Defense Department Report

Sunday, April 4, 1999

U.S. Sending Apache Attack Choppers to Albania for Use in Kosovo

(Apache helicopter deployment to Albania)

The Defense Department is sending 24 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and a battalion of 18 Multiple Launch Rocket System launchers from their bases in Germany to Albania.

The deployment, announced at an April 4 briefing by Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon, will total about 2,000 U.S. military personnel, and will include military police, mechanized infantry and a battalion of 14 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to provide ground security for the total force.

Bacon said that if they go into action, the Apaches would be used in an "up close and personal" role against Yugoslav tanks and armored personnel carriers spearheading attacks in Kosovo. The multiple rocket launchers, he said, would be used to suppress Yugoslav air defenses in Kosovo and are capable of covering "virtually all" of the province.