NATO-Warsaw Pact

Technical Report · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6325941

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's peacetime deterrent position is good, and its conventional capabilities have improved over the last decade but they should be better says the Conventional Defense Study Group. It discussed the many factors NATO's success or failure would depend on and concluded that neither side has such an overwhelming advantage that victory is assured for one or the other. Although most scenarios favor the Warsaw Pact as the victor rather than NATO, group participants believe that Warsaw Pact forces might not have a substantial advantage in manpower or division strength in a short-preparation or medium warning attack. Some suggested solutions to improving NATO's conventional capabilities are discussed. They include the following: encouraging Europeans to assume greater responsibility for their defense, such as creating physical barriers to delay a Warsaw Pact advance; increasing emphasis on conventional war-fighting in Nato planning; using dumb weapons to conserve limited stocks of smart munitions; and using arms control measures, either reciprocal or negotiated, to reduce troop size.

• Research Organization: General Accounting Office, Washington, DC (USA). Office of the Comptroller General
• OSTI ID: 6325941
• Report Number(s): GAO/NSIAD-89-23
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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