But the operation actually marks a more aggressive posture. In one sense, the airdrops fulfill Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s Feb. 10 promise to speed delivery of emergency supplies, the fourth step in a six-point program that includes a commitment to peaceful settlement, a war-crimes tribunal and tougher sanctions on Belgrade. But the mission also represents a major departure from U.N. relief efforts, which have always relied on cooperation from local Serb commanders. America isn’t asking permission. In fact, despite backing from allies, the United States ended up acting alone: with the exception of Turkey and the Netherlands, NATO members declined to offer planes or supplies. Clinton needed to be seen as doing something on behalf of Bosnians, even if the drops did little to relieve thousands of desperate civilians. The risks have little to do with exposing U.S. pilots to the threat of antiaircraft fire. Rather, by engaging in such action, Washington has signaled its willingness to take charge of negotiating and enforcing a settlement in Bosnia-and shouldering responsibility for the outcome. The World Trade Center bombing raised fears that the new U.S. role could have provoked ethnic partisans into staging a terrorist attack on American soil.
The operation began Saturday night. Taking off from the Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany, two Lockheed C-130 Hercules transports dropped 960,000 leaflets explaining the mission on four areas along the Drina River. Food delivery would come sometime later, when groups of two to four C-130s were led by Special Forces MC-130H Combat Talon aircraft-equipped with night-vision gear to identify and mark drop zones, and devices to decoy and divert heatseeking missiles. Each plane was to slow from 300 to about 130 knots and drop 16 pallets-containing 2,200 pounds apiece of food and medical kits-from an altitude of 10,000 feet, high enough to avoid small-arms fire from the ground. To maximize accuracy, the pallets free-fall to earth until some 200 feet from the ground, when time-delay or altimeter devices activate the parachutes.
The Pentagon anticipated mishaps. To protect U.S. pilots, sorties were planned that would fly above the range of most shoulder-fired, ground-to-air missiles. But at that height, some pallets were bound to go astray. What if relief cargo fell into the hands of nearby Serbs, instead of Bosnians, many of whom had been under attack and without supplies since last April? Aides to Defense Secretary Les Aspin came up with the bright idea of turning a military disadvantage into a political virtue by presenting the operation as an effort to aid Muslims and Serbs.
Still, the Pentagon was prepared for trouble. The carrier USS John F. Kennedy, along with two cruisers and one destroyer, were on hand off the Yugoslav coast in the Adriatic Sea. In the event of attack, the Kennedy was poised to send formations of F-14 fighters and F-18 strike aircraft to protect the transport planes and, if necessary, to escort them out. An E-2C, also aloft from the Kennedy, would serve as air-traffic controller (via its linkage to the NATO AWACS over Hungary) and communicate directly with the C-130s. A Marine Amphibious Ready Group, a five-ship flotilla headed by the helicopter carrier USS Guam, was also on alert in the Adriatic, with search-and-rescue teams to go after survivors if a C-130 went down.
A typical target of the airdrops is the predominantly Muslim town of Srebrenica. In mid-April it was stormed by Serbs, who killed local leaders and intellectuals and walked off with everything from jewelry to X-ray machines. While Bosnians retook Srebrenica on May 7, it has been under heavy siege ever since, its population nearly doubling to 57,000, thanks to refugees from nearby villages. Only three aid convoys have reached the area, bringing less than a week’s supply of food and medicines. Half of the community’s homes have been destroyed by shells, sending thousands of civilians into nearby forests, where they live in makeshift shelters and daytime temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. One day last week, 42 civilians died-17 of them children. “Help us before it is too late,” pleaded Hajrudin Audic, a local political leader. “Our only hope is America.” He spoke to NEWSWEEK by radio, Srebrenica’s only link to the outside world.
The airdrops, U.S. officials concede, are no salvation. Among the options to increase humanitarian aid-including air protection of U.N. relief convoys, a new land route into eastern Bosnia and an effort to lift the siege of Sarajevo-the idea of parachuting supplies was “the least effective but the most doable,” says a senior Pentagon source. The evolving U.S. policy in the Balkans is likely to be one of incrementalism, of gradually turning up the heat. People will continue to die in Bosnia. But, having already asked the American public to pitch in for the sake of his economic plan, Clinton isn’t about to seek a further sacrifice-support to send troops or massive military power into the former Yugoslavia. “The change confronting us in the 1990s is in some ways more difficult than previous times because it is less distinct,” the president told a crowd at American University last week. U.S. involvement in messy situations like Bosnia and Somalia isn’t about to end. But the results of intervention may not be as satisfying or discernible as the end of Desert Storm.
DIAGRAM: How the Operation Will Work
The Combat Talon, a heavily modified C-130, finds the frop zone by taking navigation data from a global-positioning satellite. It then marks the drop-aim point with a laser beam, visible through special goggles, for the pilots of the following C-130 transports.
Slowing their speed, the C-130 pilots adjsut wing flaps to fly the planes nose-high. The pallets of supplies are rolled out the rear cargo ramp.
Each pallet freefalls to earth until either an altimeter or a time-delay device opens the parachute around 200 ft aboveground.
