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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110009-4

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technicians is also satisfactory, and serviceability rates are equal to those of the Soviet Air Forces.

Reliance on Soviet-produced combat aircraft in the future will make Czechoslovakia increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union for replacement aircraft and spare parts. This dependency would become clearly evident in the event of prolonged hostilities.

D. Militarized security force (S)

The only Czechoslovak militarized security force is the Frontier Guard, consisting of approximately 9,500 officers and enlisted men.

This force, though not large in number, is reliable and well trained. It is subject to military discipline and wears military uniforms. Weapons and much of their training are comparable to those of infantry troops. In addition to the function of preventing illegal entry into or exit from Czechoslovakia, the militarized security force constitutes, in effect, specialized auxiliary ground troops. Organized units could be attached to army field commands to perform certain specialized functions in wartime. These would include rear-area security, traffic control, counterintelligence, and military government. Should the situation require, Frontier Guard units could also be used as combat troops.

Seven Frontier Guard brigades with an average strength of approximately 1,000 men, though varying in composition, usually contain 10 to 13 companies each. Each company has a strength of approximately 100 men. On the West German border, a brigade is responsible for patrolling 25 to 50 miles, depending upon the terrain and the number of crossing points within the sector. The sectors of responsibility for brigades stationed along the Austrian border are somewhat greater than 50 miles because the threat of penetration from that country is assumed to be less. Ground patrols along the Austrian border are assisted to a considerable degree by river patrols on the Danube.

Subordinate to the Frontier Guard is the 500-man Danube Defense Guard which operates 50 river-patrol craft of post-World War II construction. It is responsible for patrolling the Czechoslovak Danube River border and for escorting foreign commercial craft passing through that street of the river. The headquarters and main operating base are at Bratislava. The craft and personnel are divided about equally between subunits at Bratislava and Komarno, each responsible for half of the river frontier. Substations used by patrolling craft exist at Medved'ov, Strove, the Morava estuary, and on Velky Ostrov. The Danube Defense Guard cooperates closely with the river police and probably with bridging engineers of the ground forces.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110009-4