he sees as a 
more nuanced view of issues and seek dialogue with states 
like Russia and Iran.  Prime Minister Sanader is a skillful 
politician who likes to keep his own counsel and thus rarely 
appoints strong ministers which is the case with both MoD 
Minister Vukelic and MFA Minister Jandrokovic. 
 
¶3. (SBU) OMLTs:  Croatia has the only non-NATO Operational 
Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) in ISAF for which it bears 
all the costs except the U.S.-provided stratlift. Croatia and 
the Minnesota National Guard are in the early stages of 
planning to deploy a combined combat-support OMLT next year. 
There are plans for a third, garrison-level OMLT to deploy to 
Afghanistan in the 2009-2010 timeframe.  Croatia continues to 
express a desire to deploy a PRT in the future, but we assess 
that the current focus on OMLTs is the best use of its 
capabilities in the near to mid term. 
 
¶4. (C)  KFOR:  The Croatian Parliament has authorized the 
deployment of two helicopters to Kosovo in 2009.  We expect 
that the Croatians will offer two of their new MI-171Sh lift 
helicopters in September for deployment sometime in 2009. 
This will be the first deployment outside of Croatia for the 
Air Force.  We expect that there will be a need to upgrade 
the new helicopters to NATO standards prior to deployment and 
that Croatia will ask us for that assistance. 
 
¶5.  (C) Peacekeeping: Croatia prides itself on its transition 
from a security consumer with UN Peacekeepers on its 
territory to a security provider with Croatian Armed Forces 
(CAF) elements involved in fifteen UN peacekeeping operations 
around the globe, to include the 3 Croatian participants in 
the UN Mission to Georgia.  The most recent deployment was of 
98 CAF personnel to the UN mission in the Golan Heights. 
Croatia will soon deploy 15 soldiers to the EU-led mission in 
Chad.  With these deployments Croatia is in the process of 
implementing its plans to increase and sustain its PKO 
contributions from around 250 soldiers in 2007 to 600 
soldiers by 2010. 
 
¶6. (C) ASPA: The U.S. FMF and IMET programs were suspended in 
July 2003 due to ASPA sanctions.  As a result, in the past 
few years the CAF depended entirely upon national resources 
to accomplish its NATO partnership goals and to equip its 
forces for ISAF.  Croatia is the only ISAF partner and new 
NATO invitee that accomplished its transformation and 
financed its ISAF commitments without FMF or Coalition 
Support Funding.  The suspension of IMET during this time has 
had a telling impact throughout the CAF.  Most notably is the 
lack of U.S.-educated staff officers at the senior and 
mid-grade officer level to fill critical billets on the MOD, 
CAF, and NATO Staffs.  Croatia has been identified to receive 
one million dollars of Global Peace Operations Initiative 
funds, the bulk of which will be dedicated to improve the 
English language capability of the CAF. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  FMF/IMET levels.  Croatia did not receive any FMF 
in FY08, and is projected to receive only 1.8 million dollars 
in FMF in 2009.  IMET is similarly under-funded for a NATO 
invitee with only 309K in FY08 (including the 9K in 
end-of-year fallout) and is projected to receive 500K in 
FY09.  The proposed budget numbers trend better in FY10. 
 
¶8.  (C)  Procurement Priorities.  U.S. FMF funding will be 
directed at obtaining the necessary NATO-compatible radio 
 
equipment, night vision equipment, weapon sights, combat 
medical equipment, and GPS required to sustain Croatia,s 
forces in ISAF.  Croatia currently has no Type 1 radios or 
Selective Availability Anti-Spoof Module (SAASM) global 
positioning systems in its inventory.  The MoD has also 
expressed interest in procuring counter-IED jammers for its 
ISAF mission.  We will also need to direct FMF funds to the 
upgrades needed to deploy Croatian helicopters to KFOR. 
 
¶9.  (C)  Coastal Radars.  The Croatian Navy has had ongoing 
problems with its Enhanced Peregrine coastal surveillance 
radar system.  The Peregrine radar system purchase, from a 
private American manufacturer without US government 
involvement, began in 1999.  To date the Peregrine radar 
system has not achieved full operational capability.  The 
Croatian government and military have invested approximately 
80 million US dollars and huge political capital trying to 
make the system work.  This topic is significant enough to 
the Croatian government that President Mesic considered 
bringing it up with President Bush during the President,s 
visit to Zagreb in April 2008.  In June 2008, a team of US 
Navy radar experts visited Croatia to inspect the system and 
offer advice, but not to perform hands on maintenance. 
 
¶10.  (C)  F-16s.  The MoD,s Long Term Development Plan calls 
for Croatia to replace its 12 soon-to-be post-lifecycle 
MiG-21 aircraft with a similar number of advanced fighters 
for domestic air policing.  Croatia sent requests for 
information for Mirage, MiG-29, Eurofighter, Gripen, and F-16 
(Block 15 used, Block 15 mid-life upgrade, and Block 50/52 
new).  Croatia now has all the answers it requested and is 
conducting further internal studies.  Sticker shock and an 
inefficient procurement process means that we may not see a 
decision until next year or later. 
Bradtke