SOVIET ACCESS TO WARM-WATER PORTS FROM AFGHANISTAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81B00401R000600120003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 2005
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 2, 1980
• Content Type: SUMMARY

Approved For Release 2005/11/23: CIA-RD~@d1Fjl%J20R
2 January 1980
Soviet Access to Warm-Water Ports From Afghanistan
The Soviet military movement into Afghanistan positions USSR armed forces
little more 40')-:kiliometers by--air from-the Indian Ocean, and'it3revives'speculation
concerning 'the century-old Russian quest for a warm-water port. Between Afghanistan
and the Indian Ocean lies Baluchistan, a periodically troubled tribal territory
that is.divided politically between Iran and Pakistan. Although the Baluchi
coastline,.extendingfor nearly 1,000 kilometers, lacks good natural harbors,
it does have several small ports currently used by local fishing boats and by
sea-going dhows that serve points in the Persian Gulf.
Ports
The best port for development along the Baluchi coast is at Chah Bahar in
.the Irian province of Sistan va Baluchistan. The former Shah had envisioned a
small naval facility there from which shipping in the Gulf of Oman could be
monitored and that would augment Iran's major naval base at Bandar Abaas on the
Strait of Hormuz. Although the naval installations and port improvements necessary
for it never got beyond the planning stage, considerable work was completed on the
airbase. The approximately 3,000-meter runways are. operable, though only limited
support facilities had been completed.
The major advantage of Chah Bahar over other ports on the Baluchi coast is
that during the summer monsoon the sea approaches to Chah Bahar experience more
subdued sea conditions. Nevertheless, much of the embayment at Chah Bahar is
open to onshore surf, and heavy surf is typical of the northern shore of the bay.
Some protection for anchorages is afforded by headlands on either side of the
bay, at the small town of Chah Bahar on the east side, and at Konarak on the west
side where the naval facility was to have been constructed. Depths in the bay
range up to 6 fathoms.
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STAT to
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The Baluchi ports in Pakistan, principally at Gwadar and Pasni, are less
-promising for development. Only small fishing settlements are located there,
they lack easy good road access, and heavy sea conditions frequently preclude
use during the southwest monsoon months. The ferry supply ship between Karachi
and Gwadar, for example, does not operate during the summer months.
Access Routes
Access to the Baluchi coast from Afghanistan is limited to an eastern and
western route separated by several hundred kilometers of difficult and largely
uninhabited country possessing no through north-to-south roads. The eastern
route from southeastern Afghanistan connects Qandahar (Kandahar), via Quetta,
to Karachi; the western route leads from Herat in western Afghanistan to
Mashhad in Iran, then southward to Chah Bahar.
The best road access from southeastern Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean is
the paved all-weather route from Qandahar via the Chaman Pass to Quetta in
Pakistan, and thence to Karachi. A railroad parallels the route within Pakistan.
This is a principal route for Afghanistan's imports and exports.
The western route from Afghanistan to Chah Bahar connects Mashhad in
northeastern Iran via Iranshahr and Zahedan by a good all-weather road; the
road from Meshed to Herat in Afghanistan is part of the Pan-Asian highway that
runs from Istanbul to Dacca in Bangladesh. Thus, all-weather roads provide a
connection with the rail terminus at Kushka in the Soviet Union by a relatively
direct route to the limited capacity port at Chah Bahar on the Indian Ocean
overlooking the Gulf of Oman.
The section of the road between Chah Bahar and Zahedan in Baluchistan
via Nikshahr, Iranshahr, and Khash--a distance of about 845 kilometers--was
completed several years ago. It is a two-lane, bituminous-surfaced highway,
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with a capacity of about 18,000 metric tons per day. At Zahedan, a secondary
route runs a distance of about 170 kilometers to the border town of Zabol. This
road was being improved; some sections have been upgraded to two-lanes, with
bituminous surface,ut the remainder.:-is,still under construction. In Afghanistan,
the first 20 kilometers of the road between the Iran border and Dilaran is a
one-lane earth track that is under improvement; the remaining 130 kilometers is
also one-lane, but has been improved by bituminous surface treatment. The
carrying capacity of the route in Afghanistan is low.
Between these two major routes no through north-to-south roads exist.
This is the heart of Baluchistan where the terrain alternates between sandy
to salt-baked clay basins and. low east-west trending mountain ranges that
generally parallel the coast. Lack of water and searing heat and high-velocity
winds in summer added to its moonscape appearance have deterred development in
spite of its location as a historic bridge between the Middle East and the
subcontinent of India. There is, however, one modern east-west route. Al road
and a railroad traverse the region between Quetta and the Iranian border, where
the road continues into the Iranian portion of Baluchistan at the transport
junction at Zahedan.
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Geography Division, OGCR
SOVIET-AFGHAN SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ROUTES
The Soviets have several optional surface routes over which
they can move personnel and freight from the interior to the USSR-
Afghan border. A relatively dense transportation network exists
in the Central Asian region of the USSR opposite Afghanistan. The
focus of movement by surface routes is the transshipment border
towns of Kushka near the tri-border junction of Iran, Afghanistan
and the USSR, and Termez in the central part of the USSR-Afghan
border zone. Each of these centers is served by all-weather roads
and a railroad line which connect the Trans-Caspian railroad
trunkline with the border. Mary, a junction on the Trans-Caspian,
to Kushka is .315 kilometers and the railroad line from Samarkand
to Termez is 490 kilometers.
Because there are no*railroads in Afghanistan, deployment of
military personnel, equipment, and supplies from the USSR into
Afghanistan can be effected in only two ways: by air and by road.
The option of road transport from Soviet border points to the
principal cities of Afghanistan--and Kabul in particular--is
restricted for practical purposes to two routes:from Termez to
Sher Khan on the Amudar'ya and southward over the Hindu Kush
mountains to Kabul, and, more circuitously, from Kushka via Herat
Comments and guiries should be adressed
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and Qandahar to Kabul. Both roads were constructed during the
1960s; the section from Kabul to Qandahar by the US and the
remainder by the USSR.
The most direct route is from Termez, the rail terminal in
the USSR, by barge 160 kilometers up the Amudar'ya to the military
port at Sher Khan in Afghanistan. The 398-kilometer road south of
Sher Khan via Kunduz and the Salang Pass to Kabul is a well-engineered
highway through mountainous terrain. It is a two-lane, 10-meters wide
.(including shoulders) road with a high-grade bituminous surface.
Built by the Soviets as part of an aid program, the road, and the
tunnel in particular, are regarded as engineering feats. The highway
is adequately maintained, and cleared of snow during the winter months.
Most of the general cargo from the Soviet Union destined for Kabul uses
this route. Because of the extremely rugged terrain, the tunnel and
the road are vulnerable to sabotage. Earlier this year the road was
closed at least once for a period cf up to a week to clear sabotage-
caused damage.
The alternate route from the USSR to Kabul crosses the border
from the rail terminal at Kushka and extends southward to Herat,
from where it skirts the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush to connect
the principal cities of Herat and Qandahar with the capital at Kabul.
This route, although considerably longer (1,162 kilometers) lacks
known physically vulnerable choke points. The countryside is
generally broad and open, and even in the eastern mountainous section
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from Qandahar to Kabul traverses broad valleys. This road is also
a two-lane 10-meters wide road (including shoulders). It has a
concrete-slab surface in the Kushka-Qandahar section, and a high-grade
bituminous surface from Qandahar to Kabul.. It is subject to almost
certain interdiction by both guerillas and/or bandits, and is
considered unsafe for buses and even small convoys. The most
dangerous stretches during the past year. have been in a section
48 to 80 kilometers south of Herat, and in the section north of
Qandahar between Qalat and a point north of Ghazni. Normally
adequately maintained--the section between Herat and Qandahar is
part of the Pan-Asian Highway--maintenance during the past year
probably suffered as a result of increased guerilla activity.
Normal maintenance would involve clearing the roadway of wind-blown
sand in the-summer time, and repair of damage from frost-heave and
flash flooding in winter and early spring. The only important
bridge is over the perennially flowing Helmand River. Bituminous
surfaced links with the international highway system extend from
Herat to the Iranian border at Islam Qala, and from Qandahar to the
Pakistani border at Chaman. Five of the airfields used as security'
control and supply points in Afghanistan are connected to the
Herat-Qandahar-Kabul Road: Herat, Shindand, Farah, Qandahar
International, and Ghazni.
The above. information is Unclassified.
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