§ 85. Mr. IrvineTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he has evidence that the Soviets have adapted their military thinking as a consequence of their experiences in Afghanistan.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThe nine-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan inevitably provided the Soviet Union with an extensive opportunity to learn practical lessons on the battlefield. The nature of the irregular warfare in Afghanistan forced the Soviet armed forces to adapt their traditional, heavily-mechanised tactics to suit local conditions and they recognised the requirement for greater flexibility in thought and action. Nevertheless, overall the lessons learned by the Soviets in Afghanistan have limited application in the NATO area.