Balkans: March 11, 2002

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Yugoslavia plans to restructure is armed forces. The three field army headquarters will be eliminated, and the seven corps will be reduced to six (Belgrade, Podgorica, Novi Sad, Uzice, Nix, and Pristina). One division will be disbanded and the others restructured as what amount to oversized brigades. The Air Force, Air Defense Corps, and Navy will lose their higher headquarters and will become, for all practical purposes, various smaller units under control of the six corps headquarters. The entire military is to be reduced to 65,000 personnel by 2005. Some 4,000 officers and senior sergeants (including 800 colonels) will be involuntarily discharged.--Stephen V Cole