Documents / FOIA release

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. 52 …strikeseight yeaa -no-socnuas-s-ne--or-roe-0Fattl (msting the forward dueto an absence of…
Figure 12
Air Forces Operating Areas in the Initial Massed Nuclear Strike
in the Western Theater of Military Operations
' .. a~;~ :. 10 m ~~asno~m. ww
-T"" - *A"M~o~eeI~Il dL
' British
I ~strategic '
C zone> ' ~
lt4etold a,, O -
rbEastEuropean
i=VStik deacto lines' .t i
s c Ar -f.zrke b
B dg .M suborderand st zon
Backfire BWndesr -X1O b
.nhigh-altitude - hih-eitlmude d n s-
radFus radluse Fn
strateg c
strategic
- zone
-r by Forward edge of battle area
-Strike demarcation line
- Area of strikes -
/r TMO-subordiate forcese
-- - -- Western TMO boundary -
- In this example we assume that the imitial massed nuclear strike" occurs on the second or third day of the Pact offensive and that the
strike demarcation limeis locatecd at a depth of up to 200 km beyond
the FEBA.
bWe assume that the strategic aviation Fencers are subordmnate to
the Western TMO high command and are operating in the area
within the demarcation line and that the Baltic Sea Fleet-also a
Western TMO asset-is responsible for targets in the North Sea,
We also assume that the strategic aviation medium bombers are not
operationally subordmnate to the Western TMO high command.
" The action radii of medium bombers are measured from repre-
sentative peacetime operatimg bases in the western USSR. These
radii do not include indhlght refuching or the added coverage
afforded by the range of air-to-surface missiles.
55 . y'a , r".ti 41?- . s v!"ToD SeCret

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. 95 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.