WARSAW PACT JOURNAL: THE NAVIES OF THE FRATERNAL COUNTRIES

Document Type: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
0001431511
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
U
Document Page Count: 
15
Document Creation Date: 
June 19, 2017
Document Release Date: 
June 19, 2017
Sequence Number: 
Case Number: 
SC-2007-00006
Publication Date: 
November 28, 1980
File: 
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PDF icon DOC_0001431511.pdf1.08 MB
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA HISTORICAL RELEASE PROGRAM JUNE 2017 3Y57 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 AR 70-14 rar-SEGREL\ THIS Documor: MAY NOT DE REPRODUCED CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WASHINGTON. D.C. 20505 28 November 1980 MEMORANDUM FOR: The Director of Central Intelligence FROM : John N. McMahon Deputy Director for Operations SUBJECT : WARSAW PACT JOURNAL: The Navies of the Fraternal Countries 1. The enclosed Intelligence Information Special Report is part of a series now in preparation based on articles from a SECRET Soviet publication called Information Collection of the Headquarters and the Technical Committee ol theMmbined Armed Forces. This article is one of number devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact. It briefly surveys trends in the development of US and NATO naval forces and then outlines the major achievements of the Warsaw Pact maritime countries since the mid-50s in improving the combat capabilities of their navies, with special emphasis on current combined operational and combat training measures designed to strengthen cooperation among the Pact's navies for the purpose of countering the NATO naval threat. This journal is published by Warsaw Pact Headquarters in bscow, and it consists of articles by Warsaw Pact officers. This article appeared in Issue No. 19, which was published in 1980. 2. Because the source of this report is extremely sensitive, this document should be handled on a strict need-to-know basis within recipient agencies. Fpr ease of re!erence, from this publication have been assigned the Codewor TS #808324 Copy # 3 ALL PORTIONS CARRY cucciriarroK AND CONTROLS or OVERALL DOCUMENT TOP-41,CREL Page 1 of 15 Pages Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 IttrIEGREL Distribution: The Director of Central Intelligence The Director of Intelligence and Research Department of State The Joint Chiefs of Staff The Director, Defense Intelligence Agency The Assistant to the Chief of Staff for Intelligence Department of the Army Director of Naval Intelligence Department of the Navy The Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence U. S. Air Force Director, National Security Agency Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Director of the National Foreign Assessment Center Director of Strategic Research Director of Scientific and Weapons Research Page 2 of 15 Pages RET Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 TS #808324 Copy # Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 TOPifiCila couNTRYUSSR/WARSAW PACT DATE OF INFO. 1980 Intelligence Information Special Report SUBJECT Page 3 of 15 Pages DATE 28 November 1980 WARSAW PACT JOURNAL: The Navies of the Fraternal Countries SOURCE Documentary Summary: The following report is a translation from Russian of an article from a SECRET Soviet publication called Information Collection of the Headquarters and the Technical CommEtW'Or'ESE7:5E1Fi?R-7a:iiniTWmces. This journal is published by Warsaw Pact Headquarters in Moscow, and it consists of articles by Warsaw Pact officers. This article, part of a series devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact, was written by Admiral V. V. Mikhaylin, Deputy Commander-in-Chief for the Navy of the Combined Armed Forces. The author briefly surveys recent trends in the development of US and NATO naval forces and then outlines the main achievements of the Warsaw Pact maritime countries since the mid-50s in improving the combat capabilities of their navies. These include a major ship-building program and the introduction of new naval weapons and combat equipment. Special emphasis is placed on the operational and combat training measures being carried out in common by the national navies in order to strengthen cooperation among them for the purpose of countering the NATO naval threat. In particular, considerable attention is being paid by the Pact's navies to training for amphibious landing operations and to working out methods of repelling an mem/ landing from the sea. This article appeared in Issue No. 19, which was published in 1980. End of Summary Canrent: Admiral Vladimir Vasilyevich Mikhaylin has served in his current position since February 1979. TS #808324 Copy #_,L. Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 Tar-SeGag.L. Page 4 of 15 Pages The Navies of the Fraternal Countries by Admiral V. V. MIKRNYLIN Deputy Ccommander-in-Chief for the Navy of the Combined Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact member states The personnel of the allied navies are greeting the 25th year of the Warsaw Pact Organization in an atmosphere of high combat and political activity. This glorious anniversary once again demonstrates to the entire world the triumph of Lenin's teaching on the defense of the socialist fatherland and bears witness to the enormous efforts of the communist and workers' parties in the struggle for peace, socialism, progress, and independence and security for all peoples. As we solemnly celebrate the quarter-century anniversary of the Warsaw Pact Organization, we look back upon the victorious spring of 1945, when the final salvos of the great battle against fascism announced to the entire world that Hitler's Germany had been totally defeated. Directing all its efforts to assisting the ground forces, the Soviet Navy made a large contribution to this great victory which took almost four years to achieve. Forty brigades, six separate regiments, and a large number of separate battalions of naval infantry -- a total of more than 400,000 officers, petty officers, and sailors of the USSR's Navy -- fought on the ground fronts. The Navy also conducted an intense struggle against the enemy at sea and supported the operational stability of the coastal flanks of the fronts, assisting the troops in defensive and offensive operations. The Navy smashed the enemy's sea power in all naval theaters TS #808324 Copy #3 TO4ECRET Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 "rar'SECRf.1 Page 5 of 15 Pages adjacent to the coast. More than 1,200 combat vessels and over 1,300 transports of the enemy were destroyed by the strikes of ships and naval aviation in the war years. Throughout the war, the fleets and flotillas supported 114 amphibious landings in which nearly 250,000 men participated. In the postwar period, true to their international duty, the sailors of the Baltic Sea and Black Sea Fleets rendered great assistance to fraternal maritime countries in eliminating the danger of mines in the Baltic and Black seas, particularly at the approaches to ports and naval bases. Tens of thousands of mines were swept up and deactivated by them.* The Soviet Union rendered invaluable assistance to the people's democracies also in establishing, forming, and developing their naval forces. It supplied them with ships and combat equipment, shared its combat experience, and helped organize the training of line officers and specialists. Owing to the selfless assistance of the Soviet Union and the successes In building socialism, the national navies of the fraternal countries were reinforced with modern ships and were able in a short time to work out the organizational structure of units and large units, to prepare cadres of combat seamen, and to establish a system for the basing and control of forces. The first postwar decade, characterized by insignificant evolutionary changes within the framework of the traditional directions of building naval forces, gave way during the next two decades to an extensive introduction into the navies of the newest types of weapons which fundamentally changed their mission. The US and its allies have devoted a great deal of attention to the development of their naval forces. Nowadays they are concentrating heretofore unprecedented naval power in the world's oceans. Its basis now consists of a strategic nuclear grouping of naval-based forces which has 49 nuclear missile submarines (the US has 41 and Great Britain and France have four each) carrying 784 ballistic missiles. * Throughout World War II, the opposing sides laid out a total of 78,000 mines in the Baltic Sea and 45,000 mines in the Black Sea. TS #808324 TOPiaCtE2 Copy # Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 CO1431511 TerifiGitEL. Page 6 of 15 Pages Unremitting attention is being paid to the development of carrier forces, which comprise the backbone of the general-purpose forces and the reserves of strategic nuclear forces. At present, the US and NATO carrier forces include 15 multipurpose and attack aircraft carriers having nearly 1,300 aircraft and helicopters on board. The amphibious forces, which are capable of simultaneously transferring across an ocean and landing up to two expeditionary divisions of naval infantry on an unprepared shore, are an important component of the naval power of the probable enemy. An extensive program is being carried out for constructing new types of multipurpose submarines and surface ships and for increasing the state of technical equipping of a navy's forces with the latest systems of weapons and combat and technical means. One feature in the development of shipborne weapons is the beginning of a massive introduction into service in the navies of NATO countries of the antiship general-purpose Harpoon cruise missiles, with which it is planned to arm surface ships, nuclear submarines, and strike aviation. Considerable attention is also being paid to developing and improving artillery and torpedo weapons, as well as radioelectronic and communications means. Great efforts are being undertaken also to develop mines which can be widely used in both the Baltic and Black seas in offensive and defensive minefields. The US and NATO are steadily building up their military presence in the Mediterranean Sea, where the American Sixth Fleet, the principal instrument of the expansionist policy of imperialism in that region, continues to play the main role in increasing the danger of war. Besides the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea with the straits is viewed by the probable enemy as a springboard for carrying out aggression against the Soviet Union and other fraternal socialist countries. The NATO command attaches great importance to the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and straits zone, and also the Indian Ocean, considering these areas extremely important for the US and West European countries from the military-strategic and economic standpoint. The training of naval forces is being carried out in accordance with US and NATO naval policy and has a clearly expressed aggressive orientation TS #808324 Copy #3 "Thls?SEr