Soviet Acquisition of Militarily Significant Western Technology: An Update
Abstract
Each year Moscow receives thousands of pieces of Western equipment and many tens of thousands of unclassified, classified, and proprietary documents as part of this campaign. Virtually every Soviet military research project - well over 4,000 each year in the late 1970s and over 5,000 in the early 1980s - benefits from these technical documents and hardware. The assimilation of Western technology is so broad that the United States and other Western nations are thus subsidizing the Soviet military buildup. Western products and technology secrets are being systematically acquired by intricately organized, highly effective collection programs specifically targeted to improve Soviet military weapon systems. The Soviet intelligence services - the KGB, the GRU, and their surrogates among the East European services - and Soviet trade and scientific organizations are actively involved in obtaining this technology. Targets include defense contractors, manufacturers, foreign trading firms, academic institutions, and electronic data bases. The purpose of this paper is to reveal in detail the structure of these Soviet programs, and to give examples of Soviet requirements and successes. Understanding the Soviet effort is a critical first step in protecting Western technology and preventing it from being turned against the West.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA160564
Entities
Organizations
- Office of the Secretary of Defense