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Czechoslovakia ARMED FORCES
Ground Forces
Of the approximately 201,000 personnel on active duty in the
CSLA in 1987, about 145,000, or about 72 percent, served in the
ground forces (commonly referred to as the army). About 100,000
of these were conscripts. As in other Warsaw Pact armed forces,
the army was by far the largest service. In Czechoslovakia the
army was divided into three categories: arms (zbrane),
auxiliary arms (pomocne), and services (sluzby).
The arms included infantry, armor, artillery, and engineers.
Auxiliary arms included the signal, chemical, and transportation
branches. The service branches provided the CSLA with medical,
veterinarian, ordnance, quartermaster, administration, justice,
and topographic services. Patterned after the Soviet model, the
rear services of the CSLA were responsible for the procurement of
weapons, ammunition, military equipment, and other supplies
needed by the armed forces. Some of the equipment required was
produced within Czechoslovakia, while the Soviet Union and other
Warsaw Pact states supplied the remainder needed.
Tactical organization followed the Soviet pattern except for
some minor local variations and modifications for differences in
equipment. Many of the small arms and lighter, crew-served
weapons used by the Czechoslovak forces were manufactured
locally, sometimes requiring slight changes from the Soviet norm
of organization for small units. The primary strength of the army
in 1987 was in five tank divisions, five motorized rifle
divisions, one airborne regiment, six engineering brigades, and
one artillery division consisting of two antitank regiments, two
conventional artillery brigades, and three surface-to-surface
missile brigades. One of the tank divisions and three of the
motorized rifle divisions were considered to be category one,
that is, at full strength and fully equipped. The remaining
divisions were maintained at lower manning levels--category two
or three--that is, between one-third and three-quarters manpower
strength, but with full equipment, although some of it might have
been obsolete. Full strength of a tank division was estimated at
about 11,000 officers and men; that of a motorized rifle division
at 14,000
(see
fig. 16).
In keeping with Soviet doctrine, both kinds of Czechoslovak
divisions were tank-heavy organizations. Motorized rifle
divisions possessed 266 tanks; tank divisions possessed 335. (A
United States armored division had 324 tanks, only 11 fewer than
a Warsaw Pact tank division, but the American organization had
about 7,300 more personnel.) In 1987, the Czechoslovak army
possessed 3,000 T-54s and T-55s that were acquired during the
1960s. During the mid-1980s, the T-55s underwent modification,
which indicated that the CSLA intended to keep them in service
into the 1990s. The Czechoslovak tank inventory also included
about 500 T-72s, a model that appeared in Soviet units in the
early 1970s and began to be seen in Warsaw Pact armies about
1980. Czechoslovakia and Poland reportedly are jointly building
the T-72.
The CSLA's artillery inventory in 1987 included 250 M-53
(100mm), 100 M-1931 and M-1937 (122mm), and 75 M-46 (130mm) guns.
It also included 90 M-137 (152mm) gun-howitzers and 250 D-30
(105mm), M-30 (122mm) towed, and M-1974 (122mm) self-propelled
howitzers, plus 175 DANA (M-77) (152mm) Tatra 813 truck-mounted,
self-propelled howitzers. Introduction of the heavy Soviet M-240
(240mm) self-propelled mortar began in late 1986 or early 1987;
it will probably be employed with the 2S7 (203mm) self-propelled
gun that was known to have been in use in 1986. These two weapons
may be scheduled to use nuclear munitions. In 1986 the CSLA also
possessed 200 RM-70 (122mm) and 120 M-51 (130mm) multiple rocket
launchers and 40 FROG, 4 SS-21, and 27 Scud surface-to-surface
missiles. Replacement of Scud-B missiles with SS-23 missiles and
the installation of SS-12Ms began in 1986. All these missiles are
nuclear capable. Antitank weapons included P-27 (112mm) grenade
launchers, 100 82mm recoilless launchers, and AT-3 Sagger, AT-4
Spigot, and AT-5 Spandrel antitank guided weapons. Air defense
weaponry consisted of 575 S-60 (57mm) towed and M-53/59 (30mm)
self-propelled antiaircraft guns, as well as 175 SA-4, SA-6, SA7 , SA-8, SA-9, and SA-13 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).
Reconnaissance units in the CSLA possessed 1,250 OT-65 and BRDM
scout cars. Motorized infantry units were equipped with 1,100
BVP-1 and 50 BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles and 2,500 OT-62, OT64 , and OT-810 armored personnel carriers. Although the CSLA
imported much of its ground forces weaponry from the Soviet
Union, domestic industry supplied a good portion of the army's
needs. This included small-caliber weapons and various models of
guns, howitzers, rocket launchers, grenade launchers,
antiaircraft guns, and armored personnel carriers. The CSLA
received equipment from other non-Soviet Warsaw Pact countries.
Czechoslovakia, in turn, exported its weaponry to both other
Warsaw Pact nations and the Third World.
One Western analyst has noted that the CSLA's artillery
holdings in 1986 were 60 percent of that possessed by a Soviet
10-division, 2-army front. This disparity, plus the decided
inferiority of the T-54/55 tanks to NATO's tanks, could cause the
CSLA serious difficulties in the event of war with the West.
Data as of August 1987
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