The report first shows NATO mine-warfare strength falling sharply before a modest recovery, while Warsaw Pact numbers remain consistently high. Its submarine tables then separate ballistic-missile boats, long-range attack submarines, other types, and nuclear-powered shares. Warsaw Pact attack-submarine totals are more than twice NATO's in the 1981 and 1983 columns. Even if an individual NATO boat was better, that qualitative advantage still left each submarine responsible for finding or defeating multiple opponents. Readiness compounds the arithmetic because the enemy may choose a moment when its availability is high and NATO's is not.
Notable Point · 18:52-21:58
Mine warfare and the submarine arithmetic
Mine-warfare inventories and Warsaw Pact submarine totals made numerical disadvantage a practical operational problem, even when NATO platforms were qualitatively strong.