FLEXIBILITY IN SOVIET OFFENSIVE CONCEPTS: THE ROLES OF ARMOR AND OTHER GROUNF FORCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00608R000700190003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 25
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 10, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: July 1, 1975
• Content Type: REPORT

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Flexibility in Soviet Offensive Concepts:
The Roles of Armor and Other Ground Forces
Secret
Secret
SR RP 75-4
July 1975
Copy 4 4
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SECRET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
July 1975
Flexibility in Soviet Offensive Concepts:
The Roles of Armor and Other Ground Forces
The arms reduction negotiations between NATO
and the Warsaw Pact have focused renewed attention
on the balance of forces in Central Europe. In
this area, Western defense officials have been
concerned by the-size of Pact armored forces and
the threat they pose to NATO. This concern has
grown as Pact armored forces--already the world's
largest--continue to increase in size and quality.
This paper surveys the evolution of the basic
types of units in the Soviet armored forces, how
they are structured, and how they are to be used
in the event of war.
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Comments and queries regarding this publication are welcome. They
may be directed to of the Theater Forces Division,
Office of Strategic Research,
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SECRET
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Offensive Imperative and Implication for
Armored Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Early Organization and Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Armor in the Era of Massive Nuclear Response .
Growing Concern for Flexibility and Conventional
Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 12
Soviet Combined-Arms Concept for the Offensive
Breakthrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 18
Changing Soviet Ground Force Organization.:
Patterns (Chart) . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . '_n
Soviet Concept of Ground Offensive in Nu-lear
War (Diagram) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
New Soviet Self-Propelled Artillery
(Photographs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Probable Soviet Concept of Movement by 'rank and
Combined-Arms Armies of Wartime Front (Diayv