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U.S. military analysts warn that such performances should not lead the West to become too complacent. Many of the Soviet weapons sold abroad are stripped-down older models; often they are used by poorly trained troops. As an example of a first-rate Soviet product, American experts point to the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle. Simple, reliable and versatile, it is the favored weapon of guerrillas from Central America to Southeast Asia. The Soviet-built RPG-7 antitank rocket launcher is also easy to operate and has proved lethal in the fighting in Lebanon.
Still, even Soviet servicemen equipped with the best Soviet weaponry often fall short of the Pentagon's image of the Soviet military as a fighting force. On paper, for example, Soviet air-defense forces command a string of 7,000 radar installations and 2,300 interceptor jets. Yet the fact that two Korean civilian aircraft were able to stray into Soviet airspace without being rapidly intercepted suggests that the defense shield is sievelike in spots.
The formidable Soviet fleet also has flaws, despite its success at projecting Soviet power in ports of call from Cuba to Mauritius. Although larger than the U.S. Navy in numbers of warships, the Soviet surface fleet still lacks anything as sophisticated as a U.S. aircraft carrier. Soviet nuclear-powered submarines are thought to give off so much radiation that Soviet sailors morbidly joke that members of the northern fleet are easily identifiable be cause they glow in the dark. During the past eight months, one nuclear sub foundered in deep water off the Siberian pen insula of Kamchatka and a second was disabled off the U.S. East Coast when the craft's propeller became entangled in an undersea surveillance cable.
No matter how sweeping Admiral Sergei Gorshkov's vision of a navy that can "protect state interests on the seas and oceans," his fleet cannot transcend the limitations of geography . Reports that some 40 freighters and tankers were trapped in ice-clogged Arctic seas last fall underscore the restraints that the absence of warm-water ports has imposed on Russian dreams of being a maritime power. Two of the Soviet Union's four fleets can gam access to the sea only through strategic waterways that are not under Soviet control, the Baltic Sea and the Dardanelles.
Pentagon officials are particularly concerned about the quantitative lead the Sovi et Union holds in manpower with its 3.7 million men, in contrast to 2.1 million for the U.S. The Soviet conscription system is indeed impressive. On a single day every spring and autumn, about half a million 18-year-old males cram into flag-bedecked train stations across the Soviet Union as they set off to begin mandatory military service. Except for those who have been selected for three-year stints in the navy and border guard, the new draftees will begin two years of rigorous training, living in spartan barracks and eating such fare as greasy soup, cabbage, potatoes and salted fish. In the event of war, the military can draft 5 million more men from active reserve and an additional 40 million who are obliged to answer the call until age 50.