Likely avenues of attack by warsaw pact forces 5 2. Warsaw pact ground forces gordon rottman, ronald volstad. Soviet military doctrine and warsaw pact exercises university. These forces represent both a threat and a mystery. Military exercises have been a focal point of csbm efforts at least as far back as the helsinki accord of 1975 see appendix. Warsaw pact, with emphasis on each alliances ground forces. The treaty provided for a unified military command and for the maintenance of soviet military units within other participating states.
Total strategic missiles and bombers between 1971 and 1983, the soviet union surpassed nato in several critical measures traditionally used to evaluate the strategic balance. Just like any military, the soviet and warsaw pact forces were in a continual state of upgrade and change, discrepancies will occur between various sources of information. Warsaw pact central front ground forces cold war arc. The most important of these activities is the system of joint military exercises. They currently contain some 77,000 active personnel and form many components of the european union and nato deployments around the world. Peoples army, an important segment of the armed forces of the warsaw pact. The warsaw pact has about 30,000 more tanks, but the nato tanks are of better quality. The first speaker, comrade minister dmitrii iazov, explained that the forces of nato and the warsaw pact are more or less evenly balanced. Historically speaking association of the united states army. While much has been published on the armed forces of the ussr during the 1980s, surprisingly little is available on the forces supplied by the other member nations of the warsaw pact. Armored divisions are the core of the pacts strength. Highlights of pact amphibious exercises in the baltic region, 9 january 1984september 1988 c. Finally, he analyzes in detail the wartime operational role of the east european armies, including their echelonment, operational utility and tasks. Steam community guide warsaw pact doctrine and tactics.
A comparison of natos pershing ii and ground launched cruise missiles glcm to the warsaw pacts ss4, ss5 and ss20 missiles. The warsaw pact command structure in peace and war rand. How the warsaw pact planned to win world war three in europe by kyle mizokami last month in the national interest we discussed natos plan for world war iii in europe. The soviet union established itself as a threat to the west at the end of world war ii by its military occupation of eastern european countries and the attempts of its armed proxies to capture. This nie is the first comprehensive estimate of warsaw pact forces opposite nato since 1971. Ciardp92t00277r0005000044 table 1 warsaw pact ground forces, 1985 soviet nonsoviet total total active divisions 201 55 256 mobilizationbase divisions 12 25 ready tds 25 38. This allows the warsaw pact to transfer land and air forces and support. See more ideas about warsaw pact, warsaw and military. An overview of land warfare the heritage foundation. The study is based on publicly available warsaw pact and western sources, as well as on the authors personal experience through the 1960s as a highranking pact officer, and on discussions with other former warsaw pact officers. May 21, 2014 the best thing about the warsaw pact our beloved mother russia see more ideas about warsaw pact, warsaw and armed forces. Appendix to supplement b provides extracts from nato documents. Rivalling the size of the united states army, the combined ground forces of the six nonsoviet warsaw pact countries totalled over 775,000 active troops, with. With so many diverse armed forces to cover, one set was never going to do more than provide a taster of the subject.
Numbers of major ships in 1976natowarsaw pact forces. Certified copies of the present treaty shall be transmitted by the government of the polish peoples republic to all the parties to this treaty. In another capacity, archive executive director tom blanton, who helped forge the archives connection to and support for the php network, was the. As a result of a directive issued on 16 october 1968, on 24 october 1968 the headquarters of the central group of forces was reestablished, this time for forces solely on czech territory. The supreme commander of the unified armed forces of the warsaw treaty organization was a post in overall command of the military forces of the warsaw pact. Treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. The problem the problem stated broadly is, what is the threat facing nato. Locations provided for ground forces are the peacetime barracks positions and should be a guide to the actual. Legro nato and the warsaw pact confidence and secu rity building measures csbms have long been the neglected stepchild of serious arms control analysis. During the cold war, all sorts of things were published for the popular presses, but these often featured grainy photographs from sovieteastern european agencies, or photos of sovietbuilt hardware in armies outside the warsaw pact. The warsaw pact is formed the soviet union and seven of its european satellites sign a treaty establishing the warsaw pact, a mutual defense organization that put. Done in warsaw, on may 1, 1955, in one copy each in the russian, polish, czech, and german languages, all the texts being equally authentic.
East germany, czechoslovakia, poland, bulgaria, hungary and romania. Wojska ladowe are a military branch of the polish armed forces. A symbol of thawing relations with mikhail gorbachevs soontoimplode soviet union, the inf treaty was almost immediately upstaged by the fall of the berlin wall, the collapse of the warsaw pact, the disintegration of the soviet union. Cia analysis of the warsaw pact forces cia foia foia. Part of the problem fun of modeling the cold war is that sources, particularly for the warsaw pact, can be a little more challenging to find in english. There was a real wartime scenario where the warsaw pact would attack out of the barracks positions, this would only provide nato a 2472 hour notification. Unlike the recently discovered 1951 polish war plan the only prewarsaw pact war plan to surface thus far from. It is the first to attempt an analysis of pact campaign plans for the european theaters of military operations and the first to integrate naval forces into these campaigns. On 14 may 1955, in warsaw, albania, bulgaria, czechoslovakia, the german democratic republic, hungary, poland, romania and the soviet union sign a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, known as the warsaw pact. Furthermore, the supreme commander was also a first deputy minister of defense of the soviet union. The militarypolitical axioms shared by the armed forces o f the. The first surprise already in the introduction is the sheer landpower those nations had in comparison to nato.
The warsaw treaty organization wto, officially the treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, commonly known as the warsaw pact, was a collective defense treaty signed in warsaw, poland between the soviet union and seven other eastern bloc socialist republics of central and eastern europe in may 1955, during the cold war. Organization and forces of the warsaw pact and shall submit a report. Nonus nato and national ground forces in schleswigholstein 7 and denmark when fully mobilized b. This publication is part of a publications series by the parallel history project on nato and the warsaw pact php. Warsaw pact tactics ideally focused on the liberal application of the tank. Chapter 4 the sovietwarsaw pact ground forces threat to. Pact activities which prevent members of the pact from acquiring the capability to wage a war of territorial defense. Locations provided for ground forces are the peacetime barracks positions and should be a guide to the actual wartime positioning of forces. Warsaw pact ground forces is, to my knowledge, the only reference for the nonsoviet members of the warsaw pact. If a natowarsaw pact conflict occurred, we would expect the soviets within the european theater to. This series was undertaken at the request of the senate budget committee.
Military strength october 2016, i can say with very high degrees hard to find a vacant lot to hold a war inand in this new era of warfare, thats the last thing the. The alignment of almost every european nation into either nato or the warsaw pact showed the political division that had taken place in europe after world war ii. Numbers of major ships in 1976nato warsaw pact forces. Overview january1978,andtwocompanion background papers, firepower issues and mobility and logistics issues. Assessing the natowarsaw pact military balance dtic.
Rivalling the size of the united states army, the combined ground forces of the six nonsoviet warsaw pact countries totalled over 775,000 active troops, with almost two million ground forces reserves. Why cold war warsaw pact tactics work in wargaming. The idea behind nato and the warsaw pact was simple. After describing soviet and warsaw pact military doctrines, the author examines the quantitative and qualitative role of the nswp forces, their armaments, and the problems of pact interoperability.
Supreme commander of the unified armed forces of the. Parallel history project php an inside history of the warsaw pact, 19551991 5 assignments relating to the front matter. Table 1 warsaw pact ground forces, 1985 cia foia foia. This question is dominated by our view of the warsaw pact ground forces available to attack natos central region. Warsaw pact signed on may 4th, 1955 in warsaw, poland and in 1991 the warsaw pact was declared disbanded created by the soviets 6 years after nato when west germany was admitted and it started rearming political consultative committee and unified command pact armed forces were responsible for actions committed through warsaw.
They retain high visibility today as gorbachevs artful diplomacy includes farranging. In the warsaw pact the primary function of soviet military doctrin e is to prevent. Warsaw pact invasion czechoslovakia in august 1968. Constraining ground force exercises of nato and the. Cia analysis of the warsaw pact forces this study examines the role of clandestine reporting in cias analysis of the warsaw pact from 1955 to 1985. They derive primarily, from the central warsaw pact. Esci chose to produce 16 poses in equal numbers, and when they researched the set they clearly consulted two books osprey elite 5 soviet bloc. Constraining ground force exercises of nato and the warsaw. Documents in pdf format require the adobe acrobat reader. Arms reductions and the warsaw pact making the history. Ground forces and the conventional balance in europe. This has included the many civilian wargame rules such as wrg modern warfare rules and tim gows nato brigade commander, but i have also played professional military games such as contact.
Warsaw pact, treaty establishing a mutualdefense organization composed originally of the soviet union and albania, bulgaria, czechoslovakia, east germany, hungary, poland, and romania. Concentate their initial efforts in central europe, attacking with ground forces organized into five fronts 80 to 90 divisions. The php provides new scholarly perspectives on contemporary international history by collecting. I have played more cold war warsaw pact games versus nato than most, at least in terms of the number of different rule sets i have used. The post, which was instituted in 1955 and abolished in 1991, was always held by a soviet officer. Ussr spent between 33% and 50% of their gnp on arms. Ace contains the majority of the nato ground forces and is based at the supreme headquarters allied powers europe shape in belgium. These forces would remain temporarily until, as a result of the agreement signed between czechoslovakia. Treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance warsaw, 14 may 1955 caption.