Zoltán Dani
| Zoltán Dani | |
|---|---|
Zoltán Dani
|
|
| Born |
23 July 1956 Kovin, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia |
| Allegiance |
SFR Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro |
| Years of service | Retired in 2004 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Unit | 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade |
| Commands held | 3rd battery of the 250th Missile Brigade |
| Battles/wars | Kosovo War |
Zoltán Dani (Serbian Cyrillic: Золтан Дани) (23 July 1956 in Kovin) is a former colonel of the Yugoslav Army and former commander of the 3rd battery of the 250th Missile Brigade, which shot down an F-117 Nighthawk near the village of Buđanovci on 27 March 1999, during the Kosovo War. The hit was achieved with a SA-3 Goa SAM system. He was initially unknown to the public and aliased with the name Gvozden Đukić. However, upon retiring from the military, he revealed his identity.
Dani claimed that his battery also shot down an F-16 which according to NATO was lost due to "mechanical failure"; according to the crashed F-16's pilot, his aircraft was a victim of a SAM weapon.
Since retiring from military service, Dani has been working as a baker in his native village Skorenovac. He is an ethnic Hungarian from Serbia and his family originates from present-day Romania.
Based on experiences of the 1982 Lebanon War, constant relocation of all assets was key to survival of Dani's unit, the 3rd missile detachment of the 250th Serbian Air Defence Battalion. Although the SA-3 / "S-125M Neva" system is not a mobile SAM complex per design, its solid fueled missiles are transportable in near combat ready condition (in fact the Polish Armed Forces and Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces each created mobile versions of the SA-3 on T-72 tank and T-55 tank chassis respectively in the 1990s).
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Wikipedia