Soviet Strategic Airlift and Power Projection

Abstract

Within the past 15 years, the Soviet Union has developed a strategic airlift force capable of projecting Soviet power anywhere in the world. The development of this force is traced from the early years of the revolution, through the first tentative strategic airlift effort to Peru in 1970, to the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Soviets learned a new lesson with each operation and a pattern of increasing capability soon emerged. Through case studies, this thesis evaluates the improvements in the Soviet strategic airlift force and its ability to support Soviet foreign policy objectives. The improvements are very impressive, but it appears that the Soviets will concentrate their efforts in strategic control in Africa and the Middle East while retaining a capability to intervene anywhere with the VTA and Aeroflot as their delivery vehicles. (author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 06, 1980
Accession Number
ADA095448

Entities

People

  • Clark S. Young Jr

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Airlift Operations
  • Cargo Aircraft
  • Case Studies
  • Employment
  • Geography
  • Logistics
  • Middle East
  • Transport Aircraft
  • Transportation Infrastructure
  • United States
  • Ussr

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union