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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…
dispersal. This provides a high degree of
survivability.
- Pact forces have a high degree of communica-
tions security, both in operating practices and in
security devices.
- The Pact is demonstrating an increasing degree
of interoperability in communications equip-
ment.
- Pact mobile signal units have backup communi-
cations equipment to replace that damaged or
destroyed.
30..
Problems noted inclu-de in-
stances of poor-quality staff and communications per-
sonnel; low Russian-language proficiency on the part
of some Pact staffs; shortcomings in quantity, capacity,
interoperability, maintainability, and security of com-
munications equipment; and failure to fulfill doctrinal
requirements for camouflage and distance between
communications centers and command posts.
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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.