Documents / FOIA release

Warsaw Pact Forces opposite NATO, NIE 11-14-79, Volume II, the Estimate, CIA/NFAC, 31 January 1979

Central Intelligence Agency · 201 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is Volume II of National Intelligence Estimate 11-14-79, Warsaw Pact Forces Opposite NATO, issued by the Director of Central Intelligence and dated January 1979. The National Foreign Intelligence Board concurred with it. It was the first comprehensive estimate of Pact forces facing NATO since 1971. It covers Pact doctrine, the ground, air, naval, nuclear and chemical forces, command and control, and campaign plans for war in Europe. It judges that Central Europe would be the decisive arena, and it lists Pact weaknesses in pilot training and antisubmarine warfare. The document contains no UFO material.

  • p. 114 …recently halted Soviet air operations from Conakry. These developments will obviously force the 257. Many officers…
  • p. 115 …order to keep other in establishing effective air cover over supporting lines units operational. of communication…
  • p. 185 …The Soviets could elect to provide combat forces scale commitment of manpower and materiel which to…
  • p. 187 …This force is occasionally aug- forces could not be safely transported by sea or air to…
  • p. 188 …a war, but they couldsome naval and air force weapons (including a few recently introduced Flogger…
Top ere
194. CBR protective equipment supplied to the
individual soldier is judged to be adequate to protect
him in a toxic environment for a matter of hours or
even days, depending on the nature and concentration
of the contaminant. The Soviets have developed field
protective shelters equipped with ventilation systems
providing air from which both toxic particulate matter
and toxic vapors have been removed. Air purification
systems (filter and positive pressure) are being in-
stalled on armored personnel carriers, tanks, and some
trucks. The Soviets have several types of decontamina-
tion trucks that can be used for decontamination of
men, terrain, and equipment, including clothing and
weapons. Agent detector kits and automatic alarms are
available in adequate quantities and are capable of
rapidly detecting all standard lethal Western and
Soviet CW agents. As with othei nations, a critical
weakness for the USSR is the problem of timely
detection of the presence of nerve agents.
195. The Pact has formed CBR defense stations at
most of its air regiments to help these forces operate in
a contaminated environment. Individual protective
equipment and several types of decontamination sta-
tions and vehicles for personnel, equipment, and
aircraft have also been deployed at most major air-
bases. Routine training is conducted in CBR defense-
training which includes alerts and exercises.
196. Some classes of Soviet naval ships have been
equipped with positive-pressure citadels and filtered
ventilation systems to permit them to operate in a
CBR environment. Soviet naval ships have wash-down
systems to enable them to remove CBR contamination.
Some classes of merchant vessels and landing ships
have also been constructed with CBR protective
systems.
F. Forces for Electronic Warfare Forces
197. In the Soviet concept, electronic warfare is a 200. Over the past decade the Soviets have initiated
fundamental part of overall planning and must be a broad series of programs to modernize and expand
integrated into all phases of combat operations. In the their already significant offensive and defensive capa-
early 1970s, a radioelectronic combat (REC) depart- bilities for REC in the European theater. Some of
ment was created within the Staff of the Combined these programs are still at an early stage of develop-
Armed Forces of the Pact to promote electronic ment, however, and will not be completed before the
warfare and to ensure standardization of equipment mid-to-late 1980s. In addition, the Pact is seeking to
and procedures among the Pact armies. improve its organization, procedures, and perform-
ance of REC units, and the abilities of Pact ground,
air, and naval forces to operate under jamming
conditions.
11-61
Tod'See--

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 201 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.