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List of equipment of the Croatian Army

This is a list of equipment in active service with the Croatian Army.

Infantry weapons

Handguns

Submachine guns

Assault rifles

Machine guns

Precision rifles

Grenade launchers

Anti-tank weapons

Artillery

Mortars

Towed artillery

Self-propelled howitzers

Rocket artillery

Armoured vehicles

Main battle tanks

Tracked infantry fighting vehicles

Wheeled armoured vehicles

Patria AMV summary of variants ordered

Wheeled infantry fighting vehicles

Unmanned turrets ordered:

Wheeled tank destroyers

Wheeled APC and command vehicles

Unmanned turrets ordered:

Infantry mobility vehicles

Armoured ambulances / MEDEVAC

Engineering equipment

Recovery vehicles

Bridging equipment

Demining and EOD equipment

Construction equipment

Amphibious vehicles, boats and small barges

Unarmoured vehicles

Military utility vehicles

Logistic vehicles

Military trucks

The Croatian Army relies heavily on the stock of old trucks and supply vehicles. It inherited a vast stock of trucks, various transport and utility vehicles during the Croatian War of Independence and the Battle of the Barracks; at least 250 FAP trucks, 650 TAM trucks and a number of Soviet trucks such as ZiL, Ural or Maz were captured and put into military service. Many of these vehicles are still in service with the Croatian Army, even though some are over 50 years old. 4x4 trucks, light 2.5T trucks were built in large quantities. Some 80 samples entered service with the Army in early 1990s. However, with Croatia joining NATO the Croatian Army started looking into acquiring western types of trucks including MAN TG Mill, Iveco 5T Transport Truck and Mercedes trucks among others. However, due to the shortage of funds logistics formations within the Croatian Army are the last to get modern vehicles. In the past decade the Croatian Army started to renew its logistic and tactical truck fleet sporadically with purchases or donations of smaller quantities of new trucks. In the long-term the Croatian Army plans to reduce the number of vehicle types in service down to only three manufactures: MAN, Mercedes and Iveco. Currently over a dozen of different manufactures of vehicle types are in service creating costly maintenance issues.

Handling equipment

Civilian utility vehicles

Motorcycles

Military camps and facilities

Medical facilities

Camp facilities

Air defence

Croatian Army plans to purchase of short and medium range surface to air missile batteries with Mistral 3 missiles already added to the Army's inventory. Army plans to purchase up to 5 batteries of medium range surface to air batteries. Three European systems are being considered, NASAMS III/ER, Mica VL/NG and IRIS-T SLM as likely contenders however Mica VL/NG is rumoured to be the most likely candidate, due to the Croatian Air Force recent purchase of Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft. The Croatian Army plans to acquire up to five surface to air batteries in a deal worth around ~€500 million.

Long range air defence is yet to be decided on, however with recent purchase of Mistral ER and very likely Mica VL NG, it would not be unusual if Croatia opted for Aster SAMP/T NG long range air defence systems when it becomes available, however any purchase of such air defence system would happen in late 2020s.

Army plans to purchase 4 anti drone batteries C-UAS valued at €125 million. Plan is to acquire 4 batteries, two stationed protecting two air force bases and two mobile batteries. A framework Agreement with Končar d.d. was reached for equipping the Croatian Armed Forces with an SKYctrl anti-drone protection system.

Unmanned aerial systems

Attack drones and loitering munitions

Surveillance, reconnaissance, observation target acquisition UAS

Future equipment

Infantry weapons

Artillery

Vehicles

Air defence

Potential future equipment

Air defence

Anti-drone systems

  • DOK-ING KOMODO with Valhalla turret Mangart-25 anti air robot
  • Domestic drone production has been initiated in the wake of Russian invasion of Ukraine, a number of domestic companies are involved and number of systems have been purchased from various domestic manufacturers. Croatian Army plans to purchase large quantity of domestic drones Orqa SPV-MRM-2-Interceptor drones that are currently being tested in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Army.

Missile systems

Medium range, short-term plan to introduce medium-range surface-to-air batteries by 2028, the options include:

Medium-to-long range systems planned to be introduced as the country lacks an adequate protection system and it is a priority. The options include:

Equipment withdrawn from service or in storage

Infantry weapons

  • Pistols:
  • Zastava M57
  • HS Produkt PHP
  • HS Produkt HS95
  • Submachine guns:
  • Zastava M84
  • HS Produkt ALKA M-93
  • Heckler & Koch MP5 - replaced with Kuna submachine gun.
  • Arma ERO - replaced with Kuna submachine gun.
  • Assault rifles:
  • APS-95 - adopted in limited numbers, retired.
  • Vektor R4 - small batches bought in 1991, retired.
  • FN FAL - 5,000 were stored to be sold off but donated to Ukraine.
  • AKM - Romanian, Hungarian and Chinese variants, retired after war.
  • Zastava M70 - withdrawn from use by the end of 2018, with 40,000 rifles planned for the strategic reserve, but 20,000 donated to Ukraine in 2022.
  • Zastava M59/66 - after war only used as a ceremonial rifle.
  • Machine guns:
  • Heckler & Koch HK21 - retired after supplementing Croatian army with new infantry squad machine guns.
  • Ultimax 100 - withdrawn from service or in storage (new infantry squad machine guns in service).
  • Zastava M72 - withdrawn from service or in storage (new infantry squad machine guns in service).
  • Zastava M53 - retired after war.
  • Zastava M84 - withdrawn from service or in storage (new infantry squad machine guns in service).
  • Precision rifles:
  • Zastava M76 - replaced by Sako rifles
  • Type 79/85 - used by special forces, retired.
  • Metallic RT-20 - replaced by MACS M4
  • MACS M3 - replaced by MACS M4
  • Anti-tank weapons:
  • RPG-7 - phased out.
  • M80 "Zolja" (RPG) - phased out (low stock).
  • M79 Osa - retired.

Indirect fire

  • Towed artillery:
  • CITER 155mm L33 Gun - none in active service due to NATO interoperability issues.
  • M-46 (M1954) - none in active service due to NATO interoperability issues.
  • M-84 Nora - none in active service due to NATO interoperability issues.
  • M101 - none in active service due to NATO interoperability issues.
  • Rocket artillery:
  • M-63 Plamen - retired due to lack of ammunition and costly upkeep.
  • M-87 Orkan - 260mm MRL, captured during Battle of the Barracks in 1991.
  • M-94 'Plamen S - 128mm MRL as it was no longer fit for service.
  • RAK-12 - systems in storage.

Vehicles

  • Tanks:
  • M-47 Patton - retired, 2 are exposed in local army museums, others are used for target practice.
  • M36 tank destroyer - retired.
  • T-55A - 280 withdrawn from 2006 to 2009 (in between a dozen used for training), the lack of budget pushed them for retirement, they are awaiting disposal.
  • Tracked armoured vehicles:
  • M60P / M60 SAN - retired, and 2 are exposed in local army museums.
  • MT-LB - retired and replaced by the Patria AMV CRO, 2 are exposed in local army museums, the rest was scrapped.
  • Wheeled armoured vehicles:
  • LOV-1 - retired.
  • BOV POLO M-83 - placed in reserve
  • BRDM-2 - retired, and some are exposed in local army museums.
  • BTR-60 - retired, and 2 are exposed in local army museums.
  • Engineering equipment:
  • M-91 StraÅ¡ko - on display at the Museum of Homeland War in Turanj.

Air defence

  • Medium range missile air defence systems:
  • S-300PMU-1 - acquired from Ukraine in 1994, exposed in 1995 during a military parade held in Zagreb. It is believed that the system was never fully completed and operational although the training of crews was held as late as 1998. Some sources claim that the weapon was subsequently handed-over to the United States or Israel in 2002–2004. However, officials still claim that the system is still stored somewhere in Croatia and the exact fate of the system is to this day classified.
  • Very short range missile systems:
  • 9K38 Igla - replaced by the Mistral 3.
  • Anti-aircraft guns:
  • Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70 - retired.
  • M53/59 Praga - retired, and 2 are exposed in local army museums.
  • ZSU-57-2 - retired and used as target practice.
  • Zastava M55 - retired.

References