Documents / FOIA release
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.
“Indian Air Force”2 pages
tance of the TAF bomber, the -emphasis has been on interceptor and ground attack aircraft. The continued importance of air defense as a task of Front aviation is reflected by the fact that two-thirds of the new- generation aircrat-in tne orce are a r isther I G - 2 Fishbeds. Most of the other new aircraft are SU-7 fighter-bombers assigned to ground attack units. a. Air Defense Nearly all regiments having a primary mission of air defense are now equipped with Mach 2.0 MIG-21 Fishbed interceptors. The extensive deployment of these aircraft provides the Soviet TAF with a good air defense capability at medium and high altitudes (3,000 to 70,000 feet) under all weather conditions. The MIG-21's are highly maneuverable and are armed with heat-seeking or radar-guided air-to-air missiles (AAM's). The air defense capability continues to be weak at low altitudes.. The best low-altitude interceptor is the YAK-28P Firebar, which can perform intercepts down to about 1,000 feet. Only 24 of these are currently deployed with Front aviation, however, and since the aircraft no longer is being produced, no further deployment with tactical air units is ex- pected. The ground-attack regiments have a secondary mission of air defense. The SU-7 Fitter and MIG-17 Fresco aircraft assigned to these regi- ments have no airborne intercept (AI) radar, however, and have never been observed with AAM's. This would restrict them to attacks under visual conditions with guns and unguided rockets. The MIG-21 Fishbed was designed in accordance with the Soviet tactical concept of a mobile fighter force capable of operation from dis- persed, hastily prepared airfields in or near the battlefield area. The aircraft may be operated effec- tively from sod or other natural-surface runways. In addition, the design of the MIG-21 permits quick maintenance, refueling, and rearming, thus reducing the time and equipment needed to service the aircraft between missions. - 61 - TOP' 9EGRET
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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.