and senior field commanders. This was all later unified as Petar Zrinski HV University. In 1994, Croatian Army also established NCO school in Zadar for its all-professional Guards brigades whose main purpose was cunducting offensive operations. These brigades were as follows: 1st Guards Brigade - "The Tigers" 2nd Guards Brigade - "The Thunders" 3rd Guards Brigade - "The Martens" 4th Guards Brigade - "The Spiders" 5th Guards Brigade - "The Hawks" 9th Guards Brigade - "The Wolves" 7th Guards Brigade - "The Pumas" In terms of equipment, the HV also aquired more heavy weapons such as: Argentinian CITER 155 mm field guns, Romanian APR-40 rocket launchers, 21 MiG 21 fighter jets and 8 Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships. According to the assessment of the CIA, based on HV performance in the late stages of Croatian War of Independence as well as Bosnian War - by the late 1995 - Croatian Army became "a premier military organization in the Balkans"; with "excellent staff planning and combined arms capabilities". Some of the battles of from Croatian War of Independence include: Operation Coast-91 (1991) Battle of the Dalmatian channels (1991) Battle of Vukovar (1991) Battle of the barracks (1991) Operation Otkos 10 (1991) Siege of Dubrovnik (1991) Operation Maslenica (1993) Operation Medak pocket (1993) Operation Flash (1995) Operation Storm (1995) Bosnian War In terms of Croatian involvement in Bosnian War, CIA claims that in 1992 Croatian strategy and policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina was shaped by president Tuđman and so-called Herzegovina lobby's vision, who considered that Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be perserved as a unified state. Tuđman apparently considered Banovina Hrvatska as legitimate and desireable model of territorial defining of Croatia. As the war in Croatia entered a ceasefire phase in 1992, while the Bosnian War was only beginning, Zagreb sent shipments of weapons to Bosnian Croats and allowed Bosnian Croats serving in HV to bring their weapons home, where they helped forming the Bosnian Croat army Croatian Defense Council (HVO). In certain cases still nascent HVO forces were commanded and organized by HV officers for which CIA refers to them as HV/HVO. During the 1994 and 1995 Croatia supplied Bosnian 5th Corps defending Bihać with ammunition and medical supplies by an airbridge across Serb held territory. Altogether 101 helicopter flights were organised; out of which 91 ended succesfuly while 10 failed. As Serb forces tightened their grip on Bihać, by the late 1994,