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…
CHAPTER II
WARSAW PACT FORCES FOR THEATER WARFARE
1 Warsaw Pact forces for operations against NATO Table II-1
can best be described in terms of major groupings: Warsaw Pact Ground Force Manpower
Ground, tactical air, and air defense forces in Opposite NATO *
Eastern Europe and in the military districts of January 1979
the USSR opposite NATO, and possibly these Soviet NSWP Total
types of forces in the Moscow, Volga, Ural, and
Turkestan Military Districts. East Germany 365,000 106,000 471,000
Poland 35,000 232,000 267,000
Czechoslovakia 68,000 143,000 211,000
-- Naval forces of the three Soviet European fleets Hungary 59,000 72,000 131,000
and the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact (NSWP) Bulgaria - 105,000 105,000
countries. Romania - 140,000 140,000
USSR 553,000 - 553,000
- Most medium- and intermediate-range and some Total 1,080,000 798,000 1,878,000
intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Soviet
Strategic Rocket Forces. *Includes Soviet and East European forces in the non-Soviet
Warsaw Pact countries (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria) and Soviet forces in the Baltic,
- Most interinediate-range and some long-range Belorussian, Carpathian, Leningrad, Odessa, Kiev, North Caucasus,
bombers of Soviet Long Range Aviation. and Transcaucasus Military Districts of the USSR. This note applies
to all the tables in chapter 1t.
2. Pact forces opposite NATO are predominantly SECET
Soviet, but NSWP forces make a significant contribu-
tion and indeed are critical to Soviet strategy for 4. Since the late 1960s, overall Pact ground force
conflict in Europe. Since the mid-1960s both Soviet manpower has increased substantially. Pact forces in
and NSWP forces have been characterized by a Central Europe-where our information is best-have
growth in manpower and equipment and by modern- increased more than the forces opposite NATO's
ization programs to improve their capabilities. Overall, flanks. Ground force manpower in the Soviet Groups
the changes of the past decade or so have made these of Forces in Central Europe, for example, has expand-
forces more balanced and operationally flexible, with ed by some 75,000 men since the late 1960s, while the
improved capabilities for both nuclear and nonnuclear East German, Polish, and Czechoslovak ground forces
warfare. have registered an increase of 65,000 men.' About
three-fourths of this increase took place before 1973.
A. Warsaw Pact Ground Forces Figure II-1 depicts several important trends in War-
saw Pact ground forces in Central Europe.
Manpower Equipment
3. Warsaw Pact ground forces opposite NATO
number about 1.9 million men. The Soviet Union 5. Pact ground forces are well equipped with weap-
accounts for roughly half of the total or just over 1 ons either of Soviet origin or patterned after Soviet
million men. About half of these Soviet forces are models. The equipment inventory is being continually
stationed in Eastern Europe and half in the military modernized with the introduction of new, improved
districts of the USSR that are opposite NATO. The size ,The transfer of some Polish territorial forces to the active
and distribution of these forces are shown in table Il-1. ground forces accounts for a portion of this increase.
TI- t

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.