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INFO RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
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C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000721 
 
SIPDIS 
 
CDR USJFCOM NORFOLK VA, EUCOM PLANS AND ANALYSES STUTTGART 
GE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/16/2018 
TAGS: HR KPAO MARR MOPS NATO PGOV PREL DEFENSEREFORM
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR THE COMMANDER, U.S. JOINT FORCES 
COMMAND MEETING WITH CROATIAN CHOD AND VISIT TO CROATIA 
 
Classified By: COL Brendan McAloon, DATT, for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d). 
 
¶1. (C) Sir, you will meet General Lucic (LOOT-Zitch) at your 
headquarters the week prior to your visit to Croatia.  As of 
this writing, the itinerary for your time in Croatia has not 
been finalized.  I expect, however, that your meetings in 
Zagreb will mirror the meetings SACEUR had while he was here 
this week depending on the availability of the Croatian 
hosts. 
 
¶2.  (C)  In addition to the aforementioned visit of SACEUR, 
DEPSECDEF, COMNAVEUR, and DCOM, USEUCOM have all visited 
Croatia recently.  These visits so close to the time when the 
Senate ratified the amendments to the North Atlantic Treaty 
to allow Croatia,s accession, along with the visit of 
President Bush in April, serve as a good reminder that the 
U.S. is indeed Croatia,s Strategic Partner.  For its part, 
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. 
 
¶3.  (C)  Atmospherics.  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, and 
Defense Minister Vukelic is no exception to that rule.  Of 
late, the situation in Bosnia has been the key topic both the 
PM and President discussed with senior U.S. visitors.   Your 
host, General Lucic was unexpectedly reappointed for an 
unprecedented second five-year term as CHOD in January of 
this year.  Lucic is President Mesic,s most trusted military 
advisor.  Although he participated in three months of 
language training in the United States, his ability to speak 
English remains rudimentary. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Defense Reform:  Since 2001 Croatia has undertaken 
an intensive program of defense reform that continues until 
today.  At that time Croatia had a conscription system that 
produced 47,500 service-members on active duty and 183,000 
mandatory reserves and a force structure that included 6 
corps, 63 brigades, a fleet of ships and four airbases. 
Today the volunteer system produces 20,500 service-members 
and 6000 contract reserves that support a force structure of 
no corps headquarters, 2 brigades, a naval flotilla that 
includes Coast Guard vessels, and two airbases.  The 
Croatians know that there is still work to do, but they are 
justifiably proud of their accomplishments so far. 
 
¶5. (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. A team from 
the Minnesota National Guard was here recently to plan the 
deployment of a combined combat-support OMLT next year. 
Croatia is working up the Request for Forces through SHAPE to 
begin the process of mobilizing the Minnesota National Guard 
troops for deployment.  There are plans for a third, 
garrison-level OMLT to deploy to Afghanistan in 2009. 
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. 
 
¶6. (C)  KFOR:  The Croatian Parliament has authorized the 
deployment of two helicopters to Kosovo 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. 
 
¶7.  (C) Peacekeeping: Croatia prides itself on its transition 
from a security consumer with UN Peacekeepers on its 
territory to a security provider.  With the addition of the 
KFOR mission, Croatian Armed Forces (CAF) elements will be 
involved in 15 Coalition, UN, and EU peacekeeping operations 
around the globe, to include the 3 Croatian participants in 
the UN Mission to Georgia.  Croatia deployed 15 soldiers to 
the EU-led mission in Chad this month.  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. 
 
¶8. (C) ASPA: The U.S. FMF and IMET programs were suspended in 
July 2003 due to American Serviceman Protection Act (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 notable 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. 
 
¶9.  (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. 
 
¶10.  (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.  We may also need to 
direct FMF funds to the upgrades needed to deploy Croatian 
helicopters to KFOR. 
 
¶11.  (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. 
 
¶12.  (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.  In June 2008, on order of COMNAVEUR, a 
team of US Navy radar experts visited Croatia to inspect the 
system and offer advice, but not to perform hands on 
maintenance.  This subject was covered in depth during 
DEPSECDEF,s visit and he promised to look into the matter, 
thus I don,t expect it to be raised during your visit. 
Bradtke