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Warsaw Pact Air Forces: Support of Strategic Operations in Central Europe, CIA/DI/SOVA Intelligence Assessment, January 1985.

Central Intelligence Agency · 95 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Intelligence assessment, dated January 1985, examines how Warsaw Pact air forces would support large strategic operations in Central Europe. It concludes that the Soviets see NATO air power as the greatest threat to a Pact ground offensive. They revised their air supremacy plans in 1980 and 1981 to use sector-concentrated raids and a defensive air operation. The assessment also finds that heavy aircraft losses and limited deep attack capability would remain serious problems. The document has no UFO content.

  • p. 4 …This perceived shift in the air balance-probably caused by a combination of closer French cooperation…
  • p. 35 …an increasingly difficult a large number of cooperating headquarters. It would problem for the Pact air…
  • p. 46 …through NATO's forward air defenses in cooperation of the first two echelons at the con…
  • p. 90 …key role in the usually with the cooperation of other forces. An air front airspace management…
To Secret
Figure 11
Execution of the First Massed Air Raid of a
Typical Initial Air Operation in the Western
Theater of Military Operations
Echelon: Support Strike Third
Roles and objectives Penetration corridors Alrfelds Fighter coverAir defense command Nuclear surface-bo-surfare
posts missiles
Fighter sweeps Aircraft carriers
Blockade airlields Nuclear storage
Mine key runways Fighter cover
Timing ofattacts)1+3 to 11+35 minutes 11+10 to 11+50 minutes 11+25 to 11+90 minutes(iIl- start)
Force distributions 50 percent of Oghter- 100 percent of bombers 40 percent of fightersbombers 50 percent of fighter-
40 percent of fighters bombers
Some jammers 20 percent of fighters
Front missile and artillery Jammer and reconnaissance
forces aircraft
Typical force compositionb 270 Fighter-bombers 290 Medium bombers 350 Fighters350 Fighters 280 Light bombers
15 Jammers 270 Fighters.bombers
175 Fighters
430 Jammers and
reconnaissance aircraft
Note: Italicsindicateprirmib targets f theoperation. This force of over 2,400aircraft concentratesa first massedair raid in theThe forcedistribtinn among echelonsis basedon mid-1970s Soviet sectorof theTMtOthat includesNATO's SecondAllied Tactical Air Forceemploymentcnncepts-the mostrecentavailable, andAllied ForcesBaltic Approaches.TheseFiguresare basedan the
moderateforceair orderof battlein table3. as modifed by theforce
compostion counting rulesin Agure19. An undetermin-d number of
front artillery and SSSI units alsowouldparticipatein defense
suppressionduring theoperation.
Tops$ecret
T es et 38

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 95 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.