The Warsaw Pact Short-Warning Nuclear Attack: How Viable an Option?

Abstract

NATO bases its theater doctrine on the assumptions that any Warsaw Pact attack will be preceeded by considerable warning time and that initial hostilities will be in a conventional mode. In this paper the author assesses the viability of the opposing scenario: a Warsaw Pact short-warning attack with nuclear weapons employed from the start. The author concludes that Soviet open source documents indicate that NATO is preparing to fight the wrong first battle of the next war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA077802

Entities

People

  • Donald Mercer

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Artillery
  • Attack Helicopters
  • Combat Areas
  • Command And Control
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Defense
  • International Relations
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Nato
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Tactical Aircraft
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Systems Analysis and Design