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The Soviets deployed hundreds of mobile, SS-20 intermediate force missile launchers in the 1980s--with three nuclear warheads on each missile and reloads for each launcher. These were targeted against Western Europe, China, and Japan. The highly accurate SS-20 had great mobility when field deployed to ensure survivability.

Moscow pursued a comprehensive program of upgrading its artillery fire support and deployed a new 122-mm self-propelled howitzer, the 2S1, to Central Europe beginning in the 1980s. The nuclear-capable, technically advanced 2S1 could keep pace with the tank and motorized rifle units of the Red Army.

In the mid-1980s, 28,000 of the USSR''s 52,000 main battle tanks threatened NATO in Central Europe. The Soviets also pre-positioned some 27,000 meters of pontoon bridges and other river crossing equipment in Eastern Europe to speed the forward thrust of the Red Army''s tank and motorized rifle divisions in the event of conflict.

The Red Army trained extensively for urban combat in Central Europe. The Soviet combined arms units stationed in East Germany conducted realistic live fire exercises at specially constructed urban training sites.

The Soviets continued a large, well-funded program to develop tactical laser weapons in the 1980s. There were reports that the USSR employed mobile laser platforms in Afghanistan against personnel, unprotected targets, and sensors.

The 2S6, deployed in the 1980s, was the newest antiaircraft system designed to operate with the motorized rifle and tank divisions. The 30-mm 2S6 represented a significant improvement over the older ZSU-23-4 and complimented the Soviet''s highly effective surface-to-air missiles.

SA-5.

The Soviets built high-energy laser devices in the 1980s and generally placed more emphasis on the weapons applications of lasers than did the West. The tactical laser program had progressed to the point that by the mid-1980s, U.S. analysts anticipated that laser weapons would be deployed with future Soviet forces.