Some very interesting reads in previous posts regarding soviet tank capabilities among other details. Just to comment on a few things that i have a little bit of idea about, namely aircraft. Let's touch the assertion of NATO air superiority: while this depends on when in 1980 we are comparing soviet and NATO forces, bare in mind that in the eighties the main NATO light fighter, the F-16 did NOT had any kind of BVR capability! This being faced with thousands of MiG-23s and growing numbers of MiG-29s, all which could fire against the F-16 at will from BVR range. I'm not even mentioning the Su-27, and no doubt PVO units of MiG-25, MiG-31 and Su-15 that will very likely also be involved in combat, mainly defence of rear areas. Of course, this is a very simplistic image, but the point is, the F-16s would be always put on the defensive even before the air combat started.
Secondly, remember the anectodal evidence of the supposed effectiveness of US missiles, for example the AIM-9M could be decoyed by flares from a MiG-25 in AFTERBURNER, and the AIM-7M could be easily fooled as well. Also don't forget the soviet HMS system and the HMS slaved R-60M and R-73 missiles. The west only learned about these systems and their true capability in the nineties (and they were, just like with the tanks, shocked at what they found). But in a hypothetical 1980s conflict, they would have learned the same lessons in combat, namely, after losing hundreds of planes in dogfights before realizing the soviets have something they didn't knew about. Also, to just brandish the soviet (and WP) pilots as poorly trained and inferior and easy victims for the super-duper trained americans and NATO is shortsighted to say the least, not to mention somehow judging soviet aircraft effectivenes through the arab-israeli conflicts or Desert Storm, which is even more shortsighted. Like i'm sure it is the case everywhere, not every soviet pilot was an ace, but they were well trained in their tactics, flying 100-120 hours a year on average, and they would have overwhelmingly done their best for their country. Same goes for other WP countries surely. I do recall reading some interesting tidbits in other places from peoples who served in WP air forces, like for instance tactics to fight against the F-15 (which was recognized as superior) in the MiG-21 and MiG-23, for instance though simultaneous attacks from different directions, using the guns to fire chaff to confuse the APG-63, etc etc. I'm sure others with more knowledge can tell us more.
The point is though, it's not that the soviets were better or that they didn't had any weaknesses, of course they did, it's just that the americans and NATO pilots and aircraft where nowhere near as superior as they thought they were (or some think they were today). Imo, one of the biggest weaknesses of the WP air forces was that the soviet allies were not receiving the latest aircraft and were not upgrading their existing aircraft as often as the soviets did. For instance, WP air forces were still flying MiG-21s with RP-21 radars and RS-2US (and in many cases R-3S missiles of the Vietnam war era), both long gone from soviet first line service, and probably not in service at all. If they would have had a comprehesive program to upgrade the WP MiG-21M/MFs at least (forget about the older PF/PFM, they were due to be retired soon anyway, it's enough to just wire them for more modern missiles) to MiG-21bis standard with RP-22 radar and R-13M, R-60 and R-3R, and why not even R-73 missiles, coupled with more modern RWR, radio, navigation system and chaff&flare dispensers, would have been a welcome boost.
Oh and no one seems to have mentioned the utterly formidable sovier air defences, in the eighties they would have already systems that for the most part US and NATO did not met in combat not even today (and they go ape about whenever Russia is selling them to some countries US/NATO brand as enemies), namely the S-300, the Buk, Tunguska, Tor, advanced MANPADS, and a whole range of ECM systems that were never exported and probably were hardly known to the west back then, not to mention latest upgraded variants of the SAMs that were indeed met in combat in the seventies. The idea that the 59 F-117s could make a noteworthy dent in the soviet defences is also far fetched to say the least, like they would just serenely fly at will in soviet airspace with absolutely no worry at all. I'm sure you recall how that went in Serbia.
All in all, i agree with what some say that NATO and WP will just bleed eachother dry without either gaining any significant advantage... but after that no one would be left to know how it ended.