ABSTRACT
The revolutionary political and arms control developments of 1989 and 1990 have brought good prospects of conclusion before the end of 1990 of a treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) which would entail destruction of as much as two-thirds of major Soviet conventional armaments west of the Urals. A CFE agreement if successfully concluded will therefore be a great achievement. Aircraft reductions remained the main substantive area of East-West disagreement in CFE during the first half of 1990. CFE participants have agreed that combat aircraft, with their speed, flexibility and range, are a key weapon both for short-preparation attack and sustained offensives. Soviet negotiators indicated that their ultimate aim in this measure was to impose some upper limit on the military manpower of a united Germany. The asymmetry of 260,000 men in favor of North Atlantic Treaty Organization might well make this approach unattractive to the Soviet Union.
