Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum of 18 December 1961, sent to the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, encloses a verbatim translation of a Soviet article from the top secret 1960 first issue of the special collection of Military Thought. In the article, Colonel-General A. Gastilovich argues that nuclear missiles call for revising Soviet military doctrine. He favors short blitz operations, smaller ground forces and new rescue troops. It mentions "flying saucers" only as ground effect machines for army aviation.
“The Advance”5 pages
- i1 1. (a)(4) condition spells destruction for the landing force. The possibilities are all in favor of its annihiation by nuclearmissile weapons while it is still at its bases or while it is at sea. Surface vessels of the fBeet will not be able to play a signifi- cant role in armed conflict. Their utility will probably be limited to coastal areas under heavy PVO cover for execution of support missions. As far as protection of ocean supply transport is concerned, even now they are of little use for carrying out this mission. -" Antiaircraft defense of troops and the country, as it appears _ to us, is on the correct course of development, chiefly of antis missile resources in the form of the greation of fully autenatic - systems of antiaircraft missiles. The age of tube antiaircraft artillery is irrevocably receding - into the past and it is only in the antiaircraft defense of troops that smll-caliber tube antiaircraft artillery mey still have scae significance for the protection of small subunits fram low-flying aircraft. ' The principal antiaircraft defense of troops and the country - 'must be an autocrtic system of antiaircraft missile installations of various ranges which could cover, not installations, but separate large areas, and could resolve the task of protecting both the -. -troops and the territorial installations of the country (in these - areas). Separate antiaircraft defense of troops, except for the - self-defense of still subunits mentioned above, appears to us to. - - be an antiquated tradition. Fighter aircraft aviation within the system of antiaircraft defense will also become archaic in the near - future. It is needed only until antiaircraft missiles have achieved the necessary technical perfection. " . A now type of forces . In addition to existing types of armed " .,forces the necessity has sprung up, in our opinion, for the creation : -" of a new type of force which is not designated.for direct conduct - - of combat operations, but which is extremely important, nonetheless, under conditions of nuclear/missile war. We have in mind troops, - possibly called rescue-rehabilition, (spasatelno-vosstanovitelnyy) which are designated for operations in the country's interior, in - - areas subjected to enenr nuclear attack. Their basis should cosi t - of medical service and rehabilation units and large units. In contrast to other types of forces, these troops must be " -19- -. I3a)(4) 9"
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 23 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.