Operation Echo

Operation Echo
	Part of the Kosovo War
	; CF-18 Hornets depart Aviano Air Base, Italy
Date	1998 - 1999
Location	Kosovo, Yugoslavia
Result	Yugoslav Armed Forces victory
Belligerents
Canada	Yugoslavia
Commanders and leaders
Jean Chrétien	Slobodan Milošević
Units involved
Air Command	Yugoslav Armed Forces

Operation Echo was the codename given by the Canadian Forces for its air activities during the Kosovo War in 1998 and 1999. In support of the NATO Operation Allied Force Canadian aircraft based at Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy flew bombing missions over the Balkans.^[2]

During the campaign the Canadian air contingent consisted of 18 CF-18 Hornet aircraft from 441 and 425 Tactical Fighter Squadrons, with 69 aircrew and 250 ground crew. Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, they flew 684 sorties in 224 missions, and dropped nearly 500,000 lb (230,000 kg) of gravity and precision-guided bombs. Canadian forces comprised less than 2% of the nearly 1,000 Allied aircraft engaged in the conflict, they flew on 10% of all bombing missions.^[3]

References

^ "MISSION READY: CANADA'S ROLE IN THE KOSOVO AIR CAMPAIGN" (PDF). 2000. Retrieved 2025-03-31. The lack of night vision goggles reduced the Task Force's overall effectiveness, resulting in a number of missions where the pilot flew into harm's way and had to return with ordnance, having accomplished nothing for his efforts because he could not find the target. Similarly, a Global Positioning System (GPS) would have eliminated navigational drift, which would, in turn, have permitted aircrew to locate targets much more readily, again reducing the need for pilots to return to base with their bombs after facing enemy defences and achieving nothing[...]Weather proved to be a serious limitation to operations during Operation "Echo". Of the 945 combat sorties planned, 176 (18.6 percent) of them were cancelled because of weather conditions at the target, an issue more predictive of future combat operations than the Allied Coalition experience during the Gulf War[...]Although the Canadian contingent was extremely fortunate not to lose any aircraft or crews during this conflict, this was not the result of a benign defensive environment. On the contrary, the Serb Integrated Air Defence System proved to be both robust and redundant[...]When it became evident that the original requests were justified and that the 500-pound GBU-12s were not destroying the targets despite pilots risking their lives to get to them and getting direct hits, the entire Canadian Forces machine leapt into action. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 50 (help)
^ "Details/Information for Canadian Forces (CF) Operation Kinetic". CMP Directorate of History and Heritage. 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
^ Bergen, Bob (2013). "New historic Battle Honour for Canadian jet fighter squadrons bittersweet" (PDF). Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2013.

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[:0-1] "MISSION READY: CANADA'S ROLE IN THE KOSOVO AIR CAMPAIGN" (PDF). 2000. Retrieved 2025-03-31. The lack of night vision goggles reduced the Task Force's overall effectiveness, resulting in a number of missions where the pilot flew into harm's way and had to return with ordnance, having accomplished nothing for his efforts because he could not find the target. Similarly, a Global Positioning System (GPS) would have eliminated navigational drift, which would, in turn, have permitted aircrew to locate targets much more readily, again reducing the need for pilots to return to base with their bombs after facing enemy defences and achieving nothing[...]Weather proved to be a serious limitation to operations during Operation "Echo". Of the 945 combat sorties planned, 176 (18.6 percent) of them were cancelled because of weather conditions at the target, an issue more predictive of future combat operations than the Allied Coalition experience during the Gulf War[...]Although the Canadian contingent was extremely fortunate not to lose any aircraft or crews during this conflict, this was not the result of a benign defensive environment. On the contrary, the Serb Integrated Air Defence System proved to be both robust and redundant[...]When it became evident that the original requests were justified and that the 500-pound GBU-12s were not destroying the targets despite pilots risking their lives to get to them and getting direct hits, the entire Canadian Forces machine leapt into action. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 50 (help)

[2] "Details/Information for Canadian Forces (CF) Operation Kinetic". CMP Directorate of History and Heritage. 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.

[3] Bergen, Bob (2013). "New historic Battle Honour for Canadian jet fighter squadrons bittersweet" (PDF). Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2013.

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[2]

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See also

References