I. INTRODUCTION 1 The Defense Act (Official Gazette, No. 73/2013) 2 The Act on Service in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia (Official Gazette, No. 73/2013) Since the adoption of the Croatian Armed Forces Long-Term Development Plan 2006-2015, significant changes have taken place in the strategic status of the Republic of Croatia. With the accession to Euro-Atlantic integration, the key strategic national goals have been accomplished. In 2009 the Republic of Croatia joined the NATO Alliance and in 2013 became the member of the European Union. Through this membership a stable and long-term security perspective has been achieved. Concurrently, due to economic crisis, the funds allocated for defense have been reduced, whereas the security environment at the global and regional levels generates new security and defense challenges and threats. This altogether requires further adjustments and transformation in the development of Defense Capabilities. Reconsideration of conceptual solutions and available capabilities has resulted in decisions to elaborate and adopt the new legal regulations (the Defense Act1, the Act on Service in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia2), and a series of strategic and planning documents in the field of Defense that will direct further development of the Croatian Armed Forces (hereinafter referred to as “the Armed Forces”). After the implementation of the Strategic Defense Review process, the fi- nal document was adopted by the Government on 25th July 2013. The development of the Croatian Armed Forces Long-Term Development Plan 2015-2024 (hereinafter referred to as “the LTDP”) is a continuation of this process that puts into operation conceptual approaches and the necessity for transforming defense capabilities identified in the Strategic Defense Review. The LTDP is the basic defense planning document defining the long-term projection of development of military capabilities and the required resources. Having considered all aspects of strategic circumstances and available capabilities and resources, the analytical phase played a key role in identifying Target Capabilities to be developed in the upcoming planning period. Within this process, a wide range of scenarios has been developed that can generate the need for the Armed Force engagement. The scenarios were analyzed, along with the probability of each scenario occurring, requirements, security impacts on the state and society, ambitions and possibilities for development of military capabilities that should be employed. Finally, summarization and prioritization were conducted, including harmonization of the type and size of the affordable capabilities which was taken as a basis for defining the size and organization of the Armed Forces. T H E C R O AT I A N A R M E D F O R C E S L O N G − T E R M D E V E L O P M E N T P L A N 2 0 1 5 − 2 0 2 4