Twenty-three years ago, NATO bullied others and bombed Yugoslavia continuously for 78 days. How did Yugoslavia survive?

In 1999, the Kosovo War was raging. NATO, headed by the United States, is bombing Yugoslavia indiscriminately in an attempt to completely knock it down and undermine their will to resist. On this day, an American F117 stealth fighter was strutting across the territory of Yugoslavia, relying on its high technology that could not be detected by radar to carry out bombing missions unscrupulously.

However, at this moment, pilot Zelko suddenly heard a roar, and then the entire plane shook violently. Zelko could hardly believe his ears and eyes. His first reaction was that the plane was malfunctioning. But then, he had to make an unacceptable conclusion: the plane was hit by an enemy missile.

Zelko had no choice and was forced to parachute to escape. But until he landed and was rescued by his own people and escaped disaster, his brain was still a mess. Wasn’t it agreed that Yugoslavia’s air defense force had been destroyed? Then how could the high-tech plane he was flying be shot down?

Shooting down the F117 fighter jet was the Yugoslav Alliance’s biggest victory in fighting against NATO bombing. It can be said to have completely shattered the myth that “American technology is invincible.” After all, everyone knows that Yugoslavia’s weapons and equipment are old. But in addition to the F117 fighter jets, Yugoslavia has also made some achievements in fighting NATO, and it is not as helpless as Western countries boast.

So, what kind of resistance did Yugoslavia do? So what is the result?

In March 1999, NATO instigated the secession of the Kosovo region in Yugoslavia and brazenly sent troops to start the Kosovo War.

At the beginning of the war, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia called on the people of the country to mobilize to defend the motherland. Although the weapons and equipment can be said to lag far behind NATO, Yugoslavia is also a quite large country in the Balkans after all. If it really takes action, relying on the fighting will of the people of Yugoslavia, NATO's ground troops may not be able to fight. How smooth.

But unexpectedly, NATO had no intention of sending ground troops to occupy Yugoslavia from the beginning. They chose to first send air troops to bomb the entire Yugoslavia, hoping to blow up all military facilities and some civilian facilities in the Yugoslavia and undermine the local people's will to fight.

NATO throws missiles and bombs down like beans, free of charge. Things that can be solved with steel will never be done with human life. It is really a rich war. But war is not just a matter for one country. The poor countries of Yugoslavia also have their own style of fighting.

Faced with NATO's arrogance, Yugoslavia made an extremely effective counterattack, forcing NATO to give up its plan to invest ground troops to force the Yugoslav government.

First of all, in the face of NATO's bombing of domestic military facilities, Yugoslavia was not reckless. Instead, it cleverly hid all its tanks, artillery, armored vehicles and other military facilities and supplies. And a large number of fake armaments were placed on the ground to attract NATO firepower.

Because Yugoslavia knows that wars still rely on people. Even if NATO blows up all military facilities and does not send ground troops to attack the presidential palace, Yugoslavia will never surrender. Therefore, these ground combat weapons and equipment must be well preserved, and they will compete fiercely with NATO ground forces when the time comes.

Taking advantage of the country’s mountainous and forested terrain, Yugoslavia dug a large number of military basements and air-raid shelters as early as the Cold War. After they judged that NATO only wanted to carry out air strikes, they immediately moved all military supplies into the basement and air-raid shelters.

According to reports, although the U.S. military bombed it, Yugoslavia retained 80% of its tanks, 70% of its aircraft, 67% of its surface-to-air missiles, and 80% of its armed forces. The vitality is damaged, and as soon as NATO ground troops arrive, they can immediately go into battle.

Above the surface, in order to confuse the NATO troops, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia made many inflatable tanks, aircraft, and armored vehicles to show off. Anyway, NATO doesn't go to the ground. If you look at it from a high altitude, it looks almost real.

At the same time, Yugoslavia also installed many small engines into these inflatable toys to create heat sources and deceive NATO radar. In order to prevent NATO from seeing through Yugoslavia's smoke bombs, Yugoslavia also specially found a few genuine vehicles to mix them in, making it impossible for NATO to bomb them or not to bomb them. But in line with the instruction that it would rather bomb the wrong thing than let it go, NATO still dropped the bomb.

Of course, this operation of Yugoslavia also has certain side effects. Although they retained a large amount of military supplies, those fake supplies also gave NATO a pretext. NATO simply made mistakes and took back these "results" to publicize them. In addition, at the beginning of the war, the United States cut off Yugoslavia's international voice channels. For a time, the world was full of news about NATO's defeat of Yugoslavia.

But when it comes to information warfare, Yugoslavia is not sitting still. The breakthrough point they chose was the Internet, which was still in its primitive stage at that time.

From the first day when Yugoslavia was bombed, NATO's command center and the computer networks of various member states were visited by various Balkan hackers. Some Yugoslav hackers even directly hacked into the main computer of the NATO command center, paralyzing it for several hours.

In addition, various NATO websites have also been compromised by Yugoslavia hackers one after another, including the official website of the US White House. They publicized the Yugoslav people's will to resist, the results of their counterattack, and NATO's atrocities. For a time, the whole world learned about a Yugoslavia that was completely different from NATO propaganda on this small screen.

In addition to occupying NATO's website as its own propaganda base, Yugoslavia also carried out indiscriminate bombing of the e-mails of NATO member states. According to a person in charge of the NATO network, since the beginning of the war, NATO headquarters has received tens of thousands of emails every day, causing the NATO information network to be blocked and temporarily paralyzed. The deployment between various units was greatly affected. influence.

Moreover, most of these emails contain computer viruses, some are packaged very secretly, and some are simply hidden without bothering to hide them. For a time, NATO's engineers responsible for electronic information security were busy and dark, which was in sharp contrast to the frontline troops who were leisurely performing bombing missions.

Of course, the Yugoslav people’s resistance is not limited to conserving power and competing for hegemony on the Internet. In fact, the Yugoslav Army also had quite a record. According to the official announcement of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, during the 78 days of bombing, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia shot down 30 drones and 6 helicopters, as well as 25 fighter jets, and intercepted more than 200 missiles.

NATO naturally does not accept Yugoslavia’s claims. They only admitted that one F117 stealth fighter, one F16 fighter and four helicopters fell, and that these planes all crashed due to mechanical failures and accidents. Yugoslavia was just a blind cat who encountered a dead mouse.

But no matter what, the F117, as the world's first stealth fighter, is still a star weapon that the US military attaches great importance to. This aircraft came to prominence during the Gulf War. It was invincible and came and went without a trace. Why did it fall into the hands of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which had been bombed so hard that it could not lift its head?

This is due to the ingenuity of the people of Yugoslavia. The F117 fighter jet has a unique structure and can avoid radar search, so it is known as "stealth". But there is a small hidden danger in this aircraft. When the F117 opens the hatch to drop bombs, it will expose a large area that is easily detected by radar. At this time, the F117 will lose its stealth ability.

NATO is aware of this problem. However, firstly, the F117 is at its peak, and there is no more advanced aircraft that can replace it. Secondly, NATO used radar monitoring weapons in the Kosovo War. Once the radar's radio waves are searched, missiles will be launched immediately to destroy it.

Therefore, NATO believes that Yugoslavia's radar equipment has been completely blown up, and their anti-air missile forces have become blind. They don't need to be careful at all and can bomb at will.

But NATO did not expect that the Yugoslavia air defense forces had not been eliminated.

NATO’s electromagnetic detection equipment is very powerful and can intercept various communication signals to attack opponents. As a result, the Yugoslav air defense forces simply abandoned radios and turned themselves into an 18th-century army. All communications relied on roaring and did not use anything related to electromagnetism.

Moreover, Yugoslavia’s air defense forces have no fixed location and are moving in every day. Even if radio waves are sent out, they are basically all false information intended to deceive NATO. As a result, NATO troops repeatedly missed the enemy and went crazy.

In addition to playing hide and seek with NATO, the Yugoslav air defense forces have also not forgotten their old profession: surveillance aircraft. However, due to NATO's military pressure, Yugoslavia's radar can only be turned on for 18 seconds, because once it exceeds 20 seconds, it will be detected by NATO instruments, and then the radar station will be destroyed.

Therefore, everyone in the air defense force has practiced a complete set of smooth operations of turning on the radar, detecting enemy aircraft, confirming the target, and turning off the radar within 18 seconds.

On March 27, 1999, the air defense forces received intelligence that NATO would launch an air strike on northern Serbia at around 8 p.m. So they immediately rushed to the place and prepared for battle.

The radar of the air defense force can only be turned on once, so it is extremely important to estimate the distance of the NATO aircraft. After a long wait, radar operator Captain Senard thought the time had come. He decisively turned on the radar. Sure enough, a clear target appeared on the radar. The military camp immediately launched two old Soviet missiles, successfully shooting down the most advanced F117 fighter jet that the United States was proud of.

The F117 stealth fighter was shot down, which was really good news for Yugoslavia, which was suppressed by the United States at the time. Belgrade rejoiced, and people graffitied the slogan "I heard you can become invisible?" on the wreckage of the F117 to mock the United States.

Soon after, the Yugoslav air defense forces regrouped and once again successfully shot down an American F16 fighter jet.

The Yugoslav Federation's determined will to resist has indeed led to extremely heated discussions within the United States on whether ground troops should be engaged in combat. However, the United States originally wanted to use the turmoil of the war to bring down the emerging euro. It did not want a quick victory, and because it was wary of the ground armed forces that Yugoslavia still retained, it has not ended its air strikes.

In June 1999, Russia, the largest supporter of Yugoslavia, finally surrendered to the West. Yugoslavia also realized that continued resistance had lost its meaning, so it accepted the ceasefire agreement. The war in Kosovo came to an end, and the Yugoslav army fought until the last day.

The Kosovo War was indeed a battle of bullying and bullying. Although Yugoslavia was beaten down by NATO's high-tech weapons, their people never surrendered. Although Yugoslavia was undoubtedly defeated in the end, their brilliant record of fighting the F117 stealth fighter and their experience in fighting American bombings are enough to serve as a model.