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OSR Contribution to NIE 11-14-68, Soviet and East European General Purpose Forces, CIA/DI/OSR, October 1968.

Central Intelligence Agency · 115 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is an October 1968 contribution by the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of Strategic Research to National Intelligence Estimate 11-14-68 on Soviet and East European general purpose forces. It covers Warsaw Pact war plans for Central Europe, the effects of the Czechoslovak crisis, and the doubling of Soviet forces on the Chinese border since 1965. It also assesses ground, tactical air, naval and coastal defense forces. The text does not mention UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena.

  • p. 26 …East European field army headquarters do not exist as separate entities in peacetime but are formed…
  • p. 41 …The Front headquarters is formed by cadres from the Polish Ministry of National Defense, supplemented with…
  • p. 45 …but is subordinate to the Airborne Forces Headquarters at Moscow. There are fewer combat support units…
  • p. 59 …No separate headquarters for tactical air forces (TAF) exists on a national level. Instead, the forces…
  • p. 99 …easy since-Vladivostok headquarters and Soviet naval bases are within one day's steaming distance of…
TOF}SECRET
n anll:..This .ue supporueasoviet submarines
of the E and F classes and possibly an N-class unit.
Northern fleet submarines were observed in company
with this group on six occasions. One E-II-class
submarine was deployed with the group during its
entire six-month deployment.
This logistic support experiment
was probably a feasibility test. If adopted opera-
tionally, this type of support would extend the de-
ployments of out-of-area submarines and reduce the
time involved in transit from home bases.
Out-of-area afloat support has been
provided to the Mediterranean squadron by submarine
tenders, oilers, water carriers, and repair and rescue
ships. These ships have usually operated from the
fleet anchorages established throughout the Mediter-
ranean and Arab ports. Merchant fleet tankers have
delivered oil to the Port Said naval oil storage
depot and directly to fleet units.
Some improvement in logistic support
operations--such as the limited adoption of the
alongside refueling technique used by Western
navies--has been observed during the past year or
so, but in general the effectiveness of the Soviet
naval rear service has improved slowly and. it lags
the US in underway replenishment techniques.
-. 103 -
TO5TLGRET

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 115 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.