In the event of a war with NATO, the Soviet Naval Infantry would probably be involved in peripheral operations. The 36th Naval Infantry Brigade of the Baltic Fleet most likely would be used in operations against Denmark in conjunction with similar Polish and East German naval assault units.[35]
The 63 d Guards Kirkenneskaya Naval Infantry Brigade of the Northern Fleet would probably be used in operations against northern Norway.
The Soviet Navy also deploys a spetsnaz diversionary brigade with most of the fleets. These units have a variety of roles, including special reconnaissance, like their land-based counterparts. The units are trained in underwater demolition and coastal raiding. The naval spetsnaz brigade of the Baltic Fleet probably has had the most active "peacetime" career of any spetsnaz unit; it has been used in a peculiar series of special reconnaissance operations along with Baltic Fleet submarines in Swedish coastal waters since the early 1980s. The actual mission for these deep-penetration operations is unclear. It is not certain whether the missions had a distinct military purpose, such as scouting Swedish ports and coastal waters, or whether the missions were of a more political nature, intended to intimidate the Swedish government.
The depiction of the spetsnaz here is a good deal less exotic than in many other published accounts. As mentioned earlier, this is not intended to discount the possibility that the Soviets have specialized deep-cover assassination squads, but to suggest that a large force like the spetsnaz is unlikely to have such a high level of sophistication.
The Soviet KGB and its predecessor organizations, the NKVD and OGPU, have a long tradition of special units for "wet" operations such as assassination. It is worth noting that when the Soviets decided to kill the Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin before their invasion in 1979, it was the KGB that headed the operation. There is a certain competitive tension between the KGB and the military GRU, which might lead the GRU to encroach on this KGB territory; but it is the
KGB that would organize most deep-cover sabotage and assassination operations in the support of combat operations in Europe.
Another question is whether the Soviets have organized special operations forces, disguised in NATO uniforms, to disrupt NATO rear areas. The German Wehrmacht in World War II was very active in such operations, with its Brandenburg units. However, the best-known example was Otto Skorzeny's improvised "Operation Griffon" during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes in December 1944 with German troops dressed in American uniforms. The Brandenburg and Skorzeny operations highlight the difficulty of such missions, as well as their potential. It does not take a great many soldiers in disguise to seriously confuse and disrupt an opponent's operations, but it is difficult to organize large diversionary units of this type due to language barriers. Few soldiers have the language skills or the experience to convincingly pass themselves off as soldiers of another army.
The Soviets have another alternative in this respect, and that is to use East German troops to mimic West German troops. There have long been reports that the East German Army does indeed have a special diversionary battalion, equipped with M113 APCs and M48 tanks captured in Vietnam, and in German markings.
Soviet special forces are large and diverse. Some seem better suited to the demands of cold war contingencies, and not to confrontations with NATO. Others play an important part in Soviet operational planning, like the new DShB. The KGB special units, and to a lesser extent the spetsnaz, follow a long Russian tradition in rear area sabotage and diversion. And the razvedchiki, while not a special force by uniform and insignia, represents a Soviet counterpart to American Rangers. Nevertheless, their importance should not be exaggerated by romantic delusions of heroic derring-do. They have their place, but they have distinct limitations on the deadly modern battlefield.
CHAPTER 5
Attack Helicopters: The Air Assault at Irlbach
"Comrades, take your seats."
The aircrews of the 1st Squadron/69th Attack Helicopter Regiment (1/69 AHR) had been milling around in the ready room of the Chaloupky Airfield for fifteen minutes. The airstrip was too small to have a regular meeting hall, and this building had been taken over from an agricultural spraying operation. The squadron commander, Maj. Aleksander Frolov, tried to get his pilots to settle down. As the usual chatting ended, Frolov began the briefing.
"Pilots, as you know, our squadron has been held in reserve by the 1st Army for special missions. Our comrades from the other squadrons of the 69th Attack Regiment have already seen extensive combat in the fighting."
This was a bit of an understatement. The 69th Attack Regiment had been committed since the first day of the war. The Mi-8 transport helicopters from the regiment's 3d Squadron had been flying repeatedly back to Chaloupky to get spare parts, ammunition, and crews.[36]
The 2d Attack Squadron, equipped with Mi-24M Gorbach helicopters like the 1st Squadron, had seen the brunt of the fighting.[37]
The crews from the 3d Squadron reported that the attack boys were down to six helicopters from their original twenty-one Mi-24Ms. They had seen heavy fighting and had lost many helicopters to gunfire, missiles, and accidents. The pilots of the 1st Squadron were eager to learn everything these pilots could tell them about combat conditions. What were the main enemy threats? Were they encountering enemy helicopters? How strong were the enemy air defenses? Unfortunately, the transport pilots knew little of the real details of the past two days of fighting. Frolov could see that his men were anxious for action, but concerned over the heavy losses suffered by friends in the other squadron.
"We will have our first mission later today," he continued. "We will be supporting an air assault mission over the Danube River near the town of Irlbach. Our troops will be seizing a bridgehead on the south bank of the river. We will provide fire support and cover. Captain Dmitri Panchev from the front aviation command group will provide us with the details."
Although each army had an aviation staff, it was the front aviation group that had to approve the allotment of helicopter units for any large-scale heliborne operation. Panchev had been standing in the front of the room, fiddling with a large briefing board. He wore the camouflaged flight suit of assault helicopter pilots, but most pilots guessed he was just another weenie staff officer.
"Comrades," he began, "the operation will start at 1600 this afternoon. We plan to deploy the 123d Air Assault Battalion over the river just before sunset. This will give them the cover of the night to establish the bridgehead. We will be using the front's 14th Helicopter Transport Regiment to ferry the battalion into action.[38]
35
The Polish Army fields the 7th Lusatian Naval Assault Brigade, and the East German Army usually assigns one of the regiments of the 8th Motorized Rifle Division in northern East Germany to the naval assault role. Recently, this has been the 29th "Ernst Moritz Arndt" Motorized Rifle Regiment at Proro in the Baltic.
36
The Mil Mi-8, code-named "Hip" by NATO, is roughly similar to the American CH-46. Although mainly used as a transport helicopter, there are armed gunship versions as well as electronic warfare and communication models. The Mi-8 formed the basis for the Mi-24 attack helicopter.
37
The Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter is known by its NATO code name "Hind"; the Mi-24M is the Hind-F. Soviet crews call the Mi-24 Gorbach (hunchback) due to the shape of the large engine compartment over the front cockpits.
38
A helicopter transport regiment would normally have two to three squadrons of Mi-8 medium transport helicopters (twenty-one per squadron), and a squadron of Mi-6 Hook or Mi-26 Halo heavy transport helicopters. The Mi-8s are used mainly to transport troops, whereas the larger helicopters could transport vehicles, artillery, and light armored vehicles such as the airmobile BMD infantry combat vehicle.