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In
3. In addition, the Warsaw Pact faces the Alliance with a
marked superiority in manpower and conventional weapons.
Central Europe the disparities are over 2 to 1 in tanks, over
2 to 1 in divisions and in aircraft, and about 2 to 1 in field
The Warsaw Pact has about 20 per cent more soldiers
guns.
and some 30 to 40 per cent more in fighting units. On
northern flank the disparities are even greater.
NATO'S
14. The disparities quoted for Central Europe do not take account
of forces stationed in the Soviet Union itself. In a time of
tension Warsaw Pact forces in Poland, Czechoslovakia
and the German Democratic Republic could be rapidly reinforced
by substantial air and ground formations currently held in the
western USSR; and the present imbalance of forces in Central
Europe would be increased.
5. Nor can numerical comparisons alone give a wholly adequate
picture. The Warsaw Pact has geographical advantages and in the
main has standardised equipment. It is making rapid progress in
modernising and re-equipping its forces and in reducing such
advantages in quality as NATO still possesses. Over the last five
years the Soviet Union has improved and increased the capability of
its forces to a much greater extent than in any previous five-year
II-2
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