Service and decommissioning All six boats were in service with the 88th submarine flotilla of the JRM with
Lora Naval Base being their homeport. At the start of the
Croatian War of Independence all boats except
Soča were relocated to
Montenegro without participating in combat operations. Croatian forces captured
Soča in drydock at the BSO where it was undergoing an overhaul.
Soča underwent a modification program that improved its autonomy by installing a diesel generator. It was recommissioned, now with the
Croatian Navy, in 1996 as and remained in service until the early 2000s when it was declared redundant. The remaining boats entered service with the new SR Yugoslav Navy. The first ones to be decommissioned sometime between 1997 and 2001 were
Tisa and
Una. In 2003 a decision was made that the ongoing major overhaul of
Kupa would stop; the boat was decommissioned and broken up in 2008. It appears that the last
Una-class boats in service with the SR Yugoslav Navy were
Zeta and
Vardar, both of them being decommissioned in 2005.
Aftermath Ownership of the decommissioned boats passed on to Montenegro after the country
declared independence in 2006, ending the state of
Serbia and Montenegro and its joint armed forces. In 2009 the
Ministry of Defence announced that it is willing to donate three
Una-class submarines to former SFR Yugoslav republics of
Slovenia,
Croatia and
Serbia. Although the "Submariner" society from
Pula was interested in accepting the donation and exhibiting it in a museum, the Croatian MoD responded with a statement that accepting the donation is against national interests; since most of the fleet of the former Yugoslav Navy was relocated to Montenegro at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence, Croatia claims the military equipment of the former joint armed forces was stolen, and should be a subject of succession. The MoD further explains that the state interest is in compensation for that equipment, not returning "obsolete, damaged and corroded equipment which nowadays Serbia and Montenegro are unsuccessfully trying to sell". Slovenia on the other hand reacted positively to the offer; in 2011
Zeta was loaded on a truck and transported to Bar, then across Adriatic to Bari, Italy and along Italian coast to Slovenia. Although longer and thus more expensive, sea routes and roads that included crossing the Croatian border were avoided in fear of Croatian authorities confiscating the submarine. P-913 was restored with the help of the "Slovenian Submariners Society" and the
Slovenian Army, being officially placed on display at the
Pivka Park of Military History on 17 September 2011. In 2013,
Una and a attack submarine,
Heroj (P-821), were restored and opened to the public in the museum section of the
Porto Montenegro marina. The project was initiated by the "Submariner" Society from
Tivat and was, after approval by the Montenegro MoD, financed by Porto Montenegro. The donation of one of the submarines to Serbia was initiated by the "Submariner" society from
Belgrade in 2009. However it wasn't until five years later in June 2014 that the Government of Montenegro officially accepted the proposal and agreed to cede
Tisa (P-911) to Serbia. The submarine will be exhibited at the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade. == Notes ==