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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…
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56. Tactical aircraft attacking HAWK units would aircraft, orbiting over East Germany and Czechoslova-
seek to destroy their fire control radars and associated kia at 6,000 meters, could cover most NATO ground-
electronics vans by using cannon fire and unguided based radars throughout West Germany.
bombs anl rockets. Area denial weapons such as
cluster bomb units are also known to be in the Pact 60. Escort jamming for the main strike force would
inventory and would facilitate an attack on dispersed be provided by LRA's specialized ECM aircraft,
targets. Pact tactical aircraft could also use the AS-7 which carry both jammers and chaff. About 20 per-
Kerry tactical air-to-surface missile, but its effective- cent of the LRA Badger force opposite NATO (65
ness is limited by its small warhead, poor accuracy, Badger H/J aircraft) currently has a dedicated ECM
and the vulnerability it imposes on the delivery air- role. About 40 Brewer E aircraft in Soviet Frontal
craft because of the requirement to guide it to the Aviation arc also available to provide standoff or
target. Some attacks might also be carried out by escort jamming support. All Soviet bombers and a few
tactical aircraft equipped with AS-10 laser-guided or types of Pact fighters are equipped with onboard
AS-9 antiradiation missiles. jammers for use against air intercept and surface-to-air
missile radars. Large numbers of Pact tactical aircraft
57. In recent years, LRA bombers may have simu- can also be equipped with ECM pods, but this would
lated attacks against NATO's Air Defense Ground reduce their weapons-carrying capability.
Environment (NADGE) radars using longer range
antiradiation missiles. It would be logical for an attack . 6L The main strike force would follow closely the
on these major air defense radar sites, and on the field- defense suppression raids carried out by tactical air
transportable tactical air control system (TACS) ra- units and would be intended to deliver the brunt of
dars, to precede the main defense suppression effort. the attack against NATO airfields, command and
Some missile-equipped LRA bombers could also be control facilities, and nuclear-related targets. LRA
used against NATO air defense missile sites, especially bombers would constitute the primary attacking force.
those protecting important LRA targets in the NATO Soviet planning factors indicate that the bomber force
rear areas. is large enough to attack simultaneously all 1I airfields
in Central Europe which support NATO's nuclear
58. A related aspect of the Air Operation would be delivery aircraft in peacetime. Some tactical fighter-
a large-scale, coordinated jamming effort aimed at bombers would also be used to attack airfields. The
disrupting NATO's air defense radars and comnuni- increased combat radius, payloads, and improved mu-
cations links. The Pact is expected to depend heavily nitions of late-model Pact fighter-bombers enhance
on airborne as well as ground-based electronic counter- their effectiveness in this role.
measures (ECM) to facilitate penetration of NATO
airspace. Techniques are expected to include the
employment of both chaff and broadband noise jam-
ming. The operating frequencies of current NATO air
defense radars are well known and are covered by
existing Pact noise jammers. Pact ground force ECM
units would probably concentrate on the ultrahigh-
frequency (UHF) ground-to-air and air-to-air commu-
nications used to control NATO interceptor oper-
ations. Line-of-sight considerations, however, would
probably limit their effectiveness against NATO air
defense radars.
59. Jamming of NATO's various early warning, 63. Aerial reconnaissance would be conducted dur-
ground-controlled intercept, and acquisition radars ing the Air Operation, primarily by tactical aircraft, to
would be the responsibility of airborne electronic- provide Pact commanders with intelligence needed for
warfare-equipped aircraft such as the AN-12 Cub subsequent targeting and to determine the number
C/D. This aircraft, carrying up to 20 transmitters, can and scope of succeeding assaults. The Pact has three
jam all NATO aircraft control and warning radar primary types of tactical aircraft available for recon-
frequencies. Because of its vulnerability, the Cub C/D naissance: the MIG-25 Foxbat B/D, the YAK-28R
would probably be used in a standoff jamming role. Brewer D, and MIG-21R Fishbed H. Foxbats would
We estimate, for example, that as few as 10 of these probably photograph results of strikes against airfields
IV-16
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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.