During the 1970s, Yugoslavia and Romania began planning the development of a new ground attack aircraft
to replace both the lightly armed Soko J-21 Jastreb and the Republic F-84 Thunderjet that were then in the Yugoslav People's Army's arsenal
The result was the Soko J-22 Orao, a light ground attack and tactical reconnaissance aircraft with a secondary low-level interceptor role
Romanian version is designated as the IAR-93 Vultur
Currently Serbian Air Force operates a total of 32 J-22 Orao aircraft
The J-22 has a length of 13 m, a wingspan of 9.3 m, a height of 4.52 m, an empty weight of 5.5 tons, and a maximum take-off weight of 11 tons
It is a single seat, twin-engine attack aircraft with a simple structure and was built using both indigenous and license-produced avionics and equipment
The twin-seat version, the NJ-22, was primarily assigned for various training purposes
including the advanced flight and weapons training syllabuses, but could also be used for combat missions
The exterior design of the J-22 is quite typical for a combat aircraft of the cold war era
The cockpit was set aft of a short nose cone with a raised fuselage spine blocking views to the rear
Intakes were set outside of the cockpit walls
The pilot sat in an ejection seat under a lightly-framed, single-piece canopy offering good forward and side vision
The wing mainplanes were high-mounted and each assembly afforded a pair of hardpoints
The tail included a single vertical tail fin and two very low-set horizontal planes
The twin engine arrangement exhausted through a pair of circular jet pipes under the tail fin
The undercarriage was of a tricycle configuration with double-wheeled main legs and a single-wheeled nose leg
At the heart of the J-22 are two Turbomecanica-built Rolls-Royce Viper Mk 633-47 turbojets, with 17.79 kN dry thrust each, and 22.24 kN with afterburner
The aircraft can reach a maximum speed of 1,130 km/h at sea level, and up to Mach 0.96 at an altitude of 11,000m
Its combat range is 522 km, Ferry range is 1,320 km, service ceiling is 15,000 m, and Rate of climb is 89 m/s
The standard armament of the J-22 is a pair of 23mm GSh-23L internal cannons for close-in work
Five hardpoints were used to carry various external ordnance options including missiles, conventional drop bombs, and rocket pods
Supported weapons including AGM-65 Maverick guided missiles, Matra Durandal runway denial bombs, and cluster bombs
The aircraft could haul up to 6,200lbs in stores
The J-22 Orao made its maiden flight in November 1974
The aircraft entered service with the air forces of both Romania and Yugoslavia, as well as several of Yugoslavia's successor states
During the 1990s, the type saw action during the Yugoslav Wars, typically flying ground-attack missions in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo
Currently, the Serbian Air Force and Air Defence was the only entity still operating the type