Barkovic was called by Gotovina's defence team to testify as an expert witness as he has been involved in the training of officers and noncommissioned officers since the very establishment of the HV.
The witness today testified about problems in the training of noncommissioned officers such as lack of time due to the war and Croatia's need to defend itself as well as due to other war circumstances.
First courses for noncommissioned officers, who were people coming from the battlefield, took only a week. Later they were prolonged to two weeks or one month and later to three months, he added.
The witness explained that any noncommissioned officer who distinguished himself on the battlefield would soon be promoted to a higher rank.
"All of this led to a permanent shortage of noncommissioned officers and this, alongside the incessant fluctuation of staff, resulted in insufficient quality of those performing those duties and in discipline slipping away as well as in poorer combat results," he told the UN tribunal in The Hague.
The witness said that General Gotovina had also noticed this problem and therefore proposed some measures to reverse this, such as the establishment of a centre for the training of noncommissioned officers.
During cross-examination, the witness refuted the prosecution's allegations that noncommissioned officers showed a lack of interest to prevent crimes which had been perpetrated during and in the wake of Operation Storm in August 1995, when the Croatian Army retook southern and central Croatian areas from rebel Serbs.
The three generals are accused of war crimes from that period according to their command responsibility.