ABSTRACT
By the mid-1970s, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) still held a substantial lead over the Soviets in the number of naval forces. The Soviets had been placing air-to-surface missiles on their long-range naval aviation. Flexible response heightened NATO’s need to exploit the strategic value of the seas, and therefore the necessity of controlling the seas. The Brosio Study set forth NATO’s maritime strategy in light of the growth of the Soviet Navy and the Alliance’s new strategic doctrine of flexible response. Allied naval leaders had always stressed the global nature of the Soviet maritime threat, particularly to Europe’s oil lines of communications from the Persian Gulf. The twin developments of a growth in Soviet maritime capabilities, coupled with the adoption by NATO of a flexible response strategy, had increased the demands on allied maritime forces in the context of its overall deterrent posture.
