APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110012-0
coordinated with the military section of the Council for Economic Mutual Assistance. In 1969 and early 1970, agreements detailing scientific-technical cooperation between the Federal Commission for Postal Services and Telecommunications of Czechoslovakia and the Ministry of Communications of the U.S.S.R. were signed. These agreements provide for the following: compatibility of automatic telephone systems control offices with standard communications networks; cooperation in planning of radio and TV networks; and coordinated efforts in transmission of color and black and white TV signals, in the design of cables, and in the construction of ground stations for satellite communications.
Czechoslovakia continues to emphasize communications research and development, and is providing some challenge to Hungary in the microwave field, especially in the capability to produce high-quality components, such as avalanche and Gunn diodes, in quantity. The major electronic research, development, and production facility is the Tesla Nationalized Enterprises in Prague. Military radio relay equipment, deployed extensively throughout the U.S.S.R. and to a lesser extent in other European Communist countries, has been reported as possibly developed and manufactured by Tesla and its affiliated organizations. One of these, the Tesla Telecommunications Research Institute, Pardubice, continues to accomplish considerable microwave research and development work on pulse position modulation (PPM) and pulse code modulation (PCM) systems.
Particular attention is devoted to the development of digital and secure communications systems using electronic encoding and West German teleprinters. Tesla developed and produced the 24-channel KPK-24 PCM system in the mid-1960's and followed in 1970 with the 32-channel KPK-32. Another of Tesla's major efforts is concerned with the development and production of air traffic control equipment for both airborne and ground installations. Automatic reconnaissance and direction-finding equipment was developed by an experimental research institute near Prague. Microwave measuring and test equipment up to and including the 8-millimeter band was developed and produced by the Radio Technical Institute at Opocinek, also a Tesla affiliate.
The Czechoslovaks continue to develop many types of electronic components, resulting from a moderate research and development program on electron tubes and solid-state devices. Also transistors, diodes, thin-film integrated circuits, and ferrite components are under development. Silicon products technology, such as silicon epoxy molding compounds for semiconductor devices, lag Western Europe by about 3 years. The Institute of Solid-State Physics, Prague, is investigating noncrystalline semiconductors, including liquid amorphous and chaleogenide glasses and amorphous germanium. The degree of success of these studies is not known, but the knowledge gained will enable production of transistors by evaporating semiconducting films of selenium and tellurium which, in turn, will benefit miniaturization and printed circuit technology.
Czechoslovak laser research compares favorably with that of East Germany but lags in areas of military device production and hardware development. Since 1963 Czechoslovakia has developed ruby, neodymium-glass, gas, semiconductor (gallium arsenide) lasers, and considerable interest is centered on helium neon lasers. A number of serially produced solid-state and gas lasers have been placed on the market. As part of its extensive research program in the communication field, the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Prague has studied laser transmission of audio signals and modulation and detection of laser beams. Applications of lasers in the fields of range-finding, geodesy, mine surveying, ophthalmic surgery, and plasma heating are being researched. There is, however, no evidence of directed energy weapon development. The first Czechoslovak laser radar, intended for observations of artificial earth satellites, has been installed at the Ondrejov Astronomical Institute in Prague. The instrument, in operation since March 1972, incorporated the four-axis tracking concept developed separately in East Germany, the U.S.S.R., and the United States. The U.S.S.R. furnished the tracking mount, and the laser is a Czechoslovak ruby decide rated at about 2 joules with a 20-nanosecond pulse every 10 seconds. The Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics is investigating the communications potential of lasers.
Most of the avionics equipment being used in Czechoslovakia was obtained from the U.S.S.R. and to a lesser extent from Western countries. Nevertheless, Tesla has been involved in the design of both airborne and ground installations for air traffic control, and their effort has concentrated on the development and production of precision approach radars.
The Aviation Research Institute (LVU) is reportedly developing certain instruments for the Czechoslovak-designed L-159, a delta wing twinjet, low-level attack aircraft. Details are sketchy, but the work possibly involves the development of such equipment as an instrument which would constantly plot the aircraft
13
APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110012-0
