Documents / FOIA release
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.
“The Advance”37 pages
cal, radiological) protective system to allow operations missiles on the same vehicle-a characteristic which in a toxic or radioactive environment. provides greater operational flexibility. 19. Variants of the BMP are also entering the Soviet 24. Replacement of the S-60 gun system with SA-6s ground forces in increasing numbers. These include and SA-8s has proceeded much more rapidly in Soviet the M-1974 command vehicle, the M-1975 surveil- forces in Eastern Europe than in those in the USSR or lance vehicle, and the M-1976 reconnaissance vehicle, NSWP forces. Two-thirds of Soviet tank and motor- which is replacing the PT-76, the only light tank in ized rifle divisions in Eastern Europe have been service. The BMD, a lightly armored, airdromppahle, equipped with one or another of these systems. (See assault vehicle is assigned to Soviet airborne divisions. table II-2.) Only about 10 percent of Soviet divisions in It is amphibious and has the same weapons as the the USSR and four NSWP divisions have SA-6s, larger 3MP, plus two additional machineguns. however, and no SA-8s have been fielded yet with 20. The NSWP ground forces are on the whole still non-Soviet forces. SA-6 regiments have been deployed predlomiantly equipped with older A PCs. The East at army level, however, in most NSWP countries. S-60 German, Czechoslovak, and Polish ground forces, guns replaced by mobile SAMs may be reorganized German,~~~~~~~~~ mzcolvkn ois rudfre, ito AA units for additional air defense of fronts orhowever, have large numbers of the more modern armies. APCs, including some 1,600 BMPs and several thou- sand BTR-60s or a Czechoslovak/Polish-manufactured 25. Pact ground forces are also equipped with the equivalent. Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria are SA-7 Grail and SA-9 Gaskin missile systems. The SA-7 largely equipped with older APCs. Overall, the NSWP is fielded at the company level. It is a man-portable ground forces have about 11,000 APCs. system with an infrared homing missile and is de- 21. Ground Force Air Defense Systems. Pact Table II-2 ground forces opposite NATO are equipped with a variety of tactical surface-to-air missile (SAM) and Status of Air Defense Modernization in antiaircraft (AA) gun systems. A program to replace Warsaw Pact Ground Force Divisions gun systems and older SAMs with more mobile SAM Opposite NATO a systems was begun in the late 1.960s and continues, January 1979 with Soviet units in Eastern Europe and along the - Sino-Soviet border receiving highest priority. Upgrad- Equipped With ing of the remaining Soviet units and of the NSWP forces is proceeding more slowly. Divisions b SA-6 SA-8 AA Soviet 22. The SA-4 Ganef, a long-range, medium-to-high- In Eastern Europe 31 19 5 7 altitude SAM system (see figure II-5), has replaced the In the USSR 72 7 1 64 older, less mobile SA-2 Guideline in Soviet front- and Total 103 26 6 71 army-level organizations. The SA-4 system represents a maior improvement over the SA-2 because it has NSWPd EatGermany 6 3 - 3 twice the range and each launcher has two missiles East Germany13 - - 13 available for refire. It has begun to appear in the Czechoslovakia 10 - - 10 inventories of Czechoslovak, East German, and Polish Hungary 6 1 - 5 forces as well, but in fewer numbers. Each of these Romania 10 - - 10 forces has deployed only one SA-4 brigade. The SA-3 Bulgaria 6 - - 6 Goa is still fielded with Soviet ground forces in the Total 51 4 47 forward area for point defense of airfields. _---- _- ---------- --__ Grand Total 154 30 6 118 23. The SA-6 Gainful and SA-8 Gecko systems are -Seefootnote to table II-1, following paragraph 3. designed to replace the S-60 57-mm AA gun as b Does not include airborne divisions or the Polish Sea Landing division-level air defense weapons. The SA-6 is a Division. mobile, medium-range, low-to--medium altitude sys- . Most combat-ready and some reduced-strength or cadre divi- tem. The SA-8 is a highly mobile, low-altitude system sions are also equipped with SA-9s and the ZSU-23-4 gun systems. wvith approximately one-half the maximum missile All Pact divisions probably have the man-portable SA-7.ritane o imelyAf T heSA-8muismuniiu e amongPact Does not include nine army-level SA-6 regiments in Polish,rantge of the SA-6. The SA-8 is unique among Pact Czechoslovak, Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian ground forces. SAM systems in that it carries both its radar and s-- 11-7 oTp-Se et
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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.