241st Fighter-Bomber Squadron

With the reorganization of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), called "Drvar-1", in 1961 the squadrons of the Yugoslav Air Force received three-digit insignia, and the fighter-bomber squadrons thus received insignia with the initial number two. In April of the same year, the 241st Fighter-Bomber Aviation Squadron (LBAE) equipped with American F-84G Thunderjet fighter-bomber (armed with 198) was formed at the Skopski Petrovac airport, within the 198th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment (LBAP)

198th LBAP became the 98th Air Brigade (ABR) in 1966 and the same year the first F-84G of 241st LBAE got a stylized drawing of a tiger's head on its nose which was the emblem of the 98th ABR (otherwise the tiger was a radio call sign of the unit ). In 1971, the rearmament of units with domestic light attack planes J-21 Jastreb began, from 1972 the aircraft bore the sign of a cobra on their noses (previously they also had a drawing of a tiger) and the emblem of the tiger was then given to the J-21s from the 235th LABE at the airport Lađevci.

The first J-22s of the 241st LBAE were two-seater INJ-22s borrowed from reconnaissance squadrons in October 1986, while newly produced J-22 attack aircraft intended for the unit began arriving in December of that year, and pilot retraining was completed in 1987.[2]

The unit took part in the fighting in 1991, at the beginning of October, due to the distance of the Petrovac airport from the war zone, most of the personnel and equipment of the 241st LBAE moved to the Dubrava Airport near Tuzla. They will stay there for two months, during which time they will make 127 combat flights with 80 hours of flight, mostly over Posavina and eastern Slavonia. One plane was severely damaged by the light portable missile system Strela-2M on November 15, but the pilot managed to land at Tuzla airport. During February 1992, the unit was transferred to Kraljevo as a part of agreement of withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Croatia and Bosnia.[2]

J-22s of the 241st Figter-Bomber Squadron

During the Kosovo War, the fighter-bomber aviation of the Yugoslav Army Air Force and Air Defense carried out 31 flights with G-4 and Orao aircraft with a flight time of 18.25 hours: 25 flights were combat (19 with fire action) with a flight time of 15.25 hours, 6 overflights were performed. Out of that, the 241st LBAE performed 10 flights with all 10 fire actions (according to some unofficial information, 13 flights, all with fire action bombs).[2]

On March 25, 1999, the commander of unit, major Života Đurić was shoot down and killed by ground fire after successfully carrying out the task of destroying Kosovo Liberation Army base near Glogovac.[3] Đurić was posthumously awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel.

During the 2021 North Kosovo crisis, J-22s of the 241st Fighter-Bomber Squadron were seen patrolling over Jarinje near Kosovo border.[4]