Soko J-22 Orao

Origins During 1970, the neighbouring nations of Romania and Yugoslavia began discussions on the subject of jointly developing a new ground-attack orientated fighter aircraft. Into flight During 31 October 1974, the Yugoslav prototype 25002 conducted its first flight from Batajnica Air Base near Belgrade, with Major Vladislav Slavujević at the controls. The Yugoslav Army reportedly stripped most of the equipment from the Mostar factory and transported as much as possible to the Utva facility in Pancevo, Serbia. On 22 November 1984, an Orao No 25101 broke the sound barrier while in a shallow dive at an angle of 25 degrees, piloted by test pilot Marjan Jelen, above Batajnica airport.; this instance made the J-22 the first Yugoslav-designed aircraft to exceed Mach 1. The aircraft is incapable of breaking the sound barrier in level flight, so it is classified as being a subsonic aircraft. ==Design==

The J-22 Orao is a twin-engined combat jet aircraft designed for performing close air support (CAS), ground-attack and tactical reconnaissance missions, it also features a limited air-defense capability. The Orao was provisioned with standard communication and navigation equipment, the latter including a Honeywell-built SGP500 twin-gyroscope navigation system. It incorporated a fire control and weapons management system, which used the Thomson-CSF-built VE-120T head-up display (HUD). Additional avionics included GEC-Marconi's three-axis stability augmentation system and Rockwell Collins' VIR-30 (or DME-40) VHF omnidirectional range and instrument landing system. During the late 2010s, Serbia launched a major modernisation programme involving both its J-22 and NJ-22 fleets. ==Operational history==

The first Yugoslav Air Force unit to receive the J-22 was the 353rd Reconnaissance Squadron, 97th Aviation Brigade at Ortjes airbase near Mostar and 351st Reconnaissance Squadron, 82nd Aviation Brigade at Cerklje airbase. The airworthiness of these aircraft soon deteriorated due to the combination of limited funding and the impact of international embargoes. By June 2003, the Republika Srpska Air Force had a force of seven J-22 Oraos. These aircraft were ultimately inherited by the unified Bosnian Air Force. By 2008, all of Bosnia's J-22s had been placed into storage while the nation negotiated with neighbouring Serbia to potentially buy them; reportedly, Serbia was viewed as the only viable customer for the type. On 28 February 1994, two J-22 and six J-21 of the Republika Srpska Air Force sortied against Bosnian arms factories in Bugojno and Novi Travnik, respectively. The J-22s successfully attacked the target and returned unscathed to Udbina airbase, while the J-21s were intercepted by NATO F-16s after hitting their target, which culminated into the Banja Luka incident. During 1999, Yugoslav J-22s saw limited combat against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), reportedly flying 36 combat missions. In addition, eleven aircraft were destroyed on the ground, the majority of these at Ponikve Air Base, when a NATO air strike hit one hangar that reportedly had six J-22 and two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 aircraft inside. The Serbian Air Force operates a fleet comprising seventeen J-22 and NJ-22 Oraos; of which eight are modernized (version J-22 M1A). ==Variants==

;IJ-22 Orao 1 :26 dedicated reconnaissance aircraft, consisting of the single prototype, 10 pre-production, and 15 serial production aircraft. ==Operators==

; • Serbian Air Force and Air Defence – 17 in service of which 4 are modernized (version J-22 M1A). Former operators ; • Air Force and Anti-Aircraft Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina – inherited 7 aircraft from the Republika Srpska Air Force. None are in service as of 2019. ; • Yugoslav Air Force – aircraft passed to successor states after the breakup of Yugoslavia. ==Specifications (J-22)==