Soviet Assessments of U.S. Close Air Support
Abstract
The first objective of this report is to provide documentation and analysis of Soviet military assessments of U.S. close air support (CAS) weaponry; the second is to examine the relationship between the American CAS technologies and Soviet near-term and long-term reactions as a basis for predicting future Soviet responses to U.S. weapons innovation. An essential component of the report is an attempt to document the particular elements that the Soviet military focused on in their discussions of U.S. CAS technology, i.e. the specific technical and performance characteristics emphasized in Soviet writings. Of particular interest is whether their assessments differed dramatically from comparable U.S. discussions of CAS technology. An even more fundamental question that arises: What purposes do Soviet assessments appear to serve? In the CAS case, one function seems to be to distribute data on the current state of the adversary's technology to the general military readership, as well as to identify potential threats that may be products of that technology. Beyond these purposes remains the question: What are the more abstruse motivations for disseminating this information through the military press? Some past cases seem to indicate that assessments of foreign technological programs act as surrogates for discussions of present or future Soviet technology programs, or allow writers to tendentiously construct assessments of U.S. weapon systems in order to promulgate a particular point of view. An additional intent is to look at Soviet force planning, training, and tactics for insights into Soviet response mechanisms to U.S. weapon innovation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA223380
Entities
People
- Dan Shephard
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology