PITFALLS OF ARMY REFORM: OFFICER SCREENING, AIR FORCE FUTURE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Keywords: UFO SPECIAL COLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005517517
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: June 24, 2015
• Document Release Date: January 31, 2011
• Case Number: F-2010-00651
• Publication Date: September 18, 1990

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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED .Status: [STAY]
DocuBent Date: 18 Sep 90 Category: [CAT]
Report Type: JPRS Report Report Date:
Report Number: JPRS-EER-90-149 UDC Number:
Author(s): Jaroslav Spurny: `?Birds of Steel " ]
Headline: Pitfalls of Army Reform: Officer Screening, Air Force
Future
Source Line: 91CHOO1IB Prague RESPERT in Czech 18 Sep 90 p 4
Subslug: [Article by Jaroslav Spurny: "Birds of Steel~~]
FULL TEgT OF ARTICLE:
1. jArticle by 3aroslav Spurny: "Birds of Steel']
2. [Text] In per capita number of war planes Czechoslovakia holds
the highest position in Europe. In this respect, only Bulgaria comes
close to us. France, Great Britain, or the FRG remain far behind us.
3. The Air Force is at this time our most expensive weapon: One air
regiment represents a yearly cast of roughly 1 billion korunas [Kcs].
The expected reduction of war planes should save billions.
4. This military component has one peculiarity as compared to other
types of armed forces--no great savings can be achieved by limiting
the number of aircraft taking off. Support of flights by ground
technology is the same for one plane as it is for 50 planes, whereas
in a tank regiment only four machines can be used for training while
the others are preserved. The training of pilots is also very costly
(about half a billion Kcs). In addition, our Air Force is being
nonsensically modernized by purchases of Soviet equipment (this year
the military bought six HIG-29, one of which costs Kcs50 million). We
are thus totally dependent on the Soviet Union for the delivery of
spare parts. In the present situation, when Czechoslovakia is
considering leaving the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet representatives could
refuse further contracts, and all our Air Force equipment could
become useless. Hungary, for example, is taking care of this threat
by negotiating imports of military equipment from the West.
S. At present Czechoslovakia has 22 military airfields in use. A
big problem is their unbalanced distribution on the territories of
both republics: In Slovakia there are only four (a legacy of former
strategy oriented toward the West). In addition, people living in
Zvolen strongly protest having an airfield close-by in Tri Duby. The
airfield in Kosice belongs to a military school; but it is not
possible to maintain an establishment of more than 1,000 employees
3+5
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for the sake of 15 pilots and 10 navigators. A possible solution is
the training of foreign customers, not, of course, the -
"traditional " Libya or Iraq.
6. The Air Force will probably be cut by half. The number of planes
and personnel calculated per capita will thus decline to that of
Belgium, the Soviet Union, or Romania. Some airfields will have to be
closed down (but the runways will be retained in case there is a
military conflict). Ground forces, whose placement in the vicinity of
towns is untenable for ecological reasons, could be moved to the
airfield areas. These changes will be particularly difficult for the
Ministry of Defense, which is strenuously resisting any kind of
reorganization. But it certainly will not be able to avoid them; in
negotiations on disarmament, the neighboring countries are demanding
the removal of military units a certain distance from the common
borders. It is important which airfields will be kept because their
peacetime arrangement must resemble a wartime one (during peacetime
the main task of the Air Force is defending the sovereignty of air
boundaries).
7. The geographical location of our country is strategically
disadvantageous, and it is practically impossible to design a defense
strategy. The Air Force is a very vulnerable component--its equipment
can be concealed only with difficulty. In_the ev_en_t_ of a local
conflict with a better equipped adversary it would be destroyed
within three days, and we could as quickly destroy a weaker
adversary. It is therefore necessary to determine a "reasonable
defensive sufficiency " (not a "defensive sufficiency's such as in
the United States or the USSR, whose military equipment can checkmate
the enemy). Experts should decide the amount of equipment that would
be sufficient fn respect to potential conflicts and especially to
financial possibilities.
8. The Air Force was divided into two components. The first one,
with the code designation "VL" was to protect troops "marching
toward the Rhine " , and the other one-- " PVOS " --provided protection
for the rear. The quality of the equipment was top rate within the
framework of the Warsaw Pact, but from the global point of view only
average, including the four air regiments of fighter bombers of a
strictly attacking nature about which negotiations are now in
progress in Vienna. We shall probably have to?reduce their number
considerably.
9. The Air Force owns 407 combat aircraft.. The most modern of them
is the fighter plane MIG-29, which can be armed with air-to-air
missiles or with classic bombs. There is practically no civilian use
for it; except perhaps for investigating " unindentified flying
objects " . The MIG-23, equipped with missiles against air and ground
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targets, guns, and bombs, is the most versatile of the combat
aircraft. In addition, the Air Force has supersonic bombers SU-22M4,
armored fighter planes SU-25K, and transport planes TU-154-B-2. In
view of the natural terrain our most needed weapon is the fighter
helicopter MI-24 with a four-barrel machine gun, air-to-ground
missiles, and guided antitank missiles. It is not dependent on a
runway as are planes, and it can be effectively operational within a
few minutes. It can be easily put to peace time use, for example
during natural disasters.
10. Obviously, the reduction of the Air Force will also affect the
pilots. Here we shall have problems. The training is very demanding
and expensive. In addition, military pilots comprise a relative
unusual group which did not have enough opportunities to become
politically compromised. Of 40 generals who underwent clearance
proceedings, only two did not pass the verification commission. A
similar situation exists in case of pilots of lower rank.
11. The problems of the Air Force cannot be judged separately from
the problems of the other components of the Armed Forces. Minister
Vacek said at one time that a professional army is too expensive. It
seems that an excessive and unnecessarily expensive Air Force does
not bother any one.