CIA • 1978

THE ROLE OF INTERDICTION AT SEA IN SOVIET NAVAL STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS

Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 C05530564 National Foreign Assessment Center APPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA HISTORICAL RELEASE PROGRAM JUNE 2017 o-seeze,L AR 70-14 The Role of Interdiction at Sea in Soviet Naval Strategy and Operations An Intelligence Assessment SR 71?-1n0Ogrx May 1978 Copy 231k Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 C05530564 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 C05530564 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 C05530564 Approved for Release: 2017/06/14 C05530564 'eefet.\ The Role of Interdiction at Sea in Soviet Naval Strategy and Operations Central Intelligence Agency National Foreign Assessment Center May 1978 Key Judgments This study assesses the Soviets' ability to disrupt Western merchant shipping in a war with NATO as well as the priority they are likely to assign to that mission.' Major findings are: ? The Soviet Navy's principal wartime missions are strategic strike, antisubmarine warfare, and anticarrier warfare; it would allocate most of its forces to those missions. ? Interdiction is a secondary mission to which the Soviets would probably allocate a small part (perhaps 10 percent) of their operational attack submarine force. Selected attacks on shipping, over a wide area of ocean, would in part be intended to disperse Western naval resources...