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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…
The commitment of Soviet naval and air forces
on a continuing basis. to the Mediterranean carea fore-
shadows further such deployment elsewhere. However,
the USSR's present:naval capabilities place constraints
on the potential number.of such ventures. Generally
speaking, the Soviets need a total of.three combatant
vessels for each one kept deployed, and therefore
another undertaking the, size of that in the Mediter-.
ranean would severely strain the Soviet Navy.
For the last 15 months the Soviets have
maintained a force of about ten surface combatants
in the Mediterranean, in addition to .the militarily
more significant submarine force (see Figure ,, below)..
Since March 1968, Soviet naval aviation has been oper-
ating a small TU-16 reconnaissance squadron based in
the United Arab Republic
It is the first Soviet naval.air
deployment abroad and further reflects the new Soviet
willingness to use military power away from the security
of the homeland.
Figure 2
USSR: Combatant Strength of Mediterranean Squadron
. June 1964 -August 1968
SURFACE SHIPS
15
10 -
1964 1965 1966 1967 1968
SUBMARINES
- All types -
10 Nuclear-powered -
1964 1965 1966 1967 1968
- 10

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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.