Flew reconnaissance over Carinthia during the border fighting after the collapse of Austria-Hungary.

When Austria-Hungary collapsed in late 1918, the Slovenian Armed Forces’ magazine records that air companies were formed in Ljubljana and Maribor in 1918, and that on 12 January 1919 two members of the Ljubljana company flew a reconnaissance mission over Carinthia, where Slovene and German-Austrian forces were fighting over the future border. That single flight is the event modern Slovenian military aviation chooses as its birthday. English Wikipedia adds that the personnel and captured aircraft took part in the border conflicts and were absorbed into the air force of the new Yugoslav kingdom in 1919. The names of the two airmen, their aircraft and any further missions were not found in the sources checked, so none are given here. The Carinthian border question was a dispute between neighbours; this entry records only the Slovenian flight and takes no position on the fighting.

Outcome According to English Wikipedia, the units were absorbed into the new Yugoslav kingdom’s air force in 1919.

Only the 12 January 1919 flight is attested in an official source. Crew names, aircraft types, sortie totals and losses are UNVERIFIED and left out.

Flying for

Ljubljana air company (ljubljanska letalska stotnija)

Where

Carinthia

Alongside

No allied air arm

Against

German-Austrian forces in Carinthia

Aircraft

Sorties

Only the flight of 12 January 1919 is documented in the sources checked.

Losses

Not documented in the sources checked.

Sources

Revija Slovenska vojska, January 2025 · Wikipedia

Had no combat aircraft; Territorial Defence units shot down Yugoslav helicopters with shoulder-launched missiles, and the first Slovenian military aircraft arrived by defection on 28 June.

Slovenia declared independence on 25 June 1991, and the Yugoslav army moved to seize border posts the next day. The new state had no air force: on 21 June, according to English Wikipedia, Yugoslav forces had taken the Territorial Defence’s twelve J-20 Kraguj light attack aircraft. The air war was therefore one-sided in the sky and fought from the ground. On 27 June Territorial Defence troops brought down two Yugoslav army helicopters with SA-7 missiles; one, a Gazelle over Rožna dolina in Ljubljana, was carrying bread, and its pilot Toni Mrlak, himself a Slovene, was killed. The Yugoslav air force attacked Ljubljana airport at Brnik, where four Adria Airways airliners were badly damaged and, on 28 June, two foreign journalists were killed nearby. It struck transmitters at Krim, Kum, Trdinov vrh and Nanos to silence Slovenian broadcasting, and on 2 July two MiG-21s hit the Domžale transmitter. The same 28 June, Captain Jože Kalan and flight technician Bogomir Šuštar flew a Yugoslav Gazelle from Maribor to Golte and handed it over; painted TO-001, it was the first Slovenian military aircraft. The Slovenian government’s figures give 45 Yugoslav army dead and 19 Slovenian, and six Yugoslav helicopters destroyed. Yugoslav and Slovenian accounts of the war differ in emphasis; the figures here are the Slovenian government’s.

Outcome The Brioni Declaration of 7 July 1991 ended the fighting; the last Yugoslav troops left Slovenia from Koper on 26 October 1991.

The war start is given as 26 June by the Slovenian Armed Forces and 27 June by English Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s Ten-Day War article calls both journalists killed at Brnik Austrian; its airport article says one Austrian and one German. Yugoslav dead: 44–45 (Wikipedia) against 45 (Slovenian Armed Forces).

Flying for

Territorial Defence of the Republic of Slovenia

Where

Slovenia

Alongside

No allied air arm

Against

Yugoslav People’s Army and its air force (JRViPVO)

Aircraft

SA 341 Gazelle (TO-001, from 28 June)

Sorties

No Slovenian combat sorties; the defected Gazelle’s flights were not counted in the sources checked.

Losses

0 aircraftNo Slovenian aircraft lost. The Slovenian government counts 19 Slovenian dead and 182 wounded against 45 Yugoslav army dead and 146 wounded, and six Yugoslav helicopters destroyed. English Wikipedia also counts 12 foreign nationals killed, among them two journalists killed near Brnik.

Sources

Slovenska vojska · Wikipedia · Ministry of Defence · GOV.SI · Wikipedia · Wikipedia · Wikipedia