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.
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Top rt intercontinental nuclear strikes and conventional or Table II-4 nuclear strikes in support of theater forces. Frontal Aviation missions include counterair, ground attack, Warsaw Pact Fixed-Wing Tactical Aircraft reconnaissance, electronic warfare (EW), and helicop- Opposite NATO a ter ground attack and troop lift. The primary mission January 1979 of VTA is the transport of airborne assault forces. In Eastern Europe In the 57. All NSWP countries have air forces for national Soviet NSWP USSR Total b air defense. In addition, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Fighter 765 295 675 1,735 Bulgaria have tactical air forces. East Germany has Fighter-Bomber 450 630 650 1,730 one ground attack unit and Rornania has two. None of Light Bomber 30 - 30 60 the NSWP air forces have sufficient transport aircraft Reconnaissance/EW 175 245 245 665 to support other than small-scale airlift operations. The Total 1,420 1,170 1,600 4,190 current personnel strength of the Soviet air forces opposite NATO is estimated to be about 500,000 and a See footnote to table I-1, following paragraph 3. Also see table B-2 in annex B for a more detailed order of battle of Pact tactical that of the NSWP air forces stands at about 200,000. aircraft. Figure 11-8 shows the geographic disposition of Pact b Tese totals do not include about 1,210 fighters assigned to the air forces opposite NATO. NSWP national air defense commands or trainers and combat reserve aircraft. Tactical Air Forces forces in operations that would be temporarily con- 58. Fixed-Wing Aircraft. There are about 4,600 trolled by a command at a higher level than the front, fixed-wing combat aircraft in Soviet Frontal Aviation . such as at the theater or Moscow level. and another 1,175 in NSWP tactical air units. Al- though there was sizable growth in Soviet Frontal 60. The basic combat unit of Pact tactical air forces Aviation during the late 1960s, primarily because of is the regiment (or wing in the East German Air the buildup against China, the size of Pact tactical air Force), each of which is assigned a primary mission. forces opposite NATO has been relatively stable at There are essentially four types of regiments: fighter approximately 4,200 fixed-wing combat aircraft. We regiments, which would be used primarily in air-to-air have evidence that the Soviets have resubordinated at combat; fighter-bomber and light bomber regiments, least several strategic air defense regiments to Frontal which would be used to attack ground targets; and Aviation. The full extent of these changes is unclear, reconnaissance regiments, which would provide photo- however, and their impact on the structure and size of graphic and electronic reconnaissance. Each regiment Soviet Frontal Aviation has not yet been determined. normally consists of three flight squadrons, and head- Accordingly, these resubordinated aircraft are not quarters, flightline maintenance, and general mainten- reflected in our tabulations of the strength of Frontal ance elements. Fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons Aviation shown in this Estimate. (See table 11-4.) generally have 12 aircraft; and light bomber squad- rons, 10 aircraft. Most fighter and fighter-bomber 59. These forces are divided into air armies or regiments also have six to 10 additional combat air- tactical air elements. Soviet Frontal Aviation is orga- craft for maintenance float, four to six combat-capable nized into 16 air armies, most of which are located trainers, and three to four non-combat-capable train- along the periphery of the USSR in areas adjoining ers for training and administrative purposes. A typical potential combat areas or in Eastern Europe. Non- regiment may number about 500 personnel, including Soviet Warsaw Pact tactical air forces include air some 60 pilots in flight status. Supporting each regi- armies in Czechoslovakia and Poland, an air corps in ment are an independent base maintenance battalion Bulgaria, and some independent fighter-bomber and and a signals battalion manned with as many as 700 reconnaissance units in East Germany and Romania. additional personnel. The size and composition of the air armies vary greatly depending on location and assigned missions. 61. Those Warsaw Pact airforces in Central Eu- The Soviet 16th Tactical Air Army in East Germany is rope for which we have good evidence are manned at the largest and best equipped. In wartime, combat varying levels below their intended wartime personnel operations by individual air armies would usually be strengths. Evidence relating to two of the five Soviet controlled by the various Pact front commanders, air divisions in East Germany, for example, indicates Ihowever, the Pact has plans for the use of tactical air that they are manned at 80 percent of their planned II-16 o t
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 201 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.