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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. 6 'op\Secret %writingsindicate that the newly created wartime theater high command headquarters was designated as the…
  • p. 10 …appendix D wartime of high command headquarters in the most important TMOs as extensions of the…
  • p. 23 …of the initial aircommand, front, and army headquarters, to allow operation also emphasizes the need to…
  • p. 31 …be conducted under the direction of the headquarters of the Sovict Air Defense Forces in Moscow…
  • p. 35 …increasingly difficult a large number of cooperating headquarters. It would problem for the Pact air defense…
  • p. 49 …day during a rapidly presumably high command headquarters would plan moving Pact offensive. Thus, for example…
  • p. 90 …protection for aviation formations and army aviation headquarters airborne and amphibious operations and for strike elements…
  • p. 91 …Front air forces headquarters and corps-size groupings of tactical-level forces. Oper- would coordinate and…
  • p. 93 …Tactical forces ducted for the General Staff and the TMO high have headquarters staffs of limited…
  • p. 94 …Intelligence collection per- formed for ground army and division headquarters, primarily to support the planning and…
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.