CONVERTIBILITY OF SOVIET INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY TO MILITARY PRODUCTION (S.08912)

Created: 12/9/1975

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PPOfiRAM RELEASE AS

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: Convertibility of Soviet Industrial caDacitv to Militarv Droduction

roject was orenared in response equest bv Admiral Jpseph W. RiisseL, levied orallv,ondmiral Russel reciuesteri tho information for useneech to be delivered at OFFUTT AFiiecember..

Because of the short deadline the information wan sent out by cable on

ice of Economic Resoarc:

ATTACHMENT: as stated

ATTACHMENT

Convertibility of soviet Industrial to Military Production

our judgement, Soviet industry is preparedproduction of military goods on verythat now produce mainly for the military can preempt

caoacitv currently being devoted to civilian, product"

according to Mr. Brezhnev.more% of the outDut of the defense industry is civilian produceand civilian plants can mobilize capacity being held in "stand-bv" status.

nee

extensive is stand-bv caoacity in civiliandon't know precisely. We do know that all olants inelectronics industry, for example,.keep specialpower facilitieswo month's suoplyofa state of readiness. Each plant is assignedobligationsFirst Year of thewhich is up-dated annually. We also know from thethe Korean War. that at. the cutsetheJwur, sokzthe agricultural machinery industry, conversion^ to"took place extremely rapidly; and, at the end ofreconversion to civilian oroduct was equally raoid. of the change indicates that special militaryand probably capacity, had been held inwe believe that most larce plants ,inindustries (automotive, aaricultural machinery,machinery, and the like)especially plantscasting capacityorobabW keep stand-bv batternsmilitary parts, and soecial machine tools, jigs,and other production facilities, in-place,

for military production.

kinds of military products do civilianready to produce? Probablv conventional tyoes of arms Hereew examples from historicalmachinery plantsammunition; tractor plants tank engines, primer movers for heavy artillery;plantsself-propelieO quns, and militaryfreioht car and locomotive olantstanks. -

ord about the Soviet machine toolritical role in determining how fastbe reconverted. The Soviets tend to produce mostlymachine tools, rather than soecial-puroose ones, and

COJSIflefflfiAL

have accumulated an cnormouslv larqe inventory of such machines. Thus, the averaqo Soviet civilian olant nrobablv can convert over to military productionstrictly from the standpoint of available machineryfaster than its average counterpart in the United States. As the Soviets expand their inventorv of numerically-controlled machininq centers, the most versatile of all qeneral-purpose machine tools, ihev will furthertheir flexibility for conversion to military production.

Original document.

---

---