Operation Deny Flight - Impact and Legacy

Impact and Legacy

Operation Deny Flight lasted for 983 days and included 100,420 sorties carried out by 4,500 personnel from 12 NATO countries. It included the first combat engagement in NATO history, the Banja Luka incident, and many of NATO's first out of area operations. As such, Deny Flight "represented a momentous act, if only in symbolic terms, in that the alliance assumed a combat mission in a nondefensive capacity and out-of-area". Beyond this symbolic effect, Deny Flight had important consequences for NATO military policy, international relations, and the war in Bosnia.