Tank of Wisdom

The State can be protected by one tank, but not by many, as experience has shown. The example of the M-84 tank as an export product is far more convincing than brigades of tanks as measures of misguided politics

The main material evidence of the extraordinary fact that the Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA), Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, etc. have managed to retain an element of common sense in the general havoc around us is provided by a 42 ton steel monster, with an engine of 1000 horse power and a 125 mm cannon. This "armaments system" is produced, in brotherhood and unity, by all six republics of the ex - the communists would say "decadent" - Yugoslavia, and this in spite of war, secession, "fascism", and "anti-fascism", hatred, and mutual backbiting. The M-84 tank, however, is not the only example of the discrete and efficient cooperation between the military industries of the warring Balkan states; it is merely the most convincing because it proves that the purpose of weapons is actually that they not be used. General Anton Tus (formerly of the JNA and now Commander-in-Chief of the Croatian armed forces), has confirmed that the M-84 is still being produced in cooperation with all contractors (50 large and 1000 sub-contractors).

The Yugoslav military industry has always been, and still is, very propulsive: its present potential annual export is somewhere between one and two billion dollars; it employs 57 carrying firms and a thousand sub-contractors, with a total of 70,000 qualified employees in direct employment, around 300,000 indirectly employed and 8,000 employed in research. The Yugoslav military industry produces around 400 items, from army longjohns to tanks and aircraft, supplying 90 percent of needs of the JNA, which up to a year ago, was considered one of the stronger armies in Europe.

The disintegration of "decadent" Yugoslavia - no matter how paradoxical it may seem - has not hit the military industry, which is united under the operating unit of CAMEIY (the Community of Armaments and Military Equipment Industries of Yugoslavia), too hard. Here, the ambition of each republic to have its own army and weaponry is viewed with skepticism: "No one can produce a single item alone; even longjohns and shirts require imported raw materials. A bullet for a gun needs the cooperation of at least three republics", says one experienced military businessman, going on to say that it is far cheaper to continue working together than for each to branch out on its own. With regard to imports, he continues, we saw what happened in the autumn of 1990 when Slovenia and Croatia had to pay out exorbitant prices for the import of arms. People from CAMEIY support their theory with the facts that large amounts have been invested in the meantime into research and development of the armament system, and this part of the cost in the most expensive and modern systems is the greatest (around 80 percent).

A healthy commercial logic is apparent here, even if unpopular. Against it are fanaticism and thievery, which - as is usual in these parts - go hand in hand. The fanatics maintain that their people are self sufficient, and the thieves support them for their own reasons. The culmination of this idea was that of the Serbian river-submarine which was to be made by the Sava Shipyards, the only one of its kind in the world. Experts say that only in this part of the world could someone come up with such a moronic idea. The same definition applies to the Croatian armoured transporters and submachine guns, the famous Slovenian submachine guns, etc. One expert made an initial forecast of the costs of replacing the modern tank by one that Serbia would produce itself: an immediate 100 billion dollar cash investment would have to be made in construction, instruments and training of those to be employed in the factories which would take over from the Slovenian iron and steel works, Slovenian and Bosnian electronics, Bosnian machinery construction, Montenegrin aluminium, Croatian mechanical industry, etc. Even if there were the money, it would take 6 - 7 years before the first Serbian tank could enter serial production; its price would be far higher than that of the M-84.

It hasn't been easy for this pragmatic industry recently: in the course of 1991, CAMEIY worked at 50 percent of its capacity - and survived. Foreign partners (mainly nonaligned) owe 530 million dollars, and 200 million dollars couldn't be bought at the black market rates just to survive. The equipping of JNA fell to a third of what could be reasonably expected, inter-republic quarrels have hampered the flow of components and goods, and republican ambitions have threatened the future of the factories of the military industry. CAMEIY is fighting heroically to preserve the technological and manufacturing unity of the military industry system, the product of 45 years of investment. Of all the demands of CAMEIY sent at the beginning of March to the "federal" and other - important - governing bodies, the most significant was that requesting the republics to guarantee the "unhindered flow of reproduction in the armaments and military equipment industry". Put into simple language, this means that the military industry should be left to produce and develop as before, as if there had never been any war.

Disregarding the war, Maribor's TAM last summer immediately resumed the discrete delivery of spare parts for trucks and armoured vehicles belonging to JNA, and the army continued its regular payment of bills (according to some reports, in hard currency).

The arguments are clear: the M-84 is an expensive tank of high quality; each one costs one and a half million dollars, without accoutrements and support systems; with these (ammunition, spare parts, workshops, training) the price is around 2.5 million dollars a piece. The tank has proved itself better than others thanks to the efforts of thousands of experts: the gyroscopic aiming system achieves a percentage hit rate whilst in motion of 80 percent, which is a good result; it is faster in sand than the American M-1, fuel consumption is less per horse power and mass, it operates at high temperatures, and has the lowest silhouette of all tanks in its class (219 cm). To lose such an export product would be madness close to suicide. In any case, this autumn a gentlemen's agreement was reached by Croatia and the JNA that future series of the M-84 will not be used inside the country and this is the only agreement that has been respected by both sides to date; this is understandable because money is in question, and not ideological fog.

Good progress was made last week by the recognition on both sides of these basic facts. Let us add that the M-84 is not the only example: aircraft and helicopters, rocket launchers, submarines (not river ones!), ammunition of all sorts, etc. are being manufactured and quietly exported. This teaches us that money - believe it or not - is very important in the life of the peoples and nations of the Balkans. All the rest - "fascism", "anti-fascism", "Serbian and Croatian nationalism", "orthodoxy", "the Vatican", "the Comintern" etc. - fall to hypocrisy. In fact the border between these two approaches - the reasonable and the hypocritical-ideological - represents the borderline of actual political conflict in what was once called Yugoslavia. As such, the information on the continuing production and export of the M-84 is important to our unhappy situation: we now see where the real interests lie. If the participants would only admit this openly, we would be much closer to peace, because one tank for export has shown itself to be far mightier than many for civil war.