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THE RESEARCH CATAMARAN T-AGOR l6
132 The Research Catamaran T-AGOR-16
By Lieutenant Commander J. C. Froid, U. S. Navy
136 New Tools for Weatherman From Navy Missile Range
By Philip C. Russell
138 The French Polaris
By Major
George John Geiger,
U. S. Air Force (Retired)
140 Indebtedness
By Commander
David G. Smith, U. S. Navy
142 The ROCTWO Program at the U. S. Naval Academy—
Summer 1968
By Lieutenant Alexander Monroe,
U. S. Naval Reserve and
By Lieutenant Thomas C. Lane,
U. S. Naval Reserve
145 "NILO”—The Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer in Vietnam
By Lieutenant R. W. A. Seagraves,
U. S. Naval Reserve
Professional Notes
Captain Walter S. DeLany, Jr.,
U. S. Navy Associate Editor
the
The new AGOR design incorporates
After years of discussion and planning) the Navy authorized the construction of a catamaran oceanographic research ship in the Fiscal Year 1967 shipbuilding pr°' gram. Hudson Laboratories of Columbia University, under contract to the Office of Naval Research, will be the users of the ship in support of oceanographic and acoustic re' search programs related to the Navy’s ASW effort. The Hudson (T-AGOR-16) (Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research) is one oi two catamaran designs included in the ship' building program. The other is the submarine rescue catamaran (ASR).
The Hudson will be one of the larges1 catamarans ever constructed, bringing to the oceanographic community a ship with labo' ratory space and scientific gear-handling facilities significantly improved over previous oceanographic research ships. Although 3 number of small research vessels, pleasure boats, and a large oil drilling platform have been constructed in the catamaran hull c°n' figuration, the T-AGOR-16 will have the capability to operate oceanwide, from the arctic to tropical waters; her design features one symmetrical hull in two halves, rathe1 than two symmetrical hulls built separately and then joined by a superstructure.
previous experience gained and provides f°r the increased research requirements veloped since the first AGOR, the USN Josiah Willard Gibbs (T-AGOR-l), was coU1 pleted ten years ago. She was converted fr° the USS San Carlos (AVP-51), by the foriue* Bureau of Ships for Hudson LaboratoneS' The Gibbs was conceived, not as a hyth0^ graphic survey or oceanographic rese3r . ship, but as a floating laboratory that wou be capable of accommodating elabor3
instrumentation employed in acoustics (research) and other ocean experiments.
The first ship to be designed from the hull Up as an AGOR was T-AGOR-3, a 208-foot, 1,300-ton ship. Experience gained from T-AGOR-3s design was employed in the design of the much larger T-AGOR-14, a 240- loot, 2,000-ton ship.
Hudson Laboratories submitted to the Office of Naval Research the first preliminary characteristics for a new AGOR as early as 1963, in response to the Navy’s Ten-Year Oceanographic Program (TenOC). From these characteristics, it was estimated that a ship of approximately 4,000 tons would be needed. The design was, therefore, proposed in October 1965, by the Chief of Naval Research, to convert a fleet minelayer, the USS Terror (MMF-5), to an AGOR to provide a ship of sufficient size and, yet, remain within budgetary limitations. However, the estimated cost of conversion was too high. In March 1966, during informal discussions between the Undersea Programs, Office of ONR, and the Naval Ship Engineering Center, it 'vas proposed that feasibility studies be made °f a catamaran AGOR based on the hull design for the submarine rescue ship.
Review of the ASR design by Hudson Laboratories showed the catamaran design e*ceeded all minimum requirements and the desirability to push ahead with the project. The final and approved characteristics for the cutamaran were promulgated by the Ships Characteristics Board on 15 March 1967. M. Rosenblatt and Son, Inc., of New York "'ns selected to prepare the plans for the sfiip. It was expected that the contract would °e advertised early in 1968 with construction to start in mid-1968. Delivery is expected in ^70, culminating over seven years of ship Panning.
There are important reasons for selecting a catamaran over a conventional hull. The ratamaran hull provides a major increase in deck area and laboratory space compared to a single hull of the same displacement, which actor was the most compelling reason for Meeting this design. Available laboratory area of this ship is more than double that of AGOR -14. The large metacentric height lends ^ability when handling heavy scientific e<luipment and machinery without these
Professional Notes 133
loads causing excessive heeling angles. There are large weather deck areas for research work between the hulls forward and aft of the superstructures; there is a center well amidships in this deck, also. The open deck space allows for versatility in using portable instrument vans and for streaming heavy gear or lifting research vehicles (DRVs) through the well. The large separation between the screws allows a high degree of maneuverability, eliminating the need for bow thruster units used in previous AGOR designs. Controllable, reversible-pitch propellers enable the ship to turn almost within her own length at slow speeds.
The design of the catamaran was tested in model form at the David Taylor Model Basin. The ship will have an overall length at the waterline of 220 feet and a beam of 75 feet; each hull will have a 24-foot beam, leaving a spacing of 27 feet between hulls. The ship’s full-load displacement will be about 3,100 tons; the full-load draft will be over 18 feet; the sustained speed will be 15 knots, with a creeping speed of two-to-four knots on auxiliary propulsion. Endurance at 13.5 knots is estimated at 6,000 miles. The ship accommodates 11 officers, three chief petty officers, 30 enlisted men, and 25 scientists. Model tests indicated a turning diameter about equal to that of a single-hull ship of the same length, and exhibiting thereby a maneuverability superior to that of a conventional ship of equal displacement.
The separate forward and after centerbody structures allow for the separation of scientific spaces from the machinery and living spaces. The after superstructure houses the laboratories, research control center, computer and data processing spaces, calibration and instrument test facilities, refrigerated and freezer spaces, and communication facilities. The forward superstructure will house the machinery control station and living spaces.
On the forward deck between the hulls is a large, deep-sea anchoring winch, an auxiliary winch, and a U-frame. The main traction winch has a pull of 50,000 pounds at 80 feet per minute and will be used for deep sea anchoring in water up to 20,000 feet, necessary because most experiments by Hudson Laboratories are conducted while anchored in deep water. The auxiliary winch will be used
for handling armored cable while launching acoustic research instruments or other scientific gear. The U-frame outboard of the starboard bow is used in handling equipment through a ten-foot wide opening between the main deck and 01 level. A similar U-frame is located amidships on the starboard side along with an auxiliary winch to lift nansen casts, bottom cores, or other light equipment over the side. A third U-frame is located aft and is used in conjunction with a 50,000-pound traction winch and a 20,000-pound auxiliary winch to handle heavy acoustic transducers and to provide a deep sea anchoring capability at the stern.
There are three instrument wells 36 inches in diameter that penetrate the hulls to the open sea. One is located forward on the port side, one is amidships on the port side, and the third is amidships on the starboard side.
There is a 25-ton electro-hydraulic era11® with a telescopic boom located on the forwa^ edge of the after superstructure for Seil<?r^ loading and service to the center well- second 25-ton telescoping crane is locate amidships aft for lifting transducers a° coring equipment.
The scientific spaces total over 8,000 sqliar feet of space: 1,200 square feet will be 0(^ cupied by the oceanographic laboratory aa computer room; 1,000 square feet will be ^ voted to an electronics laboratory and an'P ^ fier room; over 1,000 square feet will be ase^ for research control center and record laboratory, and the remaining space wi allocated to shops, a calibration and laboratory, dark rooms, and stowage sPacC'
Over 7,000 square feet of open deck will be assigned to scientific work. Scient1 ^ instrumentation of the ship will be c
-24' LIFEBOAT
AFTER DEEP SEA ANCHORING WINCH ROOM
AFT
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MAIN RECORDING LABORATORY
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WELL
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-SCIENTIFIC
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■ SCIENTIFIC GENERATOR ROOM
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■////. // V/ ////// . /// I ; I
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SCIENTISTS
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MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING
LABORATORY
SCIENTIFIC STORE ROOM
SCIENTIFC • RE ROOMJP Sl
MAGAZINE* (PORT) I
ELECTRONICS
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ENGINEERING
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' FWD DEEP SEA LIVING ANCHORING/ WINCH ROOmV
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Auxiliary
^ACHINERF
AUXILIARY
MACHINERY
ROOM_
MAIN
MACHINERY
ROOM
Pleted with funds provided by the Naval Oceanographic Office and the Office of ^•aval Research.
The ship’s main propulsion plant is a §eared diesel with controllable, reversible Pitch propellers. The main propulsion plant consists of one 2,400-b.h.p. diesel unit, and an auxiliary diesel of 165-b.h.p. in each hull. This arrangement provides a sustained speed
15 knots using the main engines, and 2 to ^ knots by shifting through a clutching arrangement to the small auxiliary engines. Chip’s electrical power comes from three 350- *-W., 450-volt, 3-phase, 60-cycle diesel generators. The two 75-k.w. generators, located on T>e 03 level, are resiliently mounted to reduce llle ship’s noise during silent ship operations.
during the design phase, efforts were made l() reduce manning levels, watch standing rcquirements, and maintenance. A central
ized machinery control station located in the forward superstructure has direct access to either the machinery room or the scientific generator spaces. Only one man on engineering watch is required in each space. Virtually all engineering functions, such as starting and shutting-down main and auxiliary machinery, automatic paralleling of generators, remote readouts, alarms, and data logging, can be done from the central station.
The ship’s speed and maneuvering controls are located in the pilot house and at a secondary ship control station located on the starboard quarter. This after control station offers good visibility for launching or retrieving large equipment aft or when anchoring from the stern.
The structural design of the hull is a departure from the usual. The separate hulls conform to American Bureau of Shipping
rules for Class C ice strengthening, and feature transverse frames. The cross structuring, in addition, is designed to withstand the loads that result from the righting moment induced by the roll of the ship: the shear forces acting on the cross structure due to vertical motion of the ship on a wave; torsion on the structure when a wave supports one hull forward and the other hull aft, or torsion caused by grounding or docking of the ship; and moment and shear due to deadweight and live loads on the structure, and slamming load resulting from the action of heavy seas on the bottom of the cross structure.
The planning and execution of the design for this ship exemplifies the co-operation between the Naval Ship Engineering Center, the Naval Ship Systems Command, the Office of Naval Research, Hudson Laboratories, and the Naval Oceanographic Office. This AGOR will have a greatly improved capability over any existing oceanographic research ship of similar size and may, ultimately, be the forerunner of a new class of catamaran ships.
Principal Characteristics of T-AGOR-16
Length overall | 2461 feet |
Length at waterline | 220 feet |
Beam Maximum | 75 feet |
Beam, each hull | 24 feet |
Draft, full load | 18 feet |
Displacement, full load | 3,080 tons |
Sustained speed | 15 knots |
Creep speed (aux propulsion) | 2-4 knots |
Endurance at 13.5 knots | 6,000 miles |
Accommodations 11 officers, 3 CPOs, 30 crew, 25 | scientists |
NEW TOOLS FOR WEATHERMAN FROM NAVY MISSILE RANGE
Science, a meteorologist has ruefully observed, is able to measure down to the micron, and has placed man in orbit around the earth, but, we still can’t say with 100 per cent certainty whether or not it will rain tomorrow. For, in spite of the impressive array of modern equipment and techniques employed in weather forecasting, the process and the results remain an inexact science. It is, in fact, the very nature of this somewhat frustrating resistance to solution that provides for the meteorologist the continuing challenge to obtain new, accurate answers for some of man’s oldest questions.
One such response to that challenge is seen in the work of the meteorological research activity assigned to the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range at Point Mugu, California. Here the Geophysics Division of the Range Operations Department of the PMR conducts one of the most advanced operations in the field of weather forecasting. The activity is responsible not only for meteorological support, but also it provides oceanographic and geodetic services for PMR’s marine, air, and space operations. In turn, the Division receives significant support from other facilities 1°' cated at Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii, and from the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Facility at Monterey, California.
In performing its tasks, the Division employs such modern tools as Mach 4.3 rocketS> high-speed computers, airborne refractome- ters, automatic satellite cloud cover photography, and closed circuit television that links the division with air operations and missilelaunching centers. As a result, very little ol the natural phenomena occurring from between ground level and 200,000 feet escapes close observation by one or more of the D|' vision’s sensors. Oceanographers extend this range of environmental observation to the ocean bottom, and geodesists continually refine the exact relationship between the physical sites on which PMR instrumentation lS located in the Pacific Ocean basin.
To gather and process the data obtained from this extensive source-network, thereafter to provide up-to-the-minute meteorolog' ical information, involves a procedure that Is perhaps not too well understood even by lts user-agency “customers.”
Teletype machines linked to weather sta tions throughout the world provide basi° information used in making daily forecasts- Other data is received from the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Weather Facility at Montere>>
California. Monterey transmits surface, upper air, and sea condition charts via telephonic, high-speed data links. The resulting charts are recorded automatically by a data plotter at PMR.
Semi-automatic and automatic meteorological stations located at various PMR sites also provide information for daily weather briefings. Some of these stations can operate for 30 days without attention. They record speed, direction, temperature, dew point, and other information on punched tape for later reduction by PMR’s CDC-3100 weather computer. The CDC-2100 digests information from this and other sensors for rapid reduction of data to meaningful meteorological tables.
A space-age tool used at Point Mugu is the weather rocket. Two varieties are used. The HASP (High Altitude Sounding Projectile) is a fast-burning, solid-fuel rocket. The motor burns for less than two seconds, during which time the HASP climbs to 4,500 feet. Moving at Mach 4.3, the HASP then drops its motor and the payload continues upward to 220,000 feet. Radar-reflective chaff (such as small bits of fine copper wire) is released and tracked by PMR radars to provide a vertical profile of the winds at extreme altitudes. HASP is generally fired from an open tube launcher.
The ARCAS (All-purpose Rocket for the Collection of Atmospheric Soundings) is a slower-burning rocket. Its motor burns out at an altitude of 50,000 feet after 30 seconds. The entire rocket continues to climb to 200,000 feet at speeds up to Mach 3.6. At apogee, a squib fires, expelling a temperature sensor and a miniature radio transmitter attached to a metallized parachute to slow the descent of the package. Radars located at Point Mugu track the parachute while meteorological receivers record temperature data. Occasionally, the ARCAS carries special payloads.
One of the newest tools of the Navy weatherman, the Mach 3.6 weather rocket climbs to
200,0 feet and releases a package of instruments that slowly parachute down.
These include inflatable mylar spheres for direct density measurement and ozone sensing devices.
Because precise radar tracking of supersonic missiles is hampered by the refraction of microwave frequencies, the division maintains refractometers that are airborne, with which to correct data through an updated refractive index profile.
The potential use of lasers to determine the height and density of cloud formations over the Pacific Missile Range is now being studied by PMR engineers. Laser beams are directed at cloud formations and near-instant prints are used to show the bottom, top, and density of clouds overhead.
Cloud pictures provided by NIMBUS and ESSA weather satellites in polar orbits around the earth are directly received at PMR’s geophysics division. Covering 12 per cent of the earth’s surface, or 2.5 million square miles, these photographs reveal recognizable geographic features, even to the unskilled amateur. The interpretation of weather patterns is another task of the meteorologists. The Division further relays the satellite cloud pictures to other government weather activities in Southern California.
On the closed circuit television monitors locations at Point Mugu and on outlying San Nicolas Island, appear weather maps that help pilots and missile-launching technicians adjust their plans to the latest meteorological information. In addition, a special phone number provides a taped weather forecast, which is updated each six hours.
The Division is manned by five naval officers, all specially trained in meteorology, 32 enlisted naval aerographer’s mates, and 29 civilian scientists and technicians.
The Division was named as the outstanding Naval Weather Service Unit in its category in 1965 and was cited for its Outstanding Contribution Award for its development of improved upper air observation techniques in the following years.
U
THE FRENCH POLARIS
France has been working rapidly and eft' ciently behind a screen of civilian space research to develop its missile strike force, consisting of intermediate range silo based missiles, underwater launched missiles, and short-range missile systems.
In April 1967, France conducted its first successful launching of the M-112 test vehicle from a submerged submarine, the Gymnott, near the island of Levant off the southeast coast of France. The M-112 test missile consists of the first-stage motor, a dummy second- stage, and a dummy warhead of the MSBS (Mer-Sol-Balistique-Strategique) missile. The first-stage motor, the flight control system, and the launching techniques are virtually identical to the actual operational missile.
The MSBS is a two-stage, Polaris-type, solid propellent missile. The first-stage motor is a NORMA Type 904 equipped with four swivel" ing nozzles. The second-stage motor also 0 solid propellent has a single nozzle. The miS' sile will navigate on an inertial guidance syS' tern and will have a range of some lp-’"’ miles.
The French Government has not discloses the yield of the nuclear warhead, but it vvn be in the range of 100 to 500 kilotons. The Defense Ministry expects to have the filS* MSBS ready to go in approximately y months. Both the missile and the submarme to carry and launch it, Le Redoutable, are scheduled to become operational in 1970.
32 ft. (9.75 m)
4.9 ft. (1.5 m)
16.5 ft. (5 m)
6.5 ft. (1.98 m) 40,000 lbs.
(18,143.6 kg.) Inertial
Solid Propellent
84.0 lbs./T Solid Propellent
48.0 lbs./T 1,500 lbs Approx.
(680.4 kg.) Nuclear 1,555 miles (2,502.46 km.)
On 29 March 1967, President Charles dc Gaulle launched France’s first nuclear- powered missile submarine, Le Redoutable, which is nearly equal in size to the largest American Polaris submarine. This submarine, the L.E. 1, was laid down at Cherbourg early in 1963. She is 420 feet long and will have a surface displacement of 7,900 tons. The streamlined hull and single screw will allow speeds of 20 knots on the surface and 25 knots submerged. Powered by a reactor of enriched uranium, furnished by the Pierrelatte Isotopic Separation Plant, and pressurized natural water, the propulsion plant has a top rating of
20.0 s.h.p. Two turbines and two alternators provide the actual propulsion; an emergency electrical unit ensures a range of up to
5.0 nautical miles.
The Redoubtable is fitted with four torpedo tubes and the latest, fast ASW torpedoes for close defense. Her main armament is 16 nuclear-tipped missiles.
Constructed of a new formula steel, with high elasticity, the submarine’s maximum safe depth is 976 feet (300-m.) plus. Two crews of 14 officers and 121 men will take turns on 90-day cruises.
Of the three nuclear-powered missile submarines scheduled for construction in this class, Le Redoutable being the first, the second will be launched in 1972, and the third in about 1973. Another two boats are being planned for a later date which will bring the total to five. When these three submarines are operational, the third stage of De Gaulle’s le force de frappe will be complete.
MSBS SPECIFICATIONS
Length Diameter Length—1st Stage Length—W arhead Launching weight
Guidance
Propulsion—1st Stage
—2nd Stage
Warhead weight
Warhead Type Range
LE REDOUTABLE SPECIFICATIONS
Length
Beam
Draft
Displacement—Surface
Submerged
Speed—Surface
Submerged
Range
420 ft. (128 m) 341 ft. (10.6 m) 32f ft. (10 m) 7,900 tons
9.0 tons 20 kts.
25 kts.
5.0 n. mi.
4 torpedo tubes 16 missile tubes
Armament
' Auxiliary Electric Motor ^ Rescue Chamber (Aft)
Access Chamber ^ Missile Tube ^ Missile Tube Hatch Navigation/Operations Room
7 Dive Control
8 Conning Tower Hatch
9 Crew Quarters
10 Crew Mess
11 Crew Quarters
13 Torpedo Tubes
14 Dive Planes
15 Rudder
16 Fixed Fin
17 Store Room
18 Ballast Tanks
12 Rescue Chamber (Forward)
By Commander David G. Smith,
U. S. Navy
INDEBTEDNESS
CCr I ''here is no better testimony in behalf of Truth-in-Lending and other consumer legislation than the deliberate, contrived exploitation of American soldiers” and sailors. This quotation comes from recent congressional discussions regarding interest rates. It was supported by an advertisement in the Army Times which offered loans to servicemen at an interest rate of 42.5 per cent annually. This exorbitant figure is the key to a recurring problem which faces officers throughout the Navy and which involves the financial affairs of their men.
Credit touches almost everyone in this country. Every naval command has a percentage of men who are unable to avoid the pitfalls of personal finance, the result being a dunning letter addressed to the commanding officer. Each situation requires a significant expenditure of man-hours on the part of the division officer, executive officer, and yeoman just to stabilize the situation. Yet, the problem can be greatly reduced if the command’s officers educate the crew.
Everyone in the military is faced with the difficult problem of managing his personal affairs with what is generally accepted to be a minimal salary. The finances of the military man are complicated by the tempo of professional duties that leaves little time for adequate research when the need for extra money arises. Too often, a man in need of extra money for a particular purchase sets a course for the nearest finance company. In the case of a product, a car or TV, he purchases the item on time and finances it with the seller. But more often, his meager service pay feeds the finance company, where on $95 billion in short-term consumer loans last year the credit charge was $13 billion.
This writer has yet to investigate an indebtedness letter or financial problem of an
enlisted man without finding the individual paying over 20 per cent interest. In a recent case, a man was found to be saving $10 per month in the Navy’s Saving Deposit Program (at 10 per cent interest) while at the same time slowly paying for several loans totaling over $1,000, all of which were costing over 30 per cent interest. This is a financial loss of 20 per cent on his money.
The average young Navy man (and some officers) has received virtually no financial education, either in his high school or from his parents. Few enlisted men understand that there are significant differences in the cost of borrowing money and that this difference is determined by comparing true interest rates- Too often, they base their decision, on whether or not to sign for the loan or to finance a purchase, upon their ability to meet the monthly payments. They are ready victims for a high interest-rate loan company- For, in general, loan companies are honest and well-meaning (and certainly legal); however, they do charge an exorbitant rate of interest for the use of their money.
In another recent case, a young man received $310.94 in cash which was to be repaid in 20 monthly installments of $20 each. To him this was reasonable because he thought he could afford $20 a month. But in reality'! he was paying an interest rate of almost 33 per cent.
How is this interest rate determined? The following formula will give the approximate true interest rate charged on installment loans or sales:
Number of
2 X Payments y Total amount “ X in one year of interest Truc Interest
Amount Total number of
borrowed payments + 1
In the latter case cited, the young man borrowed money on the discount method, 111 which case, the finance charges were discounted, or subtracted, in advance. Under this method the sailor, in signing for a $40 loan, received $310.94 and repaid $400. The cost of using the money for the 20 months was $89.06. Knowing these figures and using die above “interest calculation,” it is easy w approximate the true interest rate of •> per cent, which is not unusual.
To dwell on this fellow a bit longer, he reported to the ship with many indebtedness letters in his service record, and another package of letters was forwarded in a separate mail. A review showed a principal loan balance of $301.46 with several payments overdue. An initial reaction might have been (as had been done at his previous command) to “read the riot act” and get the lad to make a payment, followed up by attempts to prod him until the loan was paid off. Instead, he was directed to the local Navy Credit Union where be obtained a new loan of $350 at an interest rate of one per cent per month on the unpaid balance. The principal balance of $301.46 was immediately paid off. This saved him $54.54 as shown here:
COMPARISON CHART
Finance Credit
Company Union
Amount of loan $310.46 for $350 for
20 months 20 months Monthly payment $20 $20 ($5 the
last month)
Total repayment $400 $385
Cost of credit $89.54 $35.00
In addition to the discount method, a second common way of arriving at finance charges is the add-on. In this the seller, or lender in the case of a loan, adds the charge to the loan. Thus, in obtaining a loan at the rate of $6 per $100, you would receive $100 and repay $106. Under the discount method You would receive $94 and repay $100.
A finance charge paid on the unpaid balance of a loan, or an amount financed, is just that. You are charged only on the amount you still owe. To find the annual rate, simply multiply the quoted monthly rate by 12. For example, the rate now charged on revolving credit is lj per cent a month on the amount due at the beginning of each monthly billing period. This interest rate totals to the equivalent of 18 per cent a year.
The small loan and personal finance companies generally charge more for lending money than do credit unions or banks, as they require less collateral and take greater risks. Most of these companies charge $17 on a 12-month loan of $100. With late charges, this can amount to as much as 40 per cent. The worst of the lot is the shipmate who is 'rilling to lend you $5 today for a $10 return
on payday. Not only is this against regulations, but also the interest rate is astronomical.
An understanding of the “Rule of 78” is helpful in explaining credit charges. The Rule of 78 denotes the use of monthly installments and the fact that the numbers one through 12, when added, total 78. If $12 is borrowed on an installment loan for one year, the following results: During the first month you have the use of the full $12, or 12 “month- dollars.” During the second month, having repaid $1, you have the use of 11 month- dollars, and so on. In the last month, you have the use of only the last remaining dollar. Of the 78 month-dollars available during the year, you use 12/78 during the first month, 11/78 during the second month, and so on. It should therefore follow that not only does this effect the true interest rate which the borrower pays, but also it effects the finance charges of the lender. Thus, if you borrow $100 for a year and repay $106 in 12 monthly installments, your true interest rate (or cost of credit) is not 6 per cent, as one generally assumes, because you did not use the $100 for the year. The full $100 was available only during the first month. By using the interest calculator, it is approximately twice that or 12 per cent. Similarly, the Rule dictates that finance charges be allocated among the months in direct ratio to the total month- dollars in use during the month.
For the most part, the indebtedness problems of military people are caused by a lack of knowledge combined with the existence of numerous companies charging exorbitant rates. A recent AFL-CIO report showed that, on loans of $500 or less, the informed borrower paid an interest rate of only 12 per cent while the uninformed paid as high as 37 per cent. The following example, perhaps typical of cases in most commands, illustrates this point:
An enlisted man explained to the Submarine Base Credit Union, Groton, Connecticut, a tale of woe about a $922.83 television set he had purchased. His credit costs were $327.37. At his request, the Credit Union took over his loan, refinanced the purchase, and saved him over half the original credit cost.
Again, a first class petty officer purchased a color TV set for a sale price of $995, plus $34.83 state tax and $39.95 for a one-year
P
service warranty, which totaled to $1,069.78. The petty officer paid $200 in cash and financed the remaining $869.78 for 36 months with payments at $32.66 each month. His cost of credit was $305.98. This man paid almost 23 per cent interest while purchasing his $1,375.76 TV.
Congress is aware of the “truth-in-lending” problem and has taken time to attack it. The Chief of Naval Personnel was sufficiently concerned about high interest rates and indebtedness to promulgate, in 1965, a directive designed to safeguard the interests of military personnel as consumers. This gave Navy men (now a part of BuPers Manual, Article C- 11104A) ten Standards of Fairness and conditions for Full Disclosure of the terms of loans and credit agreements or contracts. Although each commanding officer was to “ensure that all members of his command [were] instructed in the provisions” of the new instructions, it is interesting to note that recently, in a show of hands at morning quarters, out of a crew of over 100 men, only one man had heard of the Standards of Fairness and Full Disclosure. Again, the point being that most indebtedness problems come from a lack of education.
Although the Department of Defense has provided for the establishment of credit unions on military installations, there are still many service people who are wary of their existence and prefer loan companies, which include nationally known corporations. One example of such a firm charges approximately 34 per cent interest, whereas credit unions—charging a straight $5.36 per $100 a year for a new car loan or a standard loan, might be $6.24 per $100—offer a loan for 9.6 per cent annual interest. Even some banks are now asking approximately 12 per cent annually.
The problem of indebtedness can be attacked and rectified in four easy steps:
(1) Study Arcticle C-11104A of BuPers Manual.
(2) Obtain and study the pamphlet CREDIT, Master or Servant, NavPers 15221.
(3) Investigate and compare the true interest rates offered by local finance companies and credit unions.
(4) Educate the crew on a continuing basis on the facts of credit, promulgation of a piece of paper will not do the job. Division officers must hold detailed discussions with their men. The book Buy Now, Pay Later by Hillel Black, added to the command’s library, will be of assistance.
Really, there are only two basic questions at issue: Would you like to stop receiving indebtedness letters on those in your command? And, would your men appreciate your helping them use their money more wisely? The answer to both should be an unqualified “yes, let us stop indebtedness.”
By Lieutenant Alexander Monroe, U. S. Naval Reserve and
Lieutenant Thomas C. Lane, U. S. Naval Reserve, Instructors for the ROC Summer
THE ROCTWO PROGRAM AT THE U. S. NAVAL ACADEMY" SUMMER 1968
In the past summer, for the first time since 1945, the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis was the site for the professional orientation of Naval Reserve Officer Candidates. The program proved to be mutually valuable both to the 529 young men who came to Annapolis as Reserve Officer Candidates (ROC) as well as to the Naval Academy- The most important source, quantitatively speaking, for junior officers for the Nav> since 1951 has been the Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Newport, Rhode Island- Since that time, about 55,000 officers, °r nearly 50 per cent of the total input into the Navy officer corps, have received basic instruction at OCS. Many of these men have elected to make the Navy a career.
Since the early 1950s, an important portion
of the OCS program has been the ROC, or Reserve Officer Candidate, Program. More than 3,500 officers have entered the fleet from this source and about 40 per cent of this number have remained in the Navy. Prior to this association with OCS, the program operated on a part-time summer basis at Long Beach, California, staffed by Reserve officers on active duty for the vacation period. Since joining with the OCS Program at Newport, the ROCs have been instructed by OCS faculty members, augmented by Summer Active Duty Reservists.
For the 1968 summer, it became necessary to shift the site of instruction. This change of place was required by the exigencies of the Vietnam conflict. There was no room at Newport to accommodate both the OCSs and the entire group of ROCs. The Bureau of Naval Personnel’s search for a summer site led to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. These students were in the first of two summers of ROC training, termed the ROCTWO phase of instruction.
The OCS program is designed for graduates of four-year, bachelor-degree colleges or universities or who have met certain qualifying Fleet-wide tests. The program is about 18 Weeks in length, and its graduates are commissioned as line and staff officers. As an adjunct to the Newport program, the ROC Program is structured in essentially the same fashion as is OCS, except that the students attend two eight-week sessions split by the student’s senior year of undergraduate study rather than a continuous 18 weeks. These men have enlisted in local Naval Reserve units tinder the standard two-year by six-year enlistment contract prior to undertaking the summers’ training. They participate in summer training following both their junior and senior years in college, and normally drill at their Naval Reserve units during the academic year. A good indicator of the type of Reservist who enlists in the program is seen m the large number of petty officers found in the ranks of the ROCTWO first summer students at the Academy.
Upon the successful completion of the Second or ROCONE summer, the candidate is Commissioned an ensign in the U. S. Naval Reserve, and ordered to three years’ active duty. His participation in the Naval Reserve
gives him the tangible benefits of longevity and, thus, pay higher than most new ensigns.
A brief look at the students reveals a wide range of institutions attended and courses of study pursued. In essence, there was no “typical ROC student.” The undergraduate majors ranged from philosophy, microbiology, and English to literature, and from such schools as the College of William and Mary in Virginia and Sacramento State College in California. For the summer, these young men had but one common desire: to become naval officers and to excel in the course of study that qualified them to wear one gold stripe.
During the ROCTWO summer, the Reserve Officer Candidates received 180 hours of classroom instruction in five substantive areas: naval science and tactics, organization, navigation, seamanship, and damage control. In certain cases, these courses will be continued in the ROCONE summer, while other subjects, for example damage control and a portion of the technological curriculum, were taught in their entirety. The navigation course considered the work of the coastal pilot during the first summer and continues with celestial navigation during the second. In tactics, the course carried the student to the point at which he could solve a tracking problem competently, it left circular formations for the second summer. The academic portion of the curriculum was integrated with the physical or practical program administered by the Military Department to make the student’s day a rounded one. One hundred hours of instruction was divided into segments dealing with military drill, leadership, the Code of Conduct, and physical training. A portion of this time in the ROCONE summer is devoted to counselling the prospective ensign with respect to his choice for active duty.
In making the summer at Annapolis a success, perhaps no element was more important than the selection of a staff of instructors. The instruction was carried out by 91 officers and 17 enlisted men. Of the officers, 18 were regularly assigned to the OCS staff at Newport, 28 were Naval Academy officers, and 45 were Reserve officers chosen for this duty by the Bureau of Naval Personnel. One of the Battalion Officers and three of the four academic department heads were Reserve officers, the
1969.
Regimental Executive Officer was a Naval Academy officer, and the Regimental Commander had received orders to be the Executive Officer of OCS, Newport. Those officers selected from inactive Reserve duty were mostly teachers, and law or graduate students who had earned superior records from recent active duty. All types of commands were represented by the staff, and a brief summary of their backgrounds proves interesting.
Background Survey oj Officers Attached to R0C1 If 0
A. Officers served as Department Heads 33
B. Naval Aviators or Naval Flight Officers 6
C. Officers who served as OOD U/W 48
D. Officers who served as CDO 33
E. Officers by type ship:
Destroyers 26
Cruisers 5
Amphibious 15
Aircraft carriers 6
Auxiliary 7
Minecraft 3
Desk calendar engagement book. Illustrated with a provocative and whimsical collection of old nautical engravings. Fifty-two weekly pages for notes. Lies flat when open.
Julian dates included.
Same size as the Proceedings. $2.50
No Discount. Please use book order form in book list section.
For Maryland delivery orders add 3% tax
United States Naval Institute
Annapolis, Maryland 21402
F. June 1968 Naval Academy Graduates 19
This statistical summary indicates both the breadth and depth of naval experience of the instructors. More than one-half of the officers had qualified as OOD (underway), one inactive duty officer had served as the officer in charge of a PCF in Vietnam, and several other officers had served in other ship types assigned to duty in Vietnam.
For those who had served as instructors in the program before, the relocation to Annapolis proved physically and mentally stimulating and refreshing. Annapolis has an academic atmosphere, while at Newport the student encounters the practical activity of an operating naval base. A point of similarity between the two towns is that they were seaports in colonial times and are now centers for yatching on the eastern seaboard.
Within Bancroft Hall, perhaps the world s largest dormitory, where the ROCs were berthed and messed, there are constant and visible reminders of the service that the young men will soon enter. In Luce Hall, ships histories are briefly detailed on bronze plaques that line the passageways, and the parade route to morning classes passed Te' cumseh’s statue and the Chapel. There w'aS an inescapable sense of history implicit in the summer’s experience. This “sense of the
place” will undoubtedly prompt many of these men to recall, in later times, that, among their first days in the Navy were those spent as “students at the U. S. Naval Academy.”
To use the atmosphere of this setting advantageously was the task of the instructors. The then Superintendent, Rear Admiral Draper L. Kauffmann, U. S. Navy, addressed himself to this issue, when he, in his opening remarks to the assembled staff and students, declared that the Naval Academy’s task with respect to both its Midshipmen and its Reserve Officer Candidates was to “. . . produce men under whom he would be glad to serve.
55
Throughout the summer, this goal served to direct student activities. The class day was rigorous, beginning at 0600 and ending at 2300. A total effort was made to bring the ROCs into the corporate life of the Naval Academy. When Rear Admiral Kauffmann was relieved as Superintendent by Captain Lawrence Heyworth, Jr., U. S. Navy, ROC students were included in the ceremony.
They were normally uniformed in khakis, which differed from the white uniform of regular Midshipmen. The ROCs marched to and from class in smart, seamanlike fashion. They used the Steerage, a Midshipman recreation room in Bancroft Hall, and were regularly in the congregation at Sunday morning chapel. All of the varied sports and recreational facilities used by the Midshipmen Were used by ROCs as well.
As the summer’s activities drew to a close, those connected with the program considered the results of the training to see if the sudden relocation had proven deleterious to those candidates who, under ordinary circumstances, would have gone to Newport. The following statistics indicated the results of training:
Candidates entered 529
Candidates completing the training
successfully 493
Reasons for disenrollment:
(a) Academic | 11 |
(b) Voluntary | 17 |
(c) Medical | 5 |
(d) Other | 3 |
The attrition rate was 6f per cent, which *s a figure that is somewhat lower than the loss experience from previous years. This indi-
cated that the program alteration that began as a matter of necessity experienced good success. The reasons for this favorable outcome are speculative. However, to the staff who participated in the program, it seemed that the positive results might be attributed to the fortunate a number of factors, among the physical facilities unsurpassed by any other naval training facility, a challenging curriculum, and the pervasive Navy atmosphere of the U. S. Naval Academy.
The human element is, of course, essential to the successful completion of any human resource development program. The ROC program had to be relocated at the Naval Academy suddenly, and the Naval Academy’s staff made every effort to assist the ROCs. Academy instructors provided help to ROC instructors for the teaching of their courses, and other logistical aid was consistently available. In giving this wholehearted assistance, the Academy faculty and staff helped to ensure the eminently successful completion of the summer.
By Lieutenant R. W. A. Seagraves,
U. S. Naval Reserve, a former NILO at Ca Mau
NILO—THE NAVAL INTELLIGENCE LIAISON OFFICER IN VIETNAM
In Vietnam today a term found increasingly in common military parlance is NILO. These four initials refer to the Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer, a billet which, until the last two decades, was relatively new in the U. S. Navy. The history of intelligence officers in the Navy has a respectable pedigree and vintage; yet, the exigencies of the Vietnam war have prompted the Navy to recast the traditional role of the intelligence officer to meet the contemporary challenge and to fulfill the Navy’s part in the U. S. joint effort in the Republic of Vietnam.
The essential mission and function of the NILO is to act as a naval intelligence officer in the field. His job is one of combat intelligence.
In this role, he strives to collect local information of immediate or potential use to the operational commander in his area, and to relay to the headquarters of the Commander, Naval Forces, Vietnam, in Saigon, all information relating to naval matters for further study, analysis, and exploitation. Categories of special interest to intelligence officers include: swimmer and mining threats to U. S. naval craft, passages of steel-hulled trawlers and other ships in these waters, attempts of the Viet Cong to infiltrate the coastline or the inland waterways, and the movement of enemy troops by means of these routes.
The Navy, with its traditional emphasis on education and training, ensures that the officer, who is to be assigned as a NILO in Vietnam, receives a technical and practical preparation prior to reporting in-country. In 1966, when the Navy began sending NILOs into the field, the officer received his training through a combination of the courses in combat intelligence offered by the U. S. Army at Fort Holabird, Maryland, and the survival and personal protection courses, which are under the control and operation of the Commander, Amphibious Training Command, Pacific Fleet, at the Naval Amphibious base, Coronado, California. Then, in January 1967, the Navy opened the first class of a new course at Coronado: that of the Intelligence Officer, Vietnam.
The NILO candidate spends three months in an intensive program at Coronado, training both mentally and physically for his new assignment overseas. In addition to the extensive study of counterinsurgency warfare, a thorough course in the economical, social, religious, and historical background of Vietnam was included. The naval officer, accustomed to dealing with hydrographic charts, must recast his thinking in order to operate with maps and UTM gridlines and meters rather than yards and kilometers instead of nautical miles.
Marine officers instill a thorough mastery of the art of map reading, the use of the field compass, and day and night land navigation. These studies are augmented by practical work and field trips.
In addition to this theoretical and practical training, attention is devoted daily for two weeks to physical conditioning. A further two weeks is divided between the Marine Corps course on personal weapons orientation and firing practice, the Marine’s at Camp Pendleton, California, and the survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) course at Warner Springs, California, or at Whitby, Washington. The final six weeks is devoted to Vietnam language instruction. *
After a brief period at the U. S. headquarters in Saigon, the NILO reports to one of the 31 locations near the coast or in the inland waterway areas of South Vietnam. Quickly he discovers that there is another facet of his duties, and here the emphasis is on liaison. The NILO may find himself billeted with a Special Forces Team or a group of MACV Army or Air Force officers who will turn to him for all naval matters; he represents the Navy for them. In this unexpected capacity, he may be expected to offer information and advice on the draft and the general capabilities of ships, on what naval gunfire support is available, on the call-signs and frequencies of naval units operating nearby, and on surf observations. He will find that good liaison is an avenue with two-way traffic, incoming and outgoing. This co-operation with officers and men of other friendly forces and government agencies, together with the mutual interchange of information, results in a high degree of camaraderie and a more efficient collection effort.
The NILO is armed with many modern tools with which to accomplish his duties: portable tape-recorders for interrogations and interviews, cameras and camera copy-kits for general, aerial, and document photography- The NILO is further expected to assist in the aerial and visual reconnaissance of the coastline of South Vietnam each day.
The NILO, who reports to the intelligence officer of one of the four coastal zones or the two riverine areas, has vast scope to his duties- He receives his technical direction from the Assistant Chief of Staff for intelligence in Saigon, and gives direct support to his loca operational commander. When not otherwise occupied, the NILO is available to give brie ings and debriefings. This is the challenge ' many-faceted and immense.
* See also G. D. Brewer, “Conterinsurgency Train ing for the Navy,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings-
June 1967, pp. 136-138.
ASW Trainer—This ASW student battle simulator, patterned after the attack center on destroyers, brings together in a tactical situation information from sonar and radar to create a realistic situation. The $2.4-million device sets up two target submarines and a U. S. destroyer equipped with ASROC missiles, supported by two other destroyers or cruisers and three fixed- wing or helicopter aircraft. Honeywell Marine Systems
Vertical Jet—The Hummingbird II, in a test flight rig, is being developed to travel at high speeds, takeoff and land vertically, and hover. The VTOL aircraft, undergoing tests at the Lockheed-Georgia Co., for the Air Force, is over 33 feet long, has a wing span of 27 feet, has a gross vertical take-off weight of 12,500 pounds, and has a maximum speed of 410 knots. Four jets lift the craft and two others are for lift-cruise. Lockheed-G eorgia
Aluminum Vehicle—Two
Universal Engineer Tractors, shown in tests for the Army at Ft. Belvoir, Va., can perform as a bulldozer, grader, scraper, earth mover, cargo and troop carrier. They are air-droppable and float. The 285-h.p. /diesel engine can move the 31,500-pound vehicle at 30 miles per hour.
Reynolds Metals
Antitank—The TOW antitank missile is wire guided and aimed by the gunner’s line of sight. Developed for the Army by Hughes, the Marines are evaluating its use in tests against bunkers, concrete fortifications, and tanks. It has been fired successfully from helicopters at fixed and moving targets.
Hughes Aircraft
Soviet Carrier—The Moskva, the first of the Soviet Union’s new helicopter carriers, is shown in the Mediterranean in September 1968. Notice her odd silhouette and the extreme flare of her helicopter deck. Forward there are two 12-barrel antisubmarine rocket launchers and six missile launchers in three twin mounts, the foremost somewhat different from the other two. Four guns, perhaps 3-inch in caliber, sit in twin mounts on the 01 level.
Notebook
U. S. Navy
s Ship Notes: U. S. Navy Ships
The following list shows new and old U. S. Navy ships with their approximate dates for commissioning, recommissioning, or going into naval service, during the last six months, July through December 1968. Listed are their hull numbers, names, shipyards, and dates. (See “Ship Notes,” Notebook, pp. 137-139, January 1967; p. 148, December 1967, and p. 146, July 1968 Proceedings.)
warships
CVA 67 | John F. Kennedy Newport News S.B. & D.D. Co. | Sept. 1968 |
DE-1050 | Albert David Lockheed, Seattle | Oct. 1968 |
DE-1051 | O'Callahan | July 1968 |
| Defoe Shipbuilding Co., Bay City, Mich. | |
SSN-638 | Whale General Dynamics, Quincy, Mass. | Oct. 1968 |
SSN-639 | Tautog | Aug. 1968 |
| Litton Systems, Inc., Pascagoula, Miss. | |
SSN 662 | Gurnard San Francisco Bay N.S.Y. | Dec. 1968 |
AGSS-555 | Dolphin Portsmouth N.S.Y., New Hampshire | Aug. 1968 |
AMPHIBIOUS WARFARE SHIPS |
| |
LPD 9 | Denver Lockheed, Seattle | Oct. 1968 |
AUXILIARY | ||
AE-26 | Kilauea General Dynamics, Quincy, Mass. | Aug. 1968 |
AFS-4 | White Plains National Steel, San Diego | Sept. 1968 |
AFS-5 | Concord National Steel | Nov. 1968 |
AKA-1I3 | Charleston Newport News S.B. & D.D. Co. | Nov. 1968 |
APB-40 | Nueces Puget Sound N.S.Y. | May 1968 |
PATROL SHIPS |
| |
PGH-1 | Flagstaff in service Grumman Aircraft | Sept. 1968 |
New Oceanographic Research Vessels
{Naval Research Reviews, September 1968) The Melville, first of a new generation of Navy sponsored oceanographic research vessels, was launched July 10 at Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan, and will arrive in San Diego next spring to join the fleet of ships at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Melville, named for the
late Rear Admiral George Wallace Melville, Arctic explorer, hydrographer, and Navy chief engineer, will be equipped for research in biological, geological, physical, and chemical oceanography. Built at an estimated cost of $7 million, including equipment, the vessel has a maximum capacity of 60 scientists, technicians, and crew numbers.
The Melville features a propulsion system using vertically mounted, four-bladed, cycloidal propellers, one at the bow and one at the stern. Turning of the blades enables the ship to proceed forward, backward, or sideways, or to remain stationary over a fixed point in 35-knot winds and heavy seas.
Special features of the Melville, in addition to the cycloidal propellers, include:
• A bulb-like viewing port that extends from the bow, housing sonar equipment for undersea mapping and having viewing ports for scientists.
• An 8-by-10-foot well that makes h possible to conduct coring and drilling operations through the hull.
• Capability of carrying six portable, pre" fabricated vans that can be preloaded with scientific equipment and bolted to the ship s deck. Portable vans make for quick turnaround time in port and a rapid interchange of scientific programs.
• Deck equipment that can handle the launching, servicing, and stowing of 15-ton vehicles, deep-sea submersibles, deep moorings up to 20 feet in diameter, and multi-ton transducers for acoustic experiments.
• Capability of towing large vehicles, such as FLIP, Scripps’ Floating Instrument Platform, or unmanned, 40-foot, “monster buoys.
• Four completely independent laboratories, including a scientific chart room and operations center.
• All machinery has been designed and will be installed for minimum vibration.
The 2,075-ton Melville is 245 feet long and will have a sustained sea speed of 12 knots, and a cruising range of 10,000 miles. She has a beam of 46 feet and a full load draft of ^
feet, 10 inches. She is powered by a slow- speed, 2,500 h.p. engine, has three diesel generators with a total capacity of 800 kilowatts, and can distill 6,000 gallons of fresh Water daily.
Navy designation for the Melville is AGOR- H (Auxiliary General Oceanography Research). A sister ship, the Knorr (AGOR-15), Under construction by Defoe, will be launched later this year and be operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Two more research ships, the USNS John D.
' Bartlett (T-AGOR-12) and the USNS Louis R. Uesteiguer (T-AGOR-13), will be delivered later this year; they will join the oceanographic research fleet of the U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office.
These ships, which are smaller than the Melville, measure 208 feet in length and have 37-foot beams and 15-foot drafts. Displacement is 1,320 tons, speed is 12 knots, and endurance is 12,000 nautical miles.
53 Russians Trail U. S. War Ships
(Lloyd H. Norman in The News American, 15 September 1968) Although the general public seldom hears about it, the cold-war Years have been filled with tense and critical little East-West dramas—real-life versions of the fictionalized escapades that occur in Counterintelligence novels.
It unfolded as the mightiest ship ever to Put to sea—the 85,000-ton atomic-powered carrier USS Enterprise—was “dawdling along” at 20 knots so as not to outstrip her destroyer escort. The Enterprise was bound for Vietnam With 4,600 crewmen, 80 planes, and some 200 Pilots, many of them new to combat and hadly in need of the tensely realistic practice drills that occupied much of their time.
Four hundred and fifty miles east of Pearl Harbor, Captain Lee’s attention was jerked from the flight deck by a top-secret cable from Pacific Fleet Headquarters: “Unidentified Submarine Probably Soviet Trying Intercept Enterprise.”
Lee had his instructions. He was to lure the Soviet submarine into a race. It was an
old game in which both sides try to keep tabs on the other. Usually, the flattops toy with the submarines, then outrun them.
This time, however, Lee was to play a waiting game. He was to increase his speed slowly, two knots at a time, in an effort to clock the Soviet submarine’s maximum speed.
The Russian skipper took the challenge. As the Enterprise’s atomic engines churned faster and faster, the submarine held its own. The pace increased from 20 to 22 knots, then 24. Still the submarine kept pace.
Then came the apparent cut off—at 26 knots. As the big ship charged ahead to 28 and 30 knots, the Russian slipped back.
U. S. destroyers, screening the carrier even as their sonar equipment tracked the submarine, had no trouble keeping the Soviet craft under observation. As one antisubmarine warfare expert said, “They’re so noisy at top speeds that you can’t miss them.”
Finally the submarine gave up the chase and turned away. But deliberately or not, the Soviet skipper had logged the highest underwater speed for Soviet submarines ever recorded by U. S. Navy sonar. The speed previously reported had been about 20 knots.
The encounter thus produced a major intelligence coup for the United States. The new information it turned up, in fact, figured heavily in a recent Pentagon decision to build a faster new breed of atomic submarines.
For when word of the Enterprise’s race was flashed to Washington, Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the chief advocate of naval atomic power, immediately seized upon it as further evidence that the United States had to upgrade its undersea atomic force. He described the whole episode to Congress in secret testimony and argued that the Soviet submarine’s unexpectedly high speed capability proved the United States was losing ground to Russian sea power.
Rickover won his point. A few weeks ago, Defense Secretary Clark M. Clifford announced that the Navy was going to develop a new “super high speed” submarine.
s Navy Retires Eight Squadrons
{Armed Forces Journal, 31 August 1968) The Navy has identified the eight air squadrons previously scheduled for inactivation to achieve budget reductions in FY ’69 as required by the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act.
Six of the squadrons comprise two carrier antisubmarine air groups, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific. The other two are shore-based Atlantic Fleet Patrol squadrons.
The total number of personnel involved in the inactivation of the air squadrons is about 370 officers and 1,730 enlisted personnel. The units to be inactivated are: In the Pacific:
Carrier Anti-Submarine Air Group (CVSG) 55, North Island San Diego, California, commanded by Commander R. W. Carius, and consisting of Air Anti-Submarine Squadron (VS) 23; Air Anti-Submarine Squadron (VS) 25; and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 8.
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In the Atlantic, carrier Anti-Submarine Air Group (CVSG) 60, Quonset Point, R. I-> commanded by Commander C. J. Kernpf, and consisting of Air Anti-Submarine Squadron (VS) 34; Air Anti-Submarine Squadron (VS) 39; and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 9.
The other two units are Patrol Squadron (VP) 18, Roosevelt Roads, P. R., and Patrol Squadron (VP) 23, Brunswick, Maine.
Patrol Squadron is scheduled for inactivation on 1 December, and Helicopter AntiSubmarine Squadron 8 is scheduled for inactivation on 31 December. All other units are scheduled for inactivation on 1 October-
The VS squadrons operate S-2 Tracker, carrier-based ASW aircraft, the VP squadrons operate shore-based P-2 Neptune ASW patrol planes, and the HS squadrons operate SH-3^ Sea King ASW helicopters.
s Navy Plans Shipyard Modernization
{Marine Engineering/Log, August 1968) 8 huge $700-million plan for upgrading the U. S. Naval Shipyards has been submitted to Defense Secretary Clark Clifford for his aP' proval. The eight-year modernization Pr0' gram envisions a shipyard complex that would incorporate the latest techniques of the worlds shipbuilders.
When a number of Naval Shipyards werc closed in 1964, a study was begun to develop a master plan to modernize the remaini11” yards. The now-completed plan calls f°r modernizing the Navy’s yards at Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, Lon? Beach, Hunters Point, Mare Island, PllSft Sound, and Pearl Harbor. This would gi'c the Navy two yards on each coast able to service aircraft carriers, one on each coast able to service nuclear surface ships, three on each coast to handle nuclear submarines an three on each coast with the know-how to service sophisticated electronic systems.
It is expected that die first appropria1'0'1 will be requested in the budget for FY 1' '
Other U. S. Services
55J Plane Warning System Spots I rouM ’
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(Aviation Week & Space Technology, 24 Ju|1 1968) Army Materiel Command and YL throp’s Nortronics Division are negotiati
a contract for the installation of 600-900 ^N/ASH-19 voice warning systems on Sikorsky kH-54 Skycrane and Boeing Vertol CH-47 Chinook helicopters and on Grumman OV-1 a'rcraft. Letter contract for $3-4 million is expected shortly, with a total order valued at ^6—10 million. The voice warning system Calls out flight emergencies in order of relative seriousness and frees the pilot from constant scanning of the instrument panel.
53 Statistics Show Some Fighters Safer
(Aviation Week & Space Technology, 20 September 1968) Statistics showing a higher accident rate for twin-engine compared with s'ngle-engine fighters, recorded since Fiscal 1967, are re-igniting arguments over how ttiuch reliability is gained through power- Plant redundancy. The U. S. Air Force s Combined average rate was about 14.5 acci- dents/100,000 hr. for the Northrop F-5 and the McDonnell Douglas F-101 and F-4. The Average rate was 12.0 for the North American f-lOO, Republic F-105, Lockheed F-104 and Convair F-102 and F-106. Those rates are based on accidents unrelated to the war in Southeast Asia.
Foreign Navies
53 A Review of the Royal Navy’s Future
(the Economist, 15 June 1968) Last Monday ^oyal Marine Commandos from HMS Bul- ^ark made a mock helicopter assault in northern Norway. This was the first exercise this kind ever carried out by the Royal ^Tavy in Europe. Next year, the commando Carriers will be exercising in the Mediterranean, where Britain’s naval withdrawal is being reversed. The Royal Navy will have Plenty of ships in home waters once the Withdrawal from the Indian Ocean is complete, and their role will be almost exclusively European. What ships are they, and what will lbey be doing?
Take the capital ships first. These are the °laris submarines. There will be four of 'bent, one too few to be sure that two, firing ~ missiles, will always be on patrol. It a change of government brought a change of Policy it would almost certainly be too late add a fifth. This is not simply a matter of c°st. By April 1971, the Navy will have lost
6,500 of its existing 94,900 men, with more cuts pending. The Americans will have moved into the second generation of submarine missiles, with the Poseidon, and the Russians will probably be trying to match them. The Navy will be left with a small, second-best nuclear weapon system, whose justification will increasingly be presented as political more than military.
In 1972 or thereabouts the other capital ships, the aircraft carriers, will be phased out. One of the two big ones, the Ark Royal, is being refitted to take a squadron of Phantoms, on the ostensible grounds that supersonic planes would be needed if trouble arose during the withdrawal from Malaysia and Singapore. That reason is thin, for the contingency is extremely remote. So, perhaps, unspoken hopes linger that another government would keep the carriers.
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minutes, and (with interpolation) tenths of a minute
1969
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But, again, where would their crews be found? Would any government be prepared to pay their running costs (amounting to dose to £100 million a year for the Ark Royal, Eagle
and Hermes and rising to £130 million if the Victorious were re-commissioned) unless an overwhelming reason were found for their deployment in oceans distant from Europe. In European waters the carriers, like their American counterparts, will by then have lost their nuclear strike role. And the other tasks they can do close to the continent can be done equally as well by shore-based aircraft.
By the early 1970s the Royal Navy will be left with four Polaris submarines, four assault or commando ships, three cruisers, eight missile-carrying destroyers, four nuclear- powered hunter/killer submarines (rising to seven later), between 25 and 30 conventionally-powered patrol submarines, about 55 frigates, 40 minesweepers and a host of support vessels. This fleet will be well armed to deal with attacks from the air and from under the water.
This mix, largely because of the emphasis on anti-submarine warfare (ASW) may be good enough for the part the Navy has to play in general deterrence against all-out aggression. Specifically, it is a counter to 400 submarines in the growing Russian fleet, if these were used to blockade the sea routes to western Europe. NATO’s navies could certainly by conventional means cope with a limited attack against maritime trade. Against all-out trade warfare they could, like the divisions in western Germany, win time before such a war went nuclear (and, not so incidentally, the use of a tactical nuclear
weapon in mid-ocean against opposing naval forces could have less direful consequences than the use of such a weapon in central Europe). Because, indeed, of the nuclear deterrent, naval strategists (hopefully) consider all-out trade warfare—another battle of the Atlantic—not at all probable.
Increasingly, therefore, NATO’s naval forces will have to think in terms of countering nuclear-powered, and nuclear-oriented, submarines rather than of defending merchant ships by escort vessels against conventional submarine attacks. Here, the Royal Navy> with its growing experience in the use of hell' copters in ASW, is keeping abreast of the field. But the best weapon against a submarine is still another submarine. The decision to stretch out the building programme of the Navy’s hunter/killer submarines is based of the assumption of continuing detente. But if the political lines were again to harden between east and west, one of the first priorities might be the building of more of this type submarine.
NATO’s navies have to be prepared t0 apply the doctrine of flexible, graduated re" spouse. The scenarios range from the local harassment of merchant shipping, through the denial of maritime access by the trad1' tional blockading methods of mines and patrols, to, say, a land-based threat in the Balkans (which could be countered by the deployment of amphibious forces as a tokeu of identification). The responses range fr°n* defence (the sweeping of a minefield, escorts for merchant ships), through reciprocation
(tit-for-tat for the capture or sinking of a merchant ship) to offence (the use of submarines against opposing naval forces).
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The rebuilding programme should keep the Navy in this business of deterrence in *he lower reaches of political and military escalation. This programme includes the provisi°n of new frigates (those maids of all work); of' stroyers to carry the Seadart missile (which) i’1 addition to its primary surface-to-air function* will have a secondary surface-to-surface capa bility, and which, presumably, could be use * like the Martel air-to-surfacc missile, agahlS patrol craft carrying short range Styx inissueS' and, for the medium reaches of escalation) command ships of much the same displace ment as the cruisers. There may be a gap 111
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the programme. This is in the provision of a longer-ranging surface-to-surface missile (possibly as a secondary function of a surface-to- air system). This would provide, once the carders are gone, the Navy with a second string to its bow of shore-based aircraft—and, possibly, a better one than helicopters carrying air-to-surface missiles could provide. It would have to be much more sophisticated than the °ne at present employed by the Russians (tvhich cruises in the atmosphere at subsonic sPeeds over a range of 150 miles). It could therefore be very expensive.
Cost is the constant bugbear as the planners try to sort out the more probable from the less probable scenarios for ships which ntay have to stay in service for 20 years. But certain broad naval objectives are apparent. They are: (1) the maintenance °f an amphibious element, for this is the spearhead force that Britain can offer not Only NATO but anyone else who asks for its help or cooperation; (2) the provision of hunter/killer submarines, probably beyond the seven already planned; (3) no great delay 'n the rest of the rebuilding programme in 'vhich, sensibly, the Navy will be taking the I opportunity to cut down crewing require- I 'ttents; and (4) the modest willingness not to I Send great numbers of ships back to the Mediterranean but, as in the Atlantic, to assign ships to a small, standing NATO squadron there. That could mean a slightly smaller I htavy in the future. But slight ought to mean shght, as long as Britain continues to take the r°le of NATO seriously.
$3 Dutch Buy Breguet ASW Aircraft
'tying Review International, September 1968) The recently announced order for nine °reguet 1150 Atlantic maritime patrol airCraft for the Dutch naval air arm, the Komn- tyke Marine Luchtvaarldienst (MLD), will Jjecessitate re-opening the Atlantic assembly ’tie which has now completed the 60 aircraft ordered by the French and German levies. Deliveries cannot be resumed until 1969 or early 1970.
The Aeronavale has agreed to relinquish j^e last four aircraft built against its order °r 40 aircraft, and these will be delivered to MLD by July of next year. Aeronavale 'vhl recover the aircraft from the new production run, and deliveries of the remaining five aircraft for the MLD will begin in October 1970. The Dutch order is valued at £21.5 million and MLD ground and air crews will shortly start training on the Atlantic with the Aeronavale. The Dutch government contributed 15 per cent of the research and development costs of the Atlantic, and Fokker is responsible for the manufacture of the wing centre section and nacelle assemblies.
s Soviet/UAR Aircraft Eye Sixth Fleet
(.Aviation Week & Space Technology, 26 August 1968) Soviet-built Tupolev TU-16 medium jet bombers are flying surveillance missions over ships of the U. S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean from bases in the United Arab Republic (uar) . Whether they are Egyptian or Soviet manned is not known, but the aircraft carry the markings of the UAR.
In confirming the presence of such flights in a letter to Rep. Bob Wilson (R.-Calif.), Assistant Secretary of State William B. Macomber, Jr., estimated that advisory Communist military personnel in the UAR Syria and Algeria currently stands at approximately 4,000, roughly half of them in Egypt. Inclusion of civilian Soviet technicians in these countries boosts the total figure to between 8,000 and 10,000, according to Macomber.
a Dutch Carrier Retired
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(.Flying Review International, August 1968) The Royal Netherlands Navy has retired its sole carrier, the Karel Doorman, two years earlier than originally planned. The Karel Doorman recently suffered an engine room fire, and it
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was concluded that, in view of the carrier’s short remaining service life, substantial expenditure on repairs was not justified. No. 8 Squadron, normally embarked aboard the Karel Doorman with eight SH-34J ASW helicopters will now operate permanently from its home base of Valkenburg, and one of the two S-2A Tracker-equipped units, Nos. 2 and 4 Squadrons, which were available for deployment aboard the carrier is now being transferred to the Dutch Antilles.
s New Submarine in RAN Service
(Royal Australian Navy News, 22 September 1968) Otway is commanded by Lieutenant Commander G. R. Dalrymple, a former Royal Navy Submarine officer who joined the Royal Australian Navy’s newly formed submarine service last year. On her way from Scotland, where she was built, Otway called at ports in Senegal, Ghana and South Africa.
Otway reached Sydney in early October, where she joined the submarine squadron based at HMAS Platypus, Neutral Bay.
Commissioned in April this year, the Otway has a crew of 61, displaces 16,000 tons, and has eight torpedo tubes. She is the second Australian submarine to bear the name Otway, the first being built in Britain for the Royal Australian Navy in 1927, but sold to the Royal Navy in 1931.
The first of the new submarines, HMAS Oxley, joined the Australian Fleet last year. Two others of the Oberon-class, HMAS Onslow and HMAS Ovens, are building in Scotland.
s Australian F-lll Pilots in U. S.
(Aviation Week & Space Technology, 26 August 1968) First General Dynamics F111C fighter for the Royal Australian Air Force will be delivered at Ft. Worth, Texas, 4 September- The 24 F-l 1 lCs on order by the service will be ferried in groups of six to Australia by the end of the year. Australian pilots will train at McClellan AFB, California, before making the transpacific flights.
Merchant Marine
H Japan Orders Catamaran Fireboat
(Marine Engineering/Log, August 1968) Tbe Japanese Government has awarded a contract to Nippon Kokan K. K. for construction of that nation’s first catamaran fireboat. The $334,000 vessel will have a displacement of 235 tons and will be the worlds’ second vessel of its type. The first is owned by British Petroleum. The Japanese fireboat will be [ilaced in service at the Yokohama headquarters of the Maritime Safety Agency.
The NKK catamaran design provides several advantages over conventional lifeboats. The twin hulls of the vessel create an unusually wide beam of 34.1 feet for her overall length of 90.2 feet. This broad beam provides an exceptionally stable platform for a 49.2-foot high tower without affecting naviga" tional stability.
Twin Mercedes Benz diesels will produce a service speed of 13.2 knots.
s New Tanker Has Unusual Stern
(Marine Engineering/Log, August 1968) ^ 170,000-ton tanker with an unconventiona stern section was launched recently at tbe Bremen, Germany, yard of A. G. Weser-
£V£Vr-
O,
s
The specially designed stern, developed and patented by Weser, represents a dramatic advance in several critical areas of marine design, permitting increased economy and Performance in tankers and other large ships.
Development of this bulbous stern has permitted the design and construction of singlescrew ships in excess of 250,000 d.w. tons and up to 50,000 s.h.p. With ships of this size range, the efficiency of the single screw is said to be some 10 to 15 per cent higher than *n ships of similar size with twin screws.
I Construction costs of the bulbous stern are °nly slightly higher than those of conventional stern sections. According to Weser, these extra Costs are more than balanced by savings resulting from fuel economy, better utilization °f propulsion, elimination of extensive pre- j Ventive maintenance and possible repair Costs involving damaged gears, shafts, bearings and propellers. Further savings may be rcalized from the four-bladed screw, which Costs 15 to 20 per cent less than the five- or s'x-bladc propeller required in conventional stern designs, and can be used with the new bulbous stern.
53 Hovercraft Channel Crossing 'Bumpy
(7fig Economist, 3 August 1968) Hats off to Mr. Christopher Cockerell. Only nine years afier he invented the hovercraft, the 165-ton Mountbatten SRN-4 started zipping 250 passengers and 30 cars across the Channel at 70 I Ir>iles an hour. It’s a bumpy ride, but it only jasts 35 minutes, and in the rush to analyse JUst what those minutes felt like, everyone seems to have forgotten that marine history has been made. Never have so many people crossed the Channel so fast in such relative comfort. After all, the 250-scat air bus hasn’t Strived yet.
A large section of the sound-proofing hadn’t been completed and the ventilation system wasn’t working properly this week and hadn’t been tuned. That said, the trip across lhe Channel in a hovercraft cannot be described as a relaxing ride. With a following Sea from Dover to Boulogne and waves of ahout four feet, the ride was bumpy, but not ’fficomfortable, and in the forward sections the cabins on each side of the craft, the ’'Oise level was about the same as that in a Propeller driven passenger aircraft. Farther
back in the cabin it was noisier, and the combined pitch of the air conditioning fans and the engines themselves (which are surprisingly quiet outside the craft and cause people living near hoverports to lose only a little sleep) is uncomfortable. The return trip from Boulogne with the hovercraft punching head into the same waves was a lot rougher—like a high speed motor launch hitting the waves. But the frequency of the bumps is too short to create the nausea associated with travel in normal cross-Channel ferries. And in hovercraft, the passenger is sitting in a reasonably comfortable seat.
While the start of the cross-Channel service proves that Mr. Cockerell’s principles are right, it does not yet prove the economic viability of the craft. On paper, the operating cost figures look good (break even with an average 30 per cent payload, but that depends on the operating hours achieved over the whole year), but nobody will really know what these are until it has been on a regular service for a number of months. The British Railways Board which claims to be backing the hovercraft principle is showing signs of cold feet. It has still not ordered its second craft. That leaves Seaspeed, the hovercraft arm of BR, in the invidious position of having to run a high density ferry service with only one craft.
In the meantime, Hoverloyd, which will be operating a competitive service between Margate and Calais next spring, had sufficient confidence to order two craft right at the start. These will be able to benefit from the experience now being gained by British Rail. The next few months will be a harrowing
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Research and Development
s Navy Plans Mile-deep Laboratory
(Oceanology International, July/August 1968) A conceptual contract has been awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation for the development of a manned underwater station a mile beneath the ocean surface.
The Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory (NCEL) scientific station will provide a shirtsleeve environment for five scientists at depths of more than 1,700 meters in the open ocean. It will be an operating platform from which scientists can accomplish work on the bottom and in the water column.
The station will be composed of two vertical cylinders resulting in a vehicle 12 meters long, 14 meters high, and 8.6 meters wide. One of the cylinders will house a power plant using an umbilical cable to the shore or surface. The scientists will live and work in the other cylinder.
Laboratory space will be provided on two decks, and a third deck will be used for berthing and living quarters. A fourth deck is provided for station operation and control.
From the station, scientists will be able to observe undersea environments either directly through viewports or indirectly by closed circuit television. They will be able to collect samples with a manipulator and bring them into the station’s pressure envelope through a lock-in/lock-out system.
In use, the station will be positively buoyant and tethered from an anchor. All equipment that could become entangled will be jettisonable. Additional droppable ballast also is incorporated in the design. A connecting sphere between the two hulls will provide an escape trunk feature similar to that used on modern submarines.
The manned underwater station project is tied in with other ocean engineering operations concerned with ocean exploitation. F°r example, the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle being developed and built for submarine rescue operations can be mated to the station.
Navy Studies VFX Weapons System5
(Aviation IVeek & Space Technology, 2 SepteiU' ber 1968) Several contractors studying Navys VFX-1 fleet defense interceptor are proposing modifications to the Hughes Phoenix air-to-air weapon system, which the Navy wants to salvage from the recently halted General Dynamics F-111B program. One possibility15 to use a modified form of the AWG-10 fire control system, currently on the McDonnell Douglas F-4, as a substitute for the heavier more expensive Hughes AWG-9 system in the F-111B. Meanwhile, Hughes is searching f°r ways to cut AWG-9 size and cost, possibl)' including reduction of the present 20-targe1 simultaneous tracking capability of the we2' pon system.
E Lockheed Plans Deep-Diving Craft
(The New York Times, 24 September 1968) The Navy has selected a design by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for its first Deep Submergence Search Vehicle, a member of2 family of deep-diving craft planned by the Navy.
Lockheed said that the design of its Lock heed Missiles and Space Company had bee11 chosen over that of the other finalist in the competition, the Underseas Division Westinghouse. No cost figure is avail215 pending decision on a construction contr2ct’ a spokesman said.
The new craft will be able to descend ° 20,000 feet, the company said, compared Wi its record of 8,310 achieved by its own DcfP Quest research submarine last 28 FebruarL
The main purpose is to locate objects great depths and recover small ones with ^ claw-like projecting arm. It is also designC for light work, maintenance, and oceaI1|j_ graphic operations. It will be able to stay s’ merged for 40 hours. Its maximum speeo five knots.
Rescue Vehicle, which can descend one to shuttle between a submarine in distress211 the vehicle’s mother submarine.