Mahovljani lies on the plain north of Banja Luka, in the municipality of Laktaši, and shares its runway with Banja Luka International Airport. According to English Wikipedia, construction began in 1976 as an airport for domestic traffic within Yugoslavia; it opened to civil traffic only on 18 November 1997, after the war. The ministry of defence calls the military side “vojni aerodrom Mahovljani”, the military aerodrome.

The field’s military history starts with the collapse of Yugoslavia. English Wikipedia, drawing on Tim Ripley’s Conflict in the Balkans 1991–2000, says the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) established its own air force at Banja Luka in May 1992 with the support of the Federal Yugoslav air force. The Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina date the formation to 1992 as well: in May 2026 they marked its 34th anniversary here. Ripley’s 1995 order of battle puts the 92nd Air Brigade, with the 238th Fighter Squadron and the 92nd Multi-role Squadron, at Banja Luka airport, flying Soko J-22 Orao and J-21 Jastreb attack jets and G-4 Super Galeb trainers, and an 11th Helicopter Regiment with Gazelles and Mi-8s at nearby Zalužani. None of the unit numbers could be checked against an official source.

The United Nations banned military flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. English Wikipedia says the Republika Srpska air force nonetheless continued combat sorties, and that all sides, including the VRS, used helicopters extensively for resupply in 1993 and 1994 while largely keeping fighter aircraft on the ground.

The best-known clash of the period carries Banja Luka’s name but did not start here. On 28 February 1994, according to the accounts summarised by English Wikipedia (citing the historians Bojan Dimitrijević and Daniel Haulman and the CIA’s Balkan Battlegrounds), six J-21 Jastrebs took off from Udbina, in the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia, to attack the Bratstvo factory at Novi Travnik, and were intercepted by US Air Force F-16Cs flying for NATO’s Operation Deny Flight. The same accounts credit Captain Robert Wright with three and Captain Stephen Allen with one, and say that according to Republika Srpska and Krajina records a fifth J-21 was also lost. Wikipedia calls it the first combat action in NATO’s history. The figures have not been checked against the original sources.

After Dayton, Bosnia and Herzegovina kept two armies, and two air arms. The ministry’s own history of the brigade says the Presidency committed the country to Euro-Atlantic integration in mid-2001, that the aviation elements of the two entity armies held their first joint exercise in the spring of 2004, and that the Air Force and Air Defence Brigade was formally established on 17 September 2007 at the Zalužani barracks in Banja Luka. English Wikipedia dates the merger to 2006, when the unified armed forces were created; 2007 is the brigade’s own formal founding date.

The unified brigade kept the Banja Luka sites. Its history names Zalužani barracks, Kozara barracks and the Mahovljani aerodrome in Banja Luka, and a Kozara reconnaissance post near Prijedor, alongside Rajlovac in Sarajevo. The jets did not survive the reform; what flies from Mahovljani today are helicopters.

The ministry placed the 1st Helicopter Squadron at Mahovljani by April 2020, and its open-day reports describe Gazelle helicopters, Mi-8Ts and, oddly, a “Soko J-22 Jastreb”, a name that mixes the J-22 Orao and the J-21 Jastreb; which type is on display is not stated more precisely. The 2025 report calls the Mi-8Ts on show “old non-operational” exhibits. On 28 April 2025 the squadron’s UH-1H II Hueys moved here from Rajlovac barracks in Sarajevo, the ministry said, after crew training and certification that had begun in late 2021.

The work is now mostly civil support: medical evacuation, search and rescue, transport and firefighting. On 25 August 2026 the 1st Helicopter Squadron flew six hours over Trebinje and dropped 73 tonnes of water, including on a fire started by a broken power line south of the town. In December 2025 it hosted part of a joint medical evacuation exercise with EUFOR helicopter units, run at Mahovljani, Rajlovac and Butmir. Politically, the base remains sensitive ground: the state armed forces commemorate the Republika Srpska air force’s anniversary here, with a memorial service for its fallen, attended in 2026 by the brigade commander and Republika Srpska officials.