Page 629 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

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TERRENT FORCE (a joint Naval exercise), ACTIVE EDGE (a joint Air Defense exercise,
started in 1977), etc. Other regular NATO drills, which were frequently mentioned, were of
EXPRESS series (from ARCTIC and POLAR EXPRESS in Norway to OLYMPIC and AL-
EXANDER EXPRESS in Greece).
At the MI annual meeting in Prague in September 1970 it was decreed that a prepara-
tory Information & Electronic Intelligence Departments session should be organized next
month in East Berlin for coordination of joint measures on reconnaissance of forthcom-
ing WINTEX-71 NATO exercise. Another evaluative second session was planned until the
end of April, but postponed later on for June 1971. Following the “distribution of goals” in
the days of WINTEX-71 the two regiments of Bulgarian Radio Technical Military Intelli-
gence service and one Radio Technical Naval Intelligence detachment in cooperation with
the three Army Intelligence battalions accomplished 24 hour reconnaissance of NATO com-
mand communications in South Eastern Europe, mainly the transmitter bases in Greece (Nea
Makri and Kato Souli) and Turkey (Izmir) with NATO Southern Command in Naples and US
Sixth Fleet, but also some transitions with SHAPE. In a summarized report to other Warsaw
Pact MI services on 28 May 1971 the chief of Bulgarian MI service, Col.-Gen. Vasil Zikulov
shared “some conclusions” about the results of the reconnaissance. Bulgarian electronic in-
telligence had disclosed fourteen new military radio-networks in the area and recorded 1727
electronic messages; a small part of them (in English and Turkish) even were not classified.
For the first time in five years the joint session in East Berlin in early June 1971 attended
representatives of Romanian MI service, who delivered additional information on the results
12
of DEEP EXPRESS-1970 exercise with about 100 000 troops involved .
The state and amplitude of reconnaissance in those months could be illustrated by the
regular Intelligence reports from “Decipher” division (Unit No. 20) at Bulgarian MI service.
In 1972 95 summarized Intelligence reports were sent to the chief of MI service, part of them
used later on in the weekly Intelligence bulletins issued for the highest military commanders
and state leadership. Unit No. 20 informed both about several regional NATO exercises like
QUICK TRAIN, SEA LION, DENSE TRAIL, but also of national Greek and Turkish drills
like DENIZ KURDU, YILDIRIM (LIGHTING in Turkish), etc. 13
Bulgarian MI service published in 1972 a summarized top secret survey on NATO
leading exercises for the whole period 1960-1972. The study pointed out that in the early
1960s the tasks to be worked out concerned predominantly the organization of an initial
defensive operation with a subsequent surprising nuclear strike at the enemy, carrying
out a coastal landing and an airlift and then taking the counteroffensive. In the early
1970s the use of strategic nuclear weapons became more and more limited. The allied
troops formation time was changed from 3-5 hours after opening the hostilities in 1963-
1966, to 2,5 - 4 hours in 1971. The survey concluded: ”As a rule the naval units of the
USA, Great Britain, Italy, Turkey and Greece permanently placed in the Mediterranean
always participate in the amphibious operations at the South European War Theater ac-

12 COMDOS, VR, MF 01288, A.E. 1060, 1090, 1092.
13 COMDOS, VR, MF 01086, A.E. 306, p. 1-254.