Page:Fm100-2-3 - The Soviet Army, Troops, Organization, and Equipment.pdf/7

FM 100-2-3 vertically to the Central Finance Directorate, under the Deputy Minister for Rear Services in the MOD.

The military procurator (prosecutor) and the military tribunal are the central elements of the Justice Service. These elements are attached to each major headquarters down to division level. This hierarchy is independent of the military command. It is subordinate to the Procurator General of the USSR and the Supreme Court of the USSR, although its officers are considered active duty military personnel.

This service provides bands to headquarters down through division. The Military Band Service Directorate (or Directorate of Military Music) in the MOD administers it.

This service corresponds to the US Quartermaster Corps. It uses the same insignia as the Administrative Service.

This service may provide clerical and administrative support at higher headquarters. According to Soviet regulation, the highest rank provided for this service is colonel. Personnel doing administrative management, accounting, and similar housekeeping tasks may be members of the administrative service,the management service. or the intendance service. Since there are no exclusively administrative units, these titles are probably just personnel categories with the individuals in them administered by the Main Personnel Directorateof the MOD and supervised locally.

The Soviets have organized and equipped their ground forces to support their defensive doctrine. Moreover, they are constantly strengthening and modernizing their organization and equipment to improve their capabilities to fight either nuclear or nonnuclear war. A nuclear exchange in Europe could easily cause tremendous damage to the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Soviets clearly want to be able to fight and win a war in Europe quickly, before either side employs nuclear weapons.

The Soviets have determined that the only way to win such a war is by offensive operations. The Soviet concept of the offensive emphasizes surprise and high rates of advance combined with overwhelming firepower. The concept of combined arms is at the heart of Soviet combat doctrine.

The Soviets organize ground forces by geographical boundaries into theaters of war (TVs), theaters of military operation (TVDs), and military districts and groups of forces. They can organize forces into large field formations called fronts and armies.

The Soviets envision that hostilities might occur in any of three TVs: the Western, the Southern, and the Far Eastern. A TV is a broad, geographically oriented designation within which Soviet armed forces would function in wartime. A continental TV can include land, air space, and assorted internal and coastal waterways. The Western TV, for example, includes the European land mass and associated islands, the associated air space, the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, and portions of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The TVs have political and economic significance in shaping Soviet military goals. They contain one or more TVDs.

The TVD geographical concept is the focus of planning and control for employment of Soviet armed forces in major theater strategic actions. The Soviet planners divide the world into 14 TVDs: 10 continental TVDs and 4 oceanic TVDs. The continental TVDs include not only the land masses, but also the air space, inland waterways, and a segment of the surrounding oceans and seas. The Western TVD of the Western TV, for example, includes NATO's Central Region plus Denmark and the Danish Straits.

In wartime, the Soviets would employ intermediate High Commands of Forces (HCF) that would be responsible to the VGK. In keeping with the Soviet concept of centralized control and combined arms operations, the TVD HCF not only controls the assets available in the ground forces, but also the naval and air assets. Some, if not all, of the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact forces might also be subordinate to a TVD HCP. The TVD's most important function in wartime would be to