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

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8. In considering a future war with NATO, Soviet
THEATER COMMANDS strategists envision widespread combat operations
encompassing all of Europe and extending into the
The Soviets define a theater of war (teatr North Atlantic. Accordingly, they plan to divide the
voyny-TV) as the territory of any one continent, Western TV into three land TVDs in which they
together with the sea areas adjoining it and the expect Pact and NATO forces to come in conflict. (See
airspace above it, on which hostilities may de- figure 111-4.)
velop-for example, the European Theater of
War. A TV usually includes several TVDs. An- - The Northwestern TVD. Based on the Soviet
other TV presumably would be established in the Leningrad Military District, this theater would
eastern USSR against China and enemy forces in encompass the Scandinavian Peninsula and im-
the Pacific region. Not all of the national forces mediately adjacent waters.
would be detached from national control. Re- - The Western TVD. This theater would include,
sidual forces would be retained under national on the Pact side, Soviet and East European forces
control as territorial defense forces for rear area in East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia
security and as strategic national reserves. and Soviet forces in the western USSR; and, on
A theater of military operations (teatr voyen- the NATO side, West Germany, the Benelux
nykh deystviy-TVD) is defined as a particular nations, Denmark, and possibly France and
territory, together with the associated airspace northern Spain. Pact operations in the western
and sea areas, including islands (archipelagos), Baltic Sea also would be included in this TVD.
within whose limits a known part of the armed - The Southwestern TVD. Soviet planners envi-
forces of the country (or coalition) operates in sion military operations against Greece and Tur-
wartime, engaged in strategic missions which key and probably northern Italy and Austria.
ensue from the war plan. A TVD may be ground, This theater would also include the Black and
maritime, or intercontinental. According to their Mediterranean Seas.
military-political and economic importance,
TVDs are classified as main or secondary. 9. The Soviets also expect major naval operations
against NATO in the North Atlantic to occur in
conjunction with a conflict in Europe. The equivalent
Unlike NATO, the Warsaw Pact does not have theater of the TVD in Soviet maritime strategy is the MTVD,
headquarters in being in peacetime. Hardened com- the Maritime Theater of Military Operations. We are
mand posts have been constructed for at least some less certain about the approximate boundaries of
Pact wartime headquarters, however. MTVDs than we are about those of TVDs. Operations,
exercises, and documentary evidence suggest that the
Western Theater of War: The Warsaw Pact High Soviets would regard an area in the Norwegian Sea
Command north of the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom
(G-1-UK) gap as an MTVD.
7. Arrangements for exercising control of Pact
forces within what the Soviets call the Western (or Fronts
European) Theater of War have been evolving over 10. Regardless of what echelons of command are
the last few years. Although ultimate control of all created to integrate wartime theater-level and strate-
Pact operations continues to be the VGK and the gic operations, the senior tactical command would be
Soviet General Staff, we now have evidence that the front. Although not directly comparable to any
indicates the commander in chief of the combined Western organization, the front would be similar to
armed forces of the Warsaw Pact would control all the NATO army group in size, level of command, and
Pact forces in this theater in wartime. We are less function. A front would usually consist of three to five
certain of how he would do this-whether the High ground armies, each including three to five tank or
Command of the Warsaw Pact would become a motorized rifle divisions, and an air army of as many
component of the Soviet High Command with the as several hundred tactical aircraft. A front operating
responsibility for operational control over forces with- in a maritime sector might also control any naval
in the Western Theater or whether it would form a elements which were chiefly devoted to that front's
separate command entity. mission. The ground forces of the front would also
111-3
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