Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

cratic Republic (GDR), ending Berlin’s special status,
<strong>NATO</strong> would try to advance to West Berlin <strong>and</strong>, when
blocked, would launch a nuclear first strike. All-out
Warsaw Pact reprisal attacks would then follow to establish
a favorable balance of forces. Soviet operational
calculations of the results of TNW employment were
grimly similar to those in previous <strong>NATO</strong> exercises.
The Exercise Buria scenario postulated a Warsaw Pact
force numbering over one million men, with more
than 350 SCUD <strong>and</strong> FROG launchers, 1,500 fighter
planes, <strong>and</strong> 1,000 bombers <strong>and</strong> fighter-bombers. Of
these aircraft, 100 were nuclear-capable. The <strong>NATO</strong>
force had 682,000 troops when combat commenced,
including 300 nuclear-capable artillery pieces <strong>and</strong> 334
missile launchers (Honest Johns, Lacrosses, Corporal/
Sergeants, <strong>and</strong> Redstones); air forces of 1,314 fighters,
1,550 bombers, <strong>and</strong> fighter-bombers (800 nuclear-capable,
with 36 air-launched nuclear cruise missiles). It
assumed that more than 2,200 nuclear weapons would
be employed, 1,000 by the Soviets, 1,200 by <strong>NATO</strong>,
though total megatonnage would be about the same. 46
Here quoted at length is Matthias Uhl’s depiction of
the unfolding campaign’s horrendous results:
In their first “strategic” nuclear strike, Warsaw Pact
forces would attack a total of 1,200 stationary <strong>NATO</strong>
targets (422 in West Germany) within 30 minutes with
approximately 400 nuclear attacks on mobile targets
such as troop concentrations or nuclear weapons. The
political <strong>and</strong> military leadership of the Federal Republic
would be paralyzed for 8 to 10 days. 70% of TNW
<strong>and</strong> 90% of the radar stations <strong>and</strong> airfields in West
Germany would be immediately destroyed. <strong>Nuclear</strong>
weapons would kill or incapacitate 40% of the troops
they were used against. Losses of weapons <strong>and</strong> equipment
would be up to 60%. <strong>NATO</strong> would detonate 68
surface explosions of nuclear weapons behind War-
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