This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
United States..................................................................................................................................
Radio Astronomy for Navigation by G. D. Dunlap and P. V. H. Weems—Put TacAir in Navy Blue—Air Defense—Rocket Intercept-Biological Warfare
Foreign...........................................................................................................................................
A Million Square Miles of Ice and Mystery—Britain Appraises Soviet Navy Rise—World’s Oldest Ship
1296
Briefs
UNITED STATES
Radio Astronomy for Navigation by G.D. Dunlap and P.V.H. Weems[1]
The brilliant constellation Orion, The Mighty Hunter, with his flaming sword and belt, has for centuries been a favorite of sailors, astronomers and all those who love the sky. In addition to its beauty and many traditions, Orion has always been a special friend of navigators, who, during the winter months can depend on many of the stars surrounding this constellation for determining positions. It has now been determined that our friend Orion is more up to date for our atomic age than the old traditions of sword and belt would indicate as he carries a very powerful radio transmitter which we dare to hope may some day be useful to the navigator.
Radio Astronomy, a science which is little known to the general public, is becoming of great interest to those who are concerned with such practical subjects as Navigation and Communications, as well as to the pure scientists. For many years it has been known that the sun and other points in the sky emit radio waves which can be detected here on earth. In fact, the discovery of the existence of extraterrestrial cosmic noise was made in 1932. In the case of the sun, the source of these radio waves—which were first detected about 1944—lies in the hot gases of the sun’s atmosphere, the microwave spectrum coming primarily from the region 30,000 to 50,000 miles from the photosphere, while the longer wave length radiation originates farther out in the sun’s atmosphere. Apparently there are two basically different
causes for these radio radiations. In the first place, any hot object radiates electromagnetic energy in accordance with Planck’s Law. The hot gas near the photosphere emits a spectrum characteristic of an object with temperature between 6,000° (10,300° F.) and 10,000° Kelvin, depending on the exact region under consideration. The radiations from this region with wavelengths greater than approximately one-half meter do not escape from the sun because the ionized gas farther out in the sun’s atmosphere refracts them so much that they are in effect “trapped.” However, radiations in the millimeter and centimeter region can propagate through the sun’s atmosphere and can be observed here.
The second general type of mechanism is that of coherent motions of ions in the sun’s atmosphere. Large scale circulation of ionized solar gases actually constitutes an electrical current similar to the current in an antenna, which, of course, radiates a radio spectrum which depends upon the nature of the currents. Such radiations are observed over a wide range of wavelengths, but are most pronounced in the meter wavelength range. This second mechanism allows the study of dynamic processes in the sun’s atmosphere, while the first makes it possible to measure the temperature and electron density as a function of radial distance from the photosphere.
Scientists in the United States, England, Australia, and probably others have for several years been studying this remarkable discovery from a strictly scientific standpoint and to determine any possible effects on communications. Although the sun was the first prime example available, further investigation lias now revealed a great number of
points of radiation. Some of these points, which we can refer to as “radiostars,” are at the same locations as optically identified positions and apparently have the same source, while others are located at points where no visible celestial phenomena exist, and therefore emit only waves of a wavelength far greater than those of visible light, or are located at a distance too great to be detected by the most powerful optical telescopes. With a few notable exceptions, radio stars have been detected almost exclusively at meter wavelengths.
The Naval Research Laboratory now has a radio telescope built by Collins Radio Co., with a fifty foot paraboloidal reflector. This instrument works on the same principle as an astronomical telescope which uses a concave optical mirror for focusing light waves. The radio telescope uses a large concave reflector to collect and feed radio waves to the highly sensitive receiver. With the use of this new radio telescope, many additional stars have been discovered.
The first radio star beyond our own solar system which could be identified with an optically known object was the Crab Nebula in Taurus. It is the gaseous remains of the supernova of 1054 A.D. observed by the Chinese, and is one of three supernova seen in our Galaxy in recent history. Radio Astronomy, with most of the security restrictions removed now shows a great promise of providing a better knowledge of the primitive regions of the heavens, which is necessary for understanding the development of the stars, galaxies, and eventually the universe. A good example of this was the discovery of the Orion Nebula as a source of these radio waves. This location, which is a very densely ionized hydrogen region, was suggested as a source several years before it could be located with the new modern equipment. It now appears that these regions can be profitably investigated to identify the electron density and temperature in these nebulae which lie in the spiral arms of our galaxy. It is known that this is the type of region where new stars are formed. It can therefore be seen that the scientific possibilities of this subject are limited only by one’s imagination and ability to build better research equipment.
From a more practical, down to earth
viewpoint, however, the discovery of the radio stars and the fixing of their locations promises to be the most valuable new aid to navigation since the computing and charting of the positions of visible stars. The radio stars appear to be in a fixed position which, with the turning of the earth, have an apparent motion across the sky the same as our visible stars and planets. In the case of the sun the nature of the radio signal was such that it was deemed feasible to build a radio sextant, and the project was undertaken by Collins Radio Company. A successful model has now been completed and tested which will track the sun, giving a continuous altitude and azimuth and therefore a continuous line of position. The radio waves are practically unaffected by weather conditions and the sun can be tracked even if the sky is completely overcast. Operation of the sextant is actually quite simple. Anytime after the sun rises the sextant is turned on and aligned in the correct general direction. It will then search for the radio source and automatically track it until the radio source disappears below the horizon. It has been proven that sufficient accuracy can be obtained to make radio sextants operational instruments.
As more information was gained from radio astronomy projects, the navigation experts predicted the radio sextant as a system of the future which would ultimately find its place in a master system of automatic navigation. It can now be revealed, however, that it is a system for use today as well as for the future.
On 21 July, 1954, one of the authors witnessed a test of the original “Collins Radio Sextant” at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The sky was overcast and the sun had not been visible before the test was begun. The sextant was originally constructed on a standard Navy searchlight frame which had been altered to give automatic control and to give the antenna the “Nutation” (conical motion) necessary for the operation.
With the sextant in the horizontal position, (not pointed in the direction of the sun), a control switch was thrown. The device then automatically elevated and started training in its left-right search for the sun, which was behind black clouds. When the nutating antenna axis pointed precisely at the sun, it “locked” on and tracked the sun in altitude
and azimuth. The results were continuously
recorded on a chart.
Obviously, this development will assist in providing all-weather navigation for the fleet. A small airborne model has already been delivered to the Air Force. A ship-board 30" model has been given 18 months of tests, by the Navy, with highly satisfactory results.
An all-weather, self-controlled system of this type, not subject to interference by shore-based installations, would appear to be the ultimate for which marine navigators have been searching for centuries. With this phenomenal development, within a period of a few years, who would dare to predict the mysteries of the universe which may be unveiled to us within the next generation.
Put TacAir in Navy Blue
The Army Combat Forces Journal, September 1954.—Realistic appraisal of a future global war accepts the fact that the United States and its allies cannot match agression’s hordes man for man, tank for tank. We strive for scientifically, technically, tactically superior unified land, sea, and air forces.
To be effective against superior numbers, small elite land forces must cherish their mobility and enjoy unequalled air and naval support. That support must encompass not only strategic bombing of enemy heartlands and naval control of the sea lanes; but effective action against enemy land forces, on and near the battlefield, by every weapon air/sea power can provide.
As a nation we rediscovered this forgotten truth in June 1950 when we initially opposed Red aggression in Korea with only sea and air elements. The realities of that combat quickly forced us to commit sizable ground forces and ground support aviation despite a national fixation that land armies were outdated.
It is clear that our present military establishment is not designed to extract the maximum value from our great air potential in the support of surface conflict. We are inherently weakest on land, the element where our worldwide commitments are greatest. How can we bolster our land arm with more effective—not necessarily greater—air support?
Evaluation of all factors suggests a solution, startling in its precedent-shaking simplicity: charge Navy/Marine air with all
surface support, whether land or sea. This solution will permit the Air Force to concentrate on its two monumental responsibilities: strategic bombing and air defense of the U. S.
* * *
If you are shaken by this proposal, calm down and think it over; national security cannot pander to precedent or prejudice. American combat effectiveness, as atomic weapons intrude upon the battlefield, depends upon how much we strengthen outnumbered ground forces by unified combat participation of the other services.
Logically we should evaluate air support capabilities and performance before estimating the future. In Korea, a smaller United Nations army frustrated, but could not destroy, larger Communist ground forces despite the aid of absolute sea supremacy and very nearly complete air superiority. Korea was in fact a testing ground for the United Nations’ optimum military combination: a relatively small, superbly equipped land element, whose combat effectiveness is multiplied by sea/air power. Unfortunately, results fell short of complete success.
Toward the end of the Korean struggle, Communist military forces, intended originally to defeat superior techniques by sheer weight of numbers, had almost equalled our technical attainments. Simultaneously, it became evident that our air power could not influence ground combat to anything like the promised extent.
* * *
Tac-Air interdiction turned out to be ineffective against little men with A-frames carrying supplies on their backs.
Neither coolies nor vehicles offered targets for aircraft unless the pilot was willing to fly down against the antiaircraft and take his chances. As a rule the Air Force did not bomb below 5,000 feet. Marines and Navy flyers, operating under a different policy, flew low enough to get hits. The net result was only partial interdiction of enemy supplies. Longer-range air interdiction did prevent full-scale Chinese offensive operations.
A scrutiny of close air support in combat discloses mistakes. Prisoner of war interrogations confirmed what UN troops suspected; front-line tac-air strikes were stereotyped. Set routines, with only minor variations, warned the foe to take cover in the underground shelter he was certain to have nearby. Colored smoke markers, spotter planes, or “flak suppression” missions signalled every air punch which, consequently, attained slight success.
* * *
Twentieth century warfare has proved the inseparable bond between efficient joint operations and victory. Neither land, sea nor air power alone nor, except under the rarest circumstance, any two of those three, can win decisively against serious opposition. Least of all can a portion of but one of them—strategic bombing—do the whole job.
Airpower is essential to victory—just like surface (land and sea) power. As the latter requires two distinct (but cooperating) phases, i.e., armies and navies, air power too, as Douhet originally insisted, must have its tactical as well as its strategic forces. Omit any one of these and we lose the essential “balance” that brings victory.
* * *
Close air support pays off only when it hits, and hurts, the enemy. This kind of effective air support can be provided. Procedures essential for success are no mystery. They approximate Navy/Marine operations closer than those of the Air Force.
The first fundamental is acceptance of the idea that support of surface forces has top priority.
* * *
The Navy method of having planes armed and circling at initial points, ready to go, fits beautifully into ideal tac-air specifications. Critics complain that airplanes used a few at a time in pinpoint bombing on call are being wasted. But the fleeting nature of battle zone targets generally requires this use. A limited number paired off with particular divisions would not go to waste. Air- ground teamwork improves when ground fighters work constantly with the same group of pilots upstairs.
* * *
Effective coordination between land forces and support aviation with its split-second timing comes readily only to forces that know each other’s limitations and capabilities. A key reason for Navy air’s effectiveness is the fact that Navy aviators serve sufficient time on surface ships to know naval operations. Likewise Marine pilots are Marines first, pilots second.
* * *
We need the means to make peripheral wars as unattractive to an aggressor as our fission/fusion power spoils (we hope) his appetite for global war. We can meet another Korea with smashing atomic blows against the invader’s field army on and near the battlefield if we possess a “surface air force” with atomic capabilities wedded to some top- notch mobile divisions. Unfortunately that “if” seems insurmountable without some adjustments in our military establishment. This means relatively small, overwhelmingly effective, atomic weapon-equipped, integrated air-surface force.
A single major alteration of Army-Navy- Air Force doctrine would create the surface air force we need without weakening our structure for all-out war. This change would charge Navy/Marine air with all surface support over land and sea; place in the custody of the Air Force the dual mission of strategic air offense and air defense of the United States.
* * *
To provide the Army with its own combat air force would be an untenable proposition for all that it has been requested by some ground commanders. There are already enough “air forces” in the United States military establishment.
Naval, and Marine, air outlook is already beamed toward surface support, albeit much of that “surface” is water instead of land. A highly organized superbly motivated, equipped and skilled force is in being. Whether expanded by transfer or other means it could absorb its new role without disrupting shock.
* * *
But phenomenal technical progress in every military field cannot overshadow the human element in war. We cannot bank on machines alone. Tactics and pilot skill provided by training are equally important. As previously noted, it is in the realm of training that the advantages of the Naval/Marine air support combination become most evident.
An old rule for anyone providing service is: give the customer what he needs. Charging Navy/Marine aviation with all air support of ground operations would be endorsed by most Army men. Navy/Army cooperation in amphibious operations has never given rise to the intensity of disagreement instanced by Navy/Air Force or Army-Air Force disputes. The two older services have, after all, fought side by side for generations, leaving their bitterest rivalries to the football field, their most acrimonious disputations to guest night at Army-Navy Clubs around the world.
Air Defense
Aviation Week, August 9, 1954.—The Air Force last week was given complete responsibility for the country’s air defense, with authority over Army and Navy units used in the defense mission.
The Department of Defense will activate Sept. 1 a new Continental Air Defense Command headed by Gen. Benjamin W. Chidlaw, who also will continue to act as commander of USAF’s Air Defense Command. Headquarters of CADC will be in Colorado Springs, home of ADC.
JCS Decision
The new unified command was recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to:
Provide for the development of coordinated plans and requirements for the continental air defense mission.
Insure effective control and utilization of all available military strength—Army, Navy and Air Force—in time of emergency.
Provide a single military agency to coordinate with the Federal Civil Defense Administration and other state and local agencies holding responsibility in case of an air attack.
Practical effect of the change will be to give Gen. Chidlaw a direct channel of communication with JCS. After Sept. 1, Chidlaw will determine requirements for all three services. As commander of ADC, he had the responsibility for air defense but no authority over participation by the Army and Navy.
New Weapons
In announcing the change, Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson declared that centralized control was made necessary “by the advent of new weapons and increased forces available for continental air defense.”
The Secretary cited new and faster interceptor planes and improvements made in the electronic field that will make air defense both more complicated and more efficient. He said it is important for the United States to be ready for prompt action if it is to take full advantage of new developments.
In order to do this, Gen. Chidlaw will have authority to move troops and ships, similar to the power given to a theater commander in time of war.
The general was appointed commander in chief of CADC to act for USAF as the executive agency. He will be responsible to USAF’s Chief of Staff and Secretary Harold E. Talbott.
Improved Operation
Wilson made it clear that creation of the new command will not alter the size of the nation’s air defense machine but will improve its operation.
“This is not a radical thing,” Wilson said, “it is an organizational improvement.” He added that some additional money will be spent on air defense, but no figures are available.
Co-ordination of air defense activities by the three services in the past has been effected only by mutual agreement. If USAF believed that Nike missile stations or picket ships were needed at certain points, it could only ask the Army or Navy to provide them and final decision rested with the other service.
Under CADC, the request will go to JCS if necessary to get action. Conversely, Army and Navy responsibility has been increased to produce the men and weapons demanded by Chidlaw.
Army element of the new joint command will be the Anti-Aircraft Command headed by Lt. Gen. John T. Lewis. The Navy has not designated an admiral to command Naval forces participating in air defense.
Rocket Intercept
Skyline (North American Aviation, Inc.)
-—The U. S. Air Force’s Air Defense Command, at Yuma, Arizona, in June, revealed to the public press for the first time just how electronics has changed the fighter pilot’s marksmanship in the touchy business of knocking off a well-defended enemy bomber. The Air Force marksman, charged with finding a high speed bomber at high altitude in the dead of night, does not bore in with guns blazing, using the enemy’s insignia on the fuselage as his bullseye. All he sees is a blue-green “blip,” a weaving firefly the size of a pinhead on his radar scope. If he is successful in keeping this will-o-the-wisp in a small reference circle until his automatic computing machine lowers his rocket pod and fires the rockets, he will hit his bullseye.
Ever since high altitude bombers became capable of dropping their bombs by radar on targets they never saw, well-defended bombers which flew in thick weather or at night, the business of intercepting them became harder for the defenders. The modern interceptor, such as the F-86D Sabre Jet, uses a combination of radar and rockets in a complicated “fire control system,” to do the job.
* * *
The greatest advantage of rockets over guns is this “probability of survival” of the fighter-interceptor. This is because the rocket-firing interceptor, armed with a computing machine to fire the rockets automatically at the precise instant at which they will intercept the target, need be on that target only an instant. The interceptor flies a straight line “collision course,” until the rockets fire. This makes the interceptor practically invulnerable to the bomber’s defense because the bomber’s guns must fire into a crosswind at a target whose bearing is changing rapidly. The destructive power of the rocket—one will bring down the heaviest bomber known to be flying today—is the second great advantage over guns. In the Yuma meet, billed officially as the “Interceptor phase of the 1954 Weapons and Gunnery Meet,” pilots who knocked off their targets on the first try got a score of 1,000, whether the target was hit with only one rocket, or all twenty-four.
* * *
But in'spite of the fully automatic capabilities of the F-86D Sabre’s fire control system, the meet was still a contest. Published reports showed that target hits were scored on about 27 per cent of the sorties flown during the meet, proof that practice and teamwork between ground crews and pilot in this strange game weighs heavily on the side of the winner.
The Yuma meet was the Air Force’s first air-to-air rocket interception contest. In competition were teams from the Western Air Defense Force and the Crew Training Air Force, both flying 2-place Lockheed F-94C Starfires, and the Central and Eastern Air Defense Forces, flying North American 1-man F-86D Sabre Jet interceptors. Each team brought their own ground controllers, maintenance men and pilots.
ROCKETS VS GUNS
The pioneer rocket program was launched this year, on February 1, with a primary purpose of training air crews, ground radar controllers and maintenance personnel. Early in the program it was discovered that training of the pilot was only a part of the interception problem.
The rocket-firing interceptors of the Air Force are actually revolutionary weapons when you consider that machine guns have been used by the Air Force since the days when Fokkers and Spads had it out over France during World War I. The rocket used is the 2.75 “Mighty Mouse,” a Navy development, which went hand in hand with the development of the F-86D Sabre Jet interceptor and the Hughes Aircraft Company’s fire control system. The “Mouse” is a husky piece of armament, packing the punch of a 75 mm. cannon and traveling to its target at a speed exceeding 2,000 miles an hour.
* * *
To tow the 9 by 45-foot plastic targets at high altitude and high speed, the Air Force had only one type of airplane capable of doing the job. That was the North American B-45 Tornado bomber, America’s first tactical jet bomber. The bombers tow the targets on a thin strand of steel wire more than a mile behind, and for good reason.
When the ground radar finds the flying piece of rag, it tracks it and at the same time sends up the interceptor.
* * *
“Modern aircraft have improved so greatly that no longer is any nation safe from attack,” says Colonel Worley. “They can go any place and drop a bomb. In a modern air defense system three things are needed: a good radar network, a civilian defense ground corps and a modern system of interception. The modern system is built around the fighter. The problem has been to develop a weapon with all-weather capabilities and we now have such a weapon. It is no longer a laboratory test. It is called the ‘lead-collision, air-to-air rocket fire control system.’ It is expensive but effective.
“The first thought was to train pilots, but we soon found that the pilot himself was not the only answer. The training of the ground control interception crew is equally important. Both the air crew and ground control crew have to be trained as a unit. You can’t isolate a pilot or a ground controller and say that one caused a hit, or a miss.”
Major Jabara, commander of the 4750th Training Squadron, said the training of the air and ground crews had to “start from scratch.”
“If the ground control doesn’t put the pilot close to the target for a radar lock-on, the pilot won’t get a hit. The ground controller is actually a ground wing man for the interceptor pilot,” he said.
And the object of such a meet as that held at Yuma?
“We learned a lot in the few days of practice before the meet took place,” said Colonel Worley. “The meet served to give us a free exchange of technical information, and a look at our whole operation while it was concentrated here as a competition. And the competition itself helped accelerate our training methods and combat techniques.”
Biological Warfare
Bureau of Ships Journal—This potential weapon poses a possible threat to our fleet, and calls for protective measures against it.
Biological warfare (BW) has been the subject of a wide range of public comment in recent years. In some cases it has been treated with extravagant and unrealistic claims. In other instances it has been loosely regarded as an impractical weapon that presents no threat. The true nature of this modern potential weapon lies in the fact that an enemy could use it to deliberately spread sickness and disease leading to possible weakening and disorganization of our military forces, including the Fleet. If attacks were directed toward livestock and crops, it is possible that this could result in serious shortages of food, leather, wool, and many medicinal products.
The attitude of complacency in regard to BW probably stems from a belief that such a weapon of war will never actually be used, and a lack of understanding of its true possibilities. This is dangerous philosophy, although we should not, on the other hand, be influenced by exaggerated claims. Biological warfare must be simply and realistically recognized as a dangerous potential weapon by which attacks could be made by enemy forces or secret agents.
Manual Issued
The Federal Civil Defense Administration has issued a manual, “Health Services and Special Weapons Defense” (CDA Publication AG-11-1).
. * * *
The manual does not purport to be a scientific document and no evidence is marshalled to support its many generalizations. Rather, it is a set of organized conclusions followed by broad recommendations. Large responsibilities are indicated for the military, medical, public health, and other professions.
* * *
The history of man is in a large measure a history of his diseases and wars. The defense against disease has been an age-long struggle of man to develop defenses against attacks which in the past have caused epidemics like the Black Death in the fourteenth century, which killed about a third of the population of Europe. The plague in the seventeenth century seriously affected life in London, and in more recent times the influenza epidemic in 1918 took nearly 20 millions of lives.
Epidemics Decided Many Wars
Many of the major military campaigns in history were decided, not by the number of troops or weapons or the strategy of commanders, but by the outbreak of epidemic disease. Disease among the troops was so much a part of military operations that it was only a question as to which side would suffer less and thus gain odds to win the campaign. In the period of the Crusades, the Christian army lost thousands of men to epidemics, pestilence, and famine. Dysentery gravely affected Napoleon’s army in Russia. During the Boer War typhoid fever caused more casualties than did guns. At the end of the Revolutionary War, when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, 30 per cent of his men had been incapacitated by disease. When the Civil War ended there were
223,0 Union casualties due to infectious disease alone.
Up to World War I, deaths from disease during wartime far outnumbered those from firearms. These cases probably were not planned biological warfare attacks but they served to weaken, debilitate, and destroy the will to fight.
Livestock Injected with Disease
The first evidence of deliberate use of biological warfare was prior to the Christian era when the ancients hurled the bodies of their dead over the walls of a besieged city, hoping to spread disease and pestilence among the enemy. Later evidence of deliberate biological warfare was when the early traders and explorers from Europe introduced smallpox among the American Indians. Before our entry into World War I, secret agents worked in the United States injecting livestock with a disease called glanders, as the animals were being prepared for shipment to the Allied Nations of Europe.
According to present medical doctrine, humans and other animals subjected to biological warfare attack are infected by inhalation from the air, like the common cold; ingestion of infected food or water, causing such diseases as typhoid or dysentery; and infection through the skin surfaces and mucous membranes, as in the case of tetanus.
Naming or identifying a biological warfare agent is at present a job for specially trained people. After a possible biological warfare attack has been made, considerable time might be involved in finding out what kind of germs or toxins were spread about. One kind of germ cannot always be told from another, even under a microscope, and in such cases it might be necessary to grow sample germs in a laboratory. How long this would take would depend upon the biological agent used. It is obviously desirable that efforts be made to speed up the techniques of detection and identification.
Increased Research Necessary
Accelerated research on atomic bombs which took place during World War II resulted in giving us benefits of atomic power many years sooner than we could otherwise have had it. On the same basis it can be reasonably expected that even if BW is never used, increased research is mandatory in order to develop a readiness for defense against it. Such development may again result in unlooked-for benefits to mankind.
- * * *
BW Effect on Ships
It is generally agreed that biological war- far constitutes a problem in the operation and maintenance of the Navy fleets. There is a diversity of opinion, however, as to the degree of hazard involved. With a fair degree of certainty it can be said that the threat of
BW attack on ships under way at sea is not as great as when they are docked, or anchored, or standing off enemy shores within range of shore batteries or land-based planes under favorable wind and meteorological conditions. If a BW agent is used, a wide variety of defense material may be needed such as detection devices, protective masks, protective clothing, collective protection units, and means of decontamination. It is recognized that superweapons are easily dramatized and stir the imagination, but corresponding defense needs are less easily made plain or supported.
Among the possible methods of spreading disease, germs and toxins could be loaded into specially designed bombs or aerosol devices. Germs could be loosed from special sprayers carried in airplanes, or it may be possible that agents could be disseminated from submarines or mines. Navy responsibility would be directly involved if a BW attack were made against our shores from the sea. By such an attack, employing submarines or mines, an enemy could attempt to completely isolate entire areas or cities.
In case of an aerosol attack, the rate of attack which might be expected cannot be accurately predicted until practical demonstrations have been made which will establish the concentrations of infective aerosols that can be attained. Available information indicates that, with reasonably efficient disseminating devices, relatively small amounts of material could establish very extensive clouds of high concentrations of agent.
Prevention is Chief Defense
One line of defense is, as always, prevention, and one phase of this is physical protection. The gas mask serves physical protection against biological agents as well as its use against inhalation of chemical agents. Clothing, impregnated with certain chemicals, is another type of physical protection. Rigid control of the potable water supply and well-cooked hot food, should do much to minimize risks.
A second line of defense lies in preventing the development of disease. This is done by the medical profession by increasing body resistance and is generally referred to as immunization. Every Navy man is protected against smallpox, typhoid fever, yellow fever, dysentery, and tetanus. When exposed to special risk, he is also inoculated against cholera, plague, and typhus. A potential enemy naturally will not use an agent against which a group is most likely to be protected.
FOREIGN
A Million Square Miles of Ice and Mystery
The Crowsnesl, July, 1954.—This year the Royal Canadian Navy intends to send a brand-new Naval Arctic Patrol Vessel into one of the least known regions on earth, the Canadian Arctic. It is even difficult to define what constitutes the limits of the area.
* * *
The Canadian Arctic, as defined here, is largely composed of islands. The archipelago was recently named the “Queen Elizabeth Islands” by the Canadian Government. There are 20 principal islands in the region with a total land area of a half million square miles. In general, they vary from high, mountainous islands in the east to lower, rolling eroded islands in the west. The largest three, Baffin, Victoria, and Ellesmere, are the area equivalents of the provinces of Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively. Baffin Island is the fourth largest island in the entire world. The total area of the Canadian Arctic is a million square miles, equal to the combined area of Ontario and Quebec. The important point to visualize is that it is, to all intents and purposes, one large land area in the winter months, as a result of the freezing of the intervening sea. The population includes only 3,000 Eskimos and 500 whites. In the winter, the sea ice extends southerly from Davis Strait to the coast of Labrador.
* * *
The earth’s North Magnetic Pole is located almost in the center of the Canadian archipelago. As a result, magnetic lines of force are almost vertical within the area and the magnetic compass is of very little value.
When winter sets in the whole Arctic Sea area freezes, with the islands and the continental land mass forming one large area. In one winter, the sea freezes to a depth of five or six feet; but over a period of several years, Arctic Sea ice may reach thicknesses of 20 feet or more, with hardness approaching that of iron.
* * *
Why is the RCN sending the Labrador to the Arctic? Primarily, it is to obtain information about the area, in order to add to the sparse knowledge at present held. To obtain this information, the Labrador has been designed, equipped, and manned. The major aim will be hydrography, the construction of navigation charts. At the same time, all other data possibile will be obtained.
From the earliest days, until the coming of the airplane, the exploration of the Arctic has been almost entirely the work of naval and other sea-going personnel. Ever since the beginning of recorded history, travel in the Arctic has been largely conducted from ships, with sled journeys from the ships in the winter. In the early 19th century, the Royal Navy made extensive expeditions to the region in search of a northwest passage to the Orient. Many brave sailors journeyed to the northern wilderness by ships, spending the dark winter months exploring from dog sleds. Almost all the mapping of the Arctic was, until the last few years, the result of these old-time voyages. The major British effort ceased in the 1850s after many naval groups searched for years for the lost Sir John Franklin expedition. Since then both Canada and the United States have taken a more active interest in northern exploration.
* * *
It isn’t visualized that the RCN will employ the frozen-in method of exploration; but rather, by using the Labrador, a specially- designed and equipped ship with icebreaking qualities, information will be obtained during the limits of the ice navigation season. The Labrador has icebreaking qualities which allow her to reach most of the area each year. Compared to the oldtime vessels, with their sail, she is a much more efficient instrument for Arctic exploration.
Strategically, the Canadian Arctic is important for several reasons. It is on the route of the shortest air distances between Central North America and Central Asia and between western North America and Europe. It is a physical part of Canada and is a doorway to the rest of North America. And being truly virgin territory, no one yet knows what economic secrets, such as minerals or oils, have yet to be uncovered.
All in all, the Canadian Arctic is a most interesting part of the world. It is one of the last frontiers yet to be fully explored by man. That it is part of Canada and is therefore a challenge to Canadians is a point well worth keeping in mind. It is the Labrador's honor to be able to represent the Royal Canadian Navy in this mission to the North.
Britain Appraises Soviet Navy Rise
New York Times, August 26, 1954.—'London, Aug. 25.—Britain, whose naval supremacy in the world was finally surpassed by the United States during World War II, drew pointed attention today to the steady rise of a new world naval power—the Soviet Union.
In a carefully compiled and deliberately timed “appraisal” of mounting Soviet naval power, the Admiralty published its appreciations of present and future Soviet naval might.
Within the next two to three years, the Admiralty forecast, the Soviet Union will, have a naval force of thirty cruisers, 150 destroyers, 500 submarines and at least 4,000 naval aircraft.
In addition it will be composed of 500 motor torpedo boats, 1,000 minesweepers and 300 escort vessels, not counting “numerous” patrol and landing craft.
$33,600,000,000 Spent
“It is estimated that since 1945 the Soviet Navy cannot have had less than the equivalent of about £12,000,000,000 ($33,600,000, 000) spent upon it,” the Admiralty affirmed.
In comparison Britain will spend about $1,000,000,000 in the fiscal year beginning April, 1954, on the Royal Navy, according to figures made public during the annual estimates debates in Parliament last spring.
Although the Soviet Union is primarily a land power, the Admiralty said, the Soviet regime is putting a “very considerable effort” into its navy, approximately one-fifth of total Soviet defense spending. This effort, moreover, seems to be undiminished even at a time when Soviet production is being stretched to meet the needs of armaments production, civil construction and atomic research.
The Admiralty said that the Soviet Navy was clearly developing the quality and quantity of its men, its ships and its air force. “The frequent and extensive naval exercises conducted by the Soviet fleets, at times suggestive of ‘open sea’ tactics, cannot fail to improve the preparedness for war of the ships and skill of their crews,” it said.
“The scale on which the Soviet naval building program is progressing may be gauged from the financial cost.”
Submarines Built Inland
“Warship construction is in hand in all the naval shipyards of the Soviet Union,” the Admiralty said. “Some ocean-going submarines are being built inland far from the water where they will serve and their conveyance to join the fleets is a task long familiar to Soviet engineers.”
Citing the Sverdlov-type Soviet cruiser that “stole the show” at last year’s coronation naval review, the Admiralty expressed the opinion that this type of warship could be built in the Soviet Union in “about two and a half years.”
“More important still,” it added “an ocean-going submarine with a radius of action of 20,000 miles [can be built] in six months. If this is so, Russia would be capable of building at least six cruisers a year and sixty ocean-going submarines in addition to large numbers of destroyers, escorts and small craft.”
Setting Soviet manpower at a total of
750.0 of whom 270,000 serve in ships,
85.0 in the naval force and the rest ashore, the Admiralty summation draws attention to the fact that the Soviet naval chief, Admiral Nikolai G. Kuznetsov is a “personal friend of Molotov [Vyacheslav M. Molotov, foreign minister], another believer in the need for a strong navy.”
World's Oldest Ship
Nautical Magazine, August, 1954.—To settle the question of which is the world’s oldest ship is a seemingly impossible matter for no sooner does a report appear concerning some vessel than another report mentions some other ship. The latest claim comes from Finland where it is held that the 299 Finland (Finland) which still sails regularly across the Baltic to Sweden is the oldest working steamship for she is 99 years of age. A thorough search is being carried out to prove the authenticity of the claim, especially at Hull for it was here that the vessel was believed to have been built in 1855 but because all records of the firm who built her are missing the proof of the claim is taking some time and trouble to establish. It is understood that the builders were Brownlow, Lumsden & Co. and that she was originally a wooden schooner intended for a member of the Royal Family in Queen Victoria’s time. The reason for this supposition is that as Queen Victoria visited Hull in 1854 one of the Royal Party probably visited Brownlow’s yard. But because Brown- low’s no longer exists, and records of the Finland seem to have disappeared also, there is no trace of the vessel for some years. In 1884, however, she was, it is known, equipped with a 40 h.p. engine at Lubeck and in 1881 she became the property of the Lubeck Steamship Co. Research has shown that Brownlow, Lumsden & Co. were in the first instance Weddle & Brownlow, which firm later became Brownlow and Pearson before becoming Brownlow, Lumsden & Co. It was this latter firm which was first to introduce steamships between Hull and Hamburg, while Mr. Brownlow was one of the first owners of iron ships sailing from the port. There is, however, no mention of the Finland between 1854 and 1869 amongst the ships owned by the firm. On these grounds, it does not as yet look as though the claims of the Finland are any more firmly established than are those which have been made for other vessels.
BRIEFS
New Ice-Breaker for Argentina
Navitecnia (Argentina), April, 1954.—A decree of the Executive Authority has assigned the name General San Martin to the modern ice-breaker now under construction in a shipyard of the Federal German Republic. This unit, which will be destined for the naval service in Antarctic waters, is to effect important services in scientific research in the far-flung areas of our territory. Because of the important missions this vessel is to carry out, it has been thought fitting to give it a name worthy of such a valiant ship, and at the same time to pay homage once more to the memory of the Father of our country.
U.S.S.R.: 2000 Improved V-2's per Month
Derniere Heure, 23 March, 1954.—-The German professor, Hermann Oberth, inventor of the V-2 rocket, has stated that the Soviet Union is now producing an improved version of this rocket at the rate of 2,000 units per month. These rockets are supposed to reach an altitude of 640 kilometers from the earth.
First ROKN Supply Ship
Monthly Newsletter (The Bureau of S & A), July, 1954.—A strengthening of the ties of friendly relations between the Supply Corps of the United States Navy and the Republic of Korea Navy was fashioned by the initial visit to NSD Yokosuka by the ROKN AKL901.
. The AKL901, a former Army ship, has been refurbished and is the first supply ship of the Korean Navy. The visit of the 901 marked the first time in the annals of the Supply Corps that a Korean supply ship has paid an official visit to a supply depot.
* * *
The AKL901 will operate in support of the Korean Fleet in Far Eastern waters.
Though having only a 150-ton capacity, the 901 makes the supply run from Yokosuka to Chin-Hae, the ROKN base, to pick up supplies earmarked for the Korean Navy. This task was formerly performed by MSTS and U. S. Fleet supply vessels, with the lion’s share of the task falling on the U. S. Fleet ships. These AKL’s were requested by the ROK Naval Advisory Group at Chin-Hae, as a step in making the ROKN an independent operating Navy.
Neiv Woods Hole Laboratory
The Common Defense, August, 1954.—An additional laboratory to study undersea phenomena was added to the Woods Hole Oceanography Institute by the Office of Naval Research. Here efforts will continue to expand our knowledge of the world’s oceans and seek means of underwater navigation for guiding atomic-powered submarines. The ocean floor, ocean currents, gravitational and magnetic fields, all may be utilized to solve the problem.
Naval Aviation Discharges
Aviation Week, August 9, 1954.—-About 7,200 Naval aviators, now in inactive status and who have not participated in the program for at least three years, will be given honorable discharges in October. Pilots with the rank of lieutenant (junior grade) or ensign are not included in first postwar effort to open up top echelons and create opportunities for promotion. The step is part of a program to tighten up reserve ranks, placing emphasis on qualifications and training.
Navy's Jet Engine Plant Leased
Aviation Week, August 23, 1954.—Navy’s $40-million jet engine plant at Romulus, Mich., will be leased to Ford Motor Co. for non-defense production. The plant originally was built for production of the Westinghouse J40 turbojet. Lease still must be approved by the Defense Department.
New Safeway Sailor's Hook for Use on Board Ship
Marine Progress, August, 1954.—-The Structural Safety Service, Inc., New York, has introduced to the marine industry the new Safeway sailor’s hook which replaces the dangerous, clumsy and slow bos’n chair knots with safe-simple-strong cleat operation of chairs and scaffolds on board ship.
Aside from its life-saving feature, the Safeway hook is time saving on the job. Eliminated completely is the necessity of fastening and unfastening the old-fashioned knots each time the position of the bos’n’s chair, scaffold or staging is changed. The knot on the Safeway hook is made just once—for the duration of the job. It is available with or without complete bos’n’s chair with brackets for safety belts. Made of aluminum alloy 40E (U. S. Government Specification AN. A17) it weighs 2 lbs. and has a tested safety capacity of over 2,000 lbs.
The use of the Safeway sailor’s hook is not confined to the maritime industry. It also answers safety and time problems of such shore-side employers as building, repair and maintenance contractors (particularly painters) where scaffolding and staging are used.
No special instructions are required for operation and maximum safety is provided to men using it. Its simplicity allows the job to be done quicker, thus saving labor costs.
Competition
The Lookout, August, 1954.—The strong comeback of West Germany in the shipbuilding industry has British competitors worried. A slump in orders has caused comment in the House of Commons where assurance has been sought that the pre-war poverty will not return.
While Britain still leads the world with a tonnage building at present totalling three times that of West Germany, she has lost considerable business recently to her rival across the Channel.
Complacency born of the post-war boom is blamed for the loss of many customers. Germany, furthermore, is enjoying a labor cost advantage that promises to force England to bring her own cost down. The shipbuilders and shipowners have urged taxation cuts.
Pike Warns of Growing Jet Lubricant Needs
Aviation Week, August 23, 1954.—-Manufacturers of synthetic lubricants for jet engines were warned last week they must increase production facilities to meet fastgrowing military demands.
Thomas P. Pike, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Supply and Logistics, forecast that 1,705,000 gal. will be purchased by the Defense Department in the next three years and that the quantity will increase substantially after 1957. The lubricants, meeting military specification MIL-L-7808B, are used in jet bombers, fighters and interceptors.
Pike said military requirements for the
next three fiscal years will be: 1955, 250,000 gal.; 1956, 601,000 gal.; 1957, 854,000 gal.
His prediction of a fast-growing need for more lubricants parallels a Defense Department estimate that jet fuel requirements also will increase rapidly as reciprocating engines are replaced by jets for military operations.
Dentistry Without Pain?
Journal of the Franklin Institute, August, 1954.—An ultrasonic tooth drill has been designed by scientists at the Naval Medical Research Institute and proves to be one step nearer to banishing the fear and pain of having tooth cavities filled. The device, which uses ultrasonic waves to do the work of drilling, is a handpiece that can be used easily and comfortably. The heat, noise, vibration and pressure of the present drilling burr have created not only pain for the patient, but, in many people, a fear which it is hoped the new equipment will help to eliminate. While the new device drills a clean hole on extracted teeth, glass and other hard surfaces, it is still in the experimental stage and has not yet been tested on a human patient.
Nautical Mile Lengthened
Science, September 3, 1954.—The mile used in navigation on sea and in the air is now a little more than 4 feet shorter than it used to be. The National Bureau of Standards has announced that by international agreement the international nautical mile of 6076.1 ft. will be used instead of the U. S. nautical mile of 6080.2 ft.
Hurricane Ruins Yawl Academy Was to Receive
Annapolis Evening Capital, September 3, 1954.—Walter Rothschild, of Brooklyn, N. Y., has notified the Naval Academy that the 55-foot sailing yawl Avanti he had presented to the Academy was a total loss in the hurricane which ripped through New England earlier in the week.
Robert B. Anderson, former Secretary of the Navy, had accepted the yacht on behalf of the Academy in March. Rothschild was to have made the formal presentation at a parade of the brigade of midshipmen on Sept. 22.
Rear Admiral Walter F. Boone, superintendent of the Naval Academy, telegraphed Rothschild expressing his personal regrets and those of the brigade of midshipmen over the destruction of the yacht. He said the incident graphically illustrated the power of the elements and what the midshipmen will face in the future in the careers at sea.
Importance of Field Drill
The Army Combat Forces Journal, September, 1954.—The theory that the only purpose of marching drill is to move groups of men from one place to another in an orderly way is getting the lumps from the Marine Corps which is going back to the eight-man squad for drill purposes. Marines believe that the drill field is important in indoctrinating men in habits of obedience and instant response to orders and in developing command presence and voice in leaders. The advantage of the eight-man squad for this purpose is that it requires more complex maneuvers than the simpler movements of the larger squads and thus gives leaders many more possible orders. The Marines will retain the 13-man squad for tactical purposes.
Green Uniform Gets Green Light
The Army’s proposed green uniform finally caught the approval of the Senate Appropriations Committee and orders for six million yards of cloth, enough for 1,400,000 uniforms, will be ordered soon. Enlisted men will probably be wearing the uniform late in 1955. Officers may be authorized to buy and wear it sooner. The Army promises a long wear-out period for the present uniform. Army recruiters may show up in it first in order to compete with the Air Force uniform. * * *
Airborne soldiers who have been saying that the new green uniform doesn’t have a garrison cap (overseas cap to you old- timers) are wrong. Headgear for the new uniform includes both the field cap (formerly garrison) and garrison cap (formerly overseas). The troopers’ fear was that the new uniform might result in losing one of their most cherished symbols: the airborne cap patch. Actually their concern may be well
placed. The new garrison cap will be made of green cloth without branch piping and special insignia may be prohibited. It will be recalled that a few years ago when the airborne cap patch was banned along with other such devices troopers made such a fuss that it was restored to them.
Chamber Aids Navy Officers Find New Jobs
Washington Report, September 10, 1954.— Employers throughout the United States are discovering the availability of an important new pool of men with executive and specialist skills as a direct result of widespread publicity the National Chamber and many of its organization members are giving the Navy Department’s “Operation Placement.”
This project is the Navy’s employment assistance program, which is designed to acquaint key industrialists with the civilian experience and naval duties of 860 Naval Reserve officers to be released to inactive duty involuntarily October 1, because of budget cuts and the consequent reduction in the size of the Navy’s officer corps.
The project is expected to serve as a model for use by all the services in the event of future large-scale cutbacks in officer strength.
* * *
In a letter to Chamber President Clem Johnston, Rear Adm. Kenmore McManes, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations (Naval Reserve), this week thanked the National Chamber for its “wonderful assistance.”
McManes said he has “information that many Chambers are actively taking up the Navy’s project” and expressed confidence that “through such spirited help” the program will succeed.
★
[1] Mr. Dunlap is the manager of Weems & Plath Inc., and Aeronautical Services Inc., both located at Annapolis, Md. Captain Weems, one of the world’s leading authorities on air and marine navigation, is head of the Weems System of Navigation.