Inside The Soviet Army

There is one situation in which reco

A divisional intelligence officer-the second officer on a divisional staff-has the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He has very considerable resources at his disposal. In the first place he is in charge of all the regimental intelligence officers, in the division, with all their subordinates, both `professional' and `amateur'. He supervises artillery reco

To coordinate the workings of all these resources (more than a thousand `professionals' and more than fifteen hundred `amateurs') a divisional intelligence officer has a group of officers, which has the designation `Second Group of the Divisional Staff'.

The reco

The first of these, a long-range, reco

The battalion's second and third companies have the same organisational structure as the reco

The fourth company is the `radio and radar reco

The second officer of the staff of an Army has the rank of colonel. To control the Army's reco

The first group is concerned with the reco

Army reco

The third group is concerned with diversionary and terrorist operations. Under its control is an independent SPETSNAZ company, the organisation and functions of which have already been discussed.

The fourth group deals with the processing of all the information which is received.

The fifth group directs radio and radar reco

A Front is made up of two or three all-arms armies and of a tank and an air army. It possesses a large quantity of reco

The second officer of a Front's staff is a major-general. To control the reco

The first of these controls the reco

The second department carries out agent work, for which it maintains an Intelligence Centre, working on behalf of the Armies making up the Front, since these do not run agents, and three or four intelligence outposts. The centre and the outposts are hard at work, in peacetime, obtaining intelligence in the territory in which the Front would operate in wartime. The Soviet Army has a total of 16 military districts, 4 groups of forces, and 4 fleets. Each of these has a staff with a Second Directorate, which itself has a second department. There are thus 24 of these; each of them constitutes an independent agent ru

The third department of each of these 24 Reco

The fourth department collates all the reco

The fifth department is concerned with the radio and reco