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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. 83 …local coastal areas in conjunction with air and ground forces and for protection of Soviet interests…
  • p. 100 …A Soviet naval surface force conducted a goodwill cruise into the Indian Ocean which involved port…
Soie t co ± ,1alantiship defense -is
provided in all fleet areas by guided-missile patrol
boats of the Osa and Komar classes. These two classes
carry the effective Styx surface-to-surface missile
which has a range of about 15 nautical miles..
Traditional Soviet naval interest in
mine warfare is being continued with the production
of Yurka and Vanya classes of minesweepers. Production
of naval auxiliary ships is centered.. on those kinds
of units which are complementary to the Soviet sub-
marine force--Ugra-class tenders and Lama-class .missile
support ships. Other auxiliaries of a submarine sup-
port nature are being constructed to expand and im-
prove the Soviet mobile.base concept.
Construction of amphibious ships and
craft is continuing. Production of the Polnocnyy
class in Poland for the USSR has slowed to about six
units per year; there are now about 30 units in the
Soviet navy. Construction of the Alligator class is
continuing at about two units per year. The Alligator
class is the largest Soviet ship in the amphibious
category. It may be more suitable as a military
transport ship than a landing ship because of its
deep draft. There are now four Alligator-class ships
in the Soviet fleet. The first unit of a new
landing craft designated Vydra, was completed in
1967. About seven units are now in service.
c. Naval Air Forces
(1) Bomber Forces
The SNAF'bomber forces consist
of about 40 TU-95 Bear heavy reconnaissance aircraft,
more than 500 TU-16 Badger and TU-22 Blinder medium
bombers and air-to-surface missile (ASM) carriers,
and approximately 60 IL-28 Beagle light bombers.
There has been relatively little change in these
forces during the past year. (See Table 6, opposite
page.)
Production of reconnaissance
variants of the TU-95 has continued at a rate of
about one aircraft per month. The 40 Bears in ser-
vice by mid-1968, represent an increase of 10 aircraft
since mid-1967. Most or all of the TU-95's are be-
lieved to be the Bear D model.
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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.