U.S. to Supply but Not Operate Bosnia Radar

The Clinton Administration is sending five sophisticated radar units to Bosnia-Herzegovina to help locate Bosnian Serb mortars and artillery, but the devices will be operated not by Americans but by Jordanian ground troops, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The arrangement is designed to overcome a major dilemma stemming from America’s self-imposed restrictions on the U.S. military role in Bosnia--how to set up a formidable threat to deter military action by Bosnian Serbs and their Serbian allies without sending U.S. ground troops to the area.

Strategists said the “counter-battery” radar units--known as TPQ-36 and TPQ-37--are regarded as ideal for enforcing the U.N.-imposed ban against heavy weapons in a zone around the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. They can direct lethal return fire at an offending artillery piece before its gun crew has time to move the weapon.

The only snag in deploying the radar--now seemingly resolved--had been over whose troops would take up ground positions to operate it. The radar units, now at U.S. Army bases in Europe, will be leased to the United Nations for 10 months for a fee of $1.2 million.

The move is in line with President Clinton’s pledge not to send U.S. ground troops to Bosnia until all three warring factions--Serbs, Croats and Muslims--have signed a formal peace accord and are willing to see it enforced by U.N. peacekeeping units.

The United States will train 60 Jordanian ground troops to operate the units. The training is expected to take about two weeks, and the equipment should be in place by early April.

A TPQ-37 requires a crew of 12 and can be used against artillery and mortar units, both of which are common in Bosnia. The TPQ-36 needs eight operators but can be used to locate only mortars.

Britain and France have sent their versions of counter-battery radar to Bosnia--along with troops to operate them. But that gear can be used to locate only mortars, not artillery or other weapons.

The systems, first used by U.S. Army forces in the early 1980s, are standard equipment in almost every Army division. Three have been deployed in Somalia to help protect U.N. forces there.