The same applies to war materiel. Soviet tank production is down by half, from 3,400 a year to 1,700. Thus diminished, the output still is approximately double NATO's annual tank production. Modernization is particularly intense in the strategic forces, which have also been protected from reductions. The ICBM force is in the midst of a complete upgrade.
Quality improvements are evident in all of the Soviet combat arms.
Tactical forces, for example, are responding to the reductions by junking older equipment and outfitting their slimmed-down units with better weapons. In 1987, the Soviet Union announced a new defensive doctrine. Like most Soviet dogmas, it tended toward ambiguity, but it made a break, at least nominally, with the concept of the large-scale offensive, which had dominated Soviet military thinking for forty years. While the change is encouraging in a general sort of way, the Soviets themselves are not sure of what it means exactly. At the moment, the Soviet Union looks tame.