During the years of leadership of the Soviet General Staff, Ogarkov prepared and conducted several of the largest operational-strategic exercises and maneuvers in the history of the Russian Armed Forces in all major strategic directions and with the use of all branched of the Soviet Armed Forces, military scientific and military-industrial bodies. The largest of these was the operational-strategic exercise, code-named Exercise Zapad-81, which was conducted in September 1981. In terms of its scale, it is comparable only to major operations during World War II. It was the first to test an industrial control system and some types of precision-guided munitions. Ogarkov paid serious attention to the development of the theory of control of Strategic Missile Forces and missile defense, in fact, he created a center for operational-strategic research at the General Staff.