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United States.................................................................................................................................... 107
Designers Study Flying Submarine; Terrier-Armed Cruiser to Defend Navy’s Atlantic Fleet Task Forces; Portable Atomic Power Plant Studied for Arctic Defense; Naval Radiological Laboratory Dedicated; Navy A4D Breaks Record; World Science Mounts a Mass Assault; Suribachi Launched in Baltimore; Army Named Custodian of Service Food; Project Vanguard; New Seaplane Dock Facility; Upper Atmosphere Research; Nylon in Warships Saves Weight, Money; New Place for Navy on Nation’s Military Team.
Foreign............................................................................................................................................... 119
Western German Navy; Tirpitz Is Cut Up for Scrap; Belgian Air Force Seen in Precarious Condition; Soviet and China Build Rail Links to Strengthen Strategic Position; Atom-Age Warship Unveiled in Canada.
UNITED STATES Designers Study Flying Submarine
By Ansel E. Talbert
New York Herald Tribune, October 31, 1955.—Design studies on small “flying submarines”-—able to operate as fast undersea craft, surface at will, and then take off as tactical atom-bomb-carrying jet aircraft— are being conducted by several of America’s outstanding aircraft designers.
Larger craft of the same type propelled by nuclear power also are being contemplated by United States aerodynamicists, who regard air as “a slightly viscous fluid” and point out that the only difference between flying in air and “flying in water” is one of density.
The Defense Department permitted the All American Engineering Co. of Wilmington, Del. to disclose some of the details of a “flying submarine” it has patented with the general configuration of a delta or triangularwinged jet fighter.
John K. Northrop, who designed and built the Air Force’s all-weather Scorpion jet interceptor as well as the Vega plane used by Wiley Post on two flights around the world, also has just completed a “flying submarine” design. He is applying for patent rights on special features.
* [1] *
The United States Navy, which has a considerable interest in the “flying submarine” concept, now is testing a midget submarine* seven feet in diameter which was built by Fairchild Engine Division of Fair
child Engine and Airplane Corp. in Deer Park, L. I. By Navy directive, this tiny submarine’s controls handle under the water almost exactly as those of an airplane do during flight.
* * *
Most designers believe that the key to the successful “flying submarine” is the water ski or hydro-lift landing gear, which permits high-speed and heavily-loaded planes to land or take off on water without excessive buffeting or porpoising. The development of water skis was given high priority by John F. Floberg as Assistant Secretary of the Navy; since then they have been tested on many plane types by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
All American Engineering Co’s “flying submarine” design, disclosed yesterday, would land as a jet plane on water skis, skim across the top of the water until it slowed down and the skis sank, and the plane came to rest on its hull. Its jet engine then would be stopped, the plane’s air intakes and exhaust sealed, and the cabin pressurization turned on.
Then the craft would take in water in ballast tanks and submerge, driven by a marine engine and small attached propeller and maneuvered by airplane control surfaces just as the Navy’s present midget undersea craft do. A retractable periscope would provide contact with the surface.
To surface again, the pilot would fill his ballast tanks with compressed air and cut his marine motor. Then he would open his air intakes and exhaust and start his jet. As his “flying submarine” gathered speed, the skis would lift the fuselage out of the water and the craft would complete its take-off run on the skis.
Terrier-Armed Cruiser to Defend Navy’s Atlantic Fleet Task Forces
By David A. Anderton
Aviation Week, November 7, 1955.— Operational integration of the Navy’s first guided missile cruiser—the USS Boston (CAG-1)—will begin early next year when the converted ship joins the Atlantic Fleet.
The Boston is armed with two twin launchers firing the supersonic Convair Terrier anti
aircraft missile. Fleet operations with the Terrier follow extensive test firings of the missile, including a series from the Atlantic Fleet’s experimental gunnery ship, the USS Mississippi.
The Terrier’s range is about 20 miles; its speed at burnout is approximately Mach 2.5.
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The Boston mounts the missile batteries well aft on the ship, above two magazines which store the Terriers in a combat-ready condition. Each battery consists of one magazine, a guidance radar installation, and a launcher made up of a central cylindrical carriage.
Between the upper portions of the magazines and at main deck level is a small, well- equipped maintenance and overhaul shop for periodic checks, inspections and repair of the Terrier.
Below the main decks are the storage bays and the automatic handling and loading equipment.
Action Sequence
The twin launchers have a sustained rate- of-fire capability of eight rounds per minute, based on the time cycle of the loading equipment. In action against single targets at extreme range, the rate of fire could be limited by the handling capacity of the ship- based radar equipment.
When the Boston goes into action, two missiles are automatically loaded onto each launcher. To do this, the launchers swing to a vertical position, with the guide rail facing forward. Hatches in the deck open, and the missiles are elevated from the magazine, engaging the guide rail as they rise.
When the radar has located and locked on a target, the missile launcher is brought into action and automatically follows the motion of the guidance radar.
From then on, missiles may be fired at will by the gunnery officer, who uses the standard countdown technique developed for missile firings.
The Terrier is boosted off the launcher by a huge solid-propellent rocket. After three seconds of burning, the booster is exhausted and drops away. The sustainer rocket takes over for the duration of the flight.
The missile is launched into the beam of the radar tracking the target, and intelligence built into the missile continuously keeps Terrier riding the center of the beam. Thus, the Terrier flight path, following the motion of the beam, makes a collision course with its target.
A proximity fuse detonates the Terrier.
Terrier History
The Terrier is the first weapons system to come from the Bureau of Ordnance’s ten- year-old Section “T” contract with the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. Prompted by Japanese Kamikaze attacks in the closing months of World War II, the bureau established the missile research and development project under the code name of Bumblebee.
Scientists of JHU/APL made initial studies that led to the Terrier; other phases of the Bumblebee program have produced Talos, another anti-aircraft missile with ramjet propulsion, and the Triton.
As Terrier tests made the missile look more and more promising, the Navy opened a new production plant at Pomona, Calif., and turned the operation of the facility over to the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Production began in January 1953.
The ship-based radar system was developed and built by Reeves Instrument Corp., as part of an extensive program on gunfire control and missile development which started in 1948. Under the over-all project, two experimental Terrier fire- control systems were installed on the USS Norton Sound and the USS Mississippi.
Terrier Details
Parallel programs produced the booster rocket, a job undertaken by the Alleghany Ballistics Laboratory, and the missile carriage and launcher. Navy personnel in BuOrd and BuShips developed sketch plans for the shipboard handling gear. Actual conversion of the Boston was done by the New York Shipbuilding Corp.
Terrier maneuvers by changing the angle of its wings; tail surfaces are fixed and for stabilization only. Planes of the fins are rotated 45 degrees from those of the wings to eliminate flow interference.
There are four major subassemblies: warhead and fuse, forward guidance section, powerplant and aft guidance section. Most of the Terrier ahead of the wings is given over to warhead and fusing, plus other services. The forward guidance section is the small cylinder immediately between the wings. It contains the servo motors for moving the wings.
Missile Division
The powerplant, a sustainer rocket built by the M. W. Kellogg Co., occupies the bay between the wings and the tail. The aft guidance section mounts the fins, antennas and related avionic gear.
Convair produces both guidance sections, the spines connecting those sections, and all the aerodynamic surfaces.
The Boston, as the first guided-missile cruiser, forms the nucleus of the Navy’s first guided-missile division.
* * *
Normal complement of the Boston is 1,635 officers and men, of whom 103 will be missile specialists.
Portable Atomic Power Plant Studied for Arctic Defense
Navy Times, November 5, 1955.—The Army expects to complete an atomic power plant by the spring of 1957 that can be transported by air.
The Defense Department and the Atomic Energy Commission announced that construction of the atomic reactor had been started at Fort Belvoir, Va., the Army Engineer center.
Alco Products, Inc., Schenectady, N. Y., which received the reactor contract on a lump sum basis last December, has cleared the site and begun digging the foundation.
The aim is to produce an atomic power plant that can be carried by an airplane to remote places, particularly the Arctic, to solve the problem of heating and lighting. If the project succeeds, it would have important implications on the Arctic as a theater of war.
* * *
Availability of power for light, heat and communications would go far toward improving defenses in the desolate forward areas. In some of the remote Arctic bases, oil for heating and power costs $42 a barrel.
The plant contemplated would be too expensive for any developed community. But in the Arctic, it would be relatively economical because one plane load of fuel would run the plant for three or four years.
As it is now, barrels of fuel oil have to be freighted to ports, transported by ship to Alaskan ports, flown to airheads and carried finally to remote places by dog sled teams or snow-treading caterpillar vehicles.
The site of the reactor is at Gunston Cove, on the grounds of the Engineer Research and Development Laboratories at Fort Belvoir.
Naval Radiological Laboratory Dedicated
Army-Navy-Air Force Register, October 22, 1955.—The new $8,500,000 main building of the U. S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory was dedicated in ceremonies October 14, in San Francisco. The Laboratory is the only research organization in the country solely devoted to the study of nuclear radiation effects. The studies center around the harmful effects of radiations resulting from nuclear reactions, and developing means of preventing or minimizing the hazards of those effects.
The new building is a six story structure of reinforced concrete. Specially designed for use as a research laboratory, it is windowless to provide protection from atomic detonations. The building includes such modern features as movable inside metal ''partitions to provide flexibility, and a specially designed ventilation system.
The Laboratory was first formed in 1946 to study the radiological effects of the Bikini nuclear test explosions.
Navy A4D Breaks Record
Naval Aviation News, November, 1955.— The Navy’s newest and lightest jet attack airplane, the Douglas A4D Skyhawk, set a new world speed record October 15 for the 500-kilometer closed circuit course.
The midget carrier-based attack plane posted an average of 695.163 mph over the closed course of 310.685 statute miles at Edwards AFB, Muroc, California.
In making the run, the Navy Jet eclipsed the old record by over 45 mph. The previous best mark for the measured course was 649.46 mph established by an F-86H Sabre Jet on 3 September 1954, at Dayton, Ohio.
The Skyhawk made the run carrying a normal load of JIM fuel without benefit of external tanks, and completed the run with fuel to spare.
The Skyhawk's time of 695.163 mph was established under formal regulations of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale of Paris, France, and the National Aeronautics Association, which represents the F.A.I. in the United States.
World Science Mounts a Mass Assault
By Bem Price
Washington Post and Times Herald, November 16, 1955.—Three sturdy ice breakers blinked greetings to one another off
Norfolk and set a southward course for the bottom of the world.
All over the globe, scientists of 40 nations noted their departure with quiet satisfaction. After a solid year of planning, Phase II of preparations for the 1957-58 International Geophysical “Year”—really two years—was moving out of the paper work stage. Phase I was the exploratory voyage of the USS Atka to the Antarctic last year.
These two years, Jan. 1, 1957, to Dec. 31, 1958, will witness mankind’s greatest single coordinated quest for knowledge about the world in which we live. In all, 5,000 scientists will pool talents, knowledge and equipment to bend back the barriers of ignorance.
They want to explore more fully the atmospheric blanket which wraps the world; to search the face of the sun for the whys and wherefores of the electrical discharges which black out radio communications and affect the weather.
They plan to fire a man-made satellite into space to orbit around the globe 200 to 600 miles up as an out-of-this-world laboratory. The scientists will seek answers to the size and shape of the world itself and how weather is generated and where. They will sound the oceans, seek th'e birthplace of earthquakes and try to determine whether the water level of the oceans is rising or falling and whether the world is growing warmer.
Before the two years are out, men will have lived in a station atop the South Pole. In fact, the whole Antarctic Region will be populated as never before. This great, white germless land of the penguin and whale will become a sort of little United Nations.
* * *
While the IGY is man’s greatest concerted scientific effort, it is not the first. International cooperation began in 1882 with what was known as the First International Polar Year. This was followed by a Second Polar Year in 1932-33. Again many nations participated.
The current effort originated with a discussion in 1950 at the Joint Commission on the Ionosphere at Brussels. The proposal for the IGY was presented next to the International Council of Scientific Unions, and in 1951 the scientific planning began.
The huge cost of the various expeditions and part of the scientific costs are being met in large measure by the governments of the 40 nations which have joined the effort. However, millions of dollars in private funds are also being expended.
The most dramatic of the quests, outside of establishing the satellite, is the South Pole expedition. Those three ice breakers, the Edisto, the Glacier and the East Wind, are the first departures of a seven-ship American task force.
They are bound for the Ross Sea to set up two bases, one at Little America and another at McMurdo Sound. Eventually the United States alone will have six bases on the Antarctic continent.
* * *
This is the greatest expedition ever sent into the Antarctic. An airfield capable of handling the largest aircraft will be built at McMurdo Sound.
A construction party will land about 200 miles from the South Pole and walk in. Its equipment will be parachuted.
Sled trains pulled by 195-horsepower, 71,000-pound tractors will struggle 600 miles over the ice to establish a weather station and scientific observatory at the junction of Marie Byrd Land and the Ellsworth Highland. So carefully are these tractors designed that despite their great weight their pressure on the snow is exactly that exerted by a man on skis—four pounds per square inch.
All of the planning and activity is to support the 100 American scientists who will go in next year.
Every man on the expedition is a volunteer.
“We are taking in portable radios plus normal fixed stations,” said Commander Charles Snay, communications officer. “The stations will be thousand-watters. We can get communications for 10,000 miles with them by bouncing the waves off the ionosphere. The United States will be weather central for all the expeditions and we will broadcast weather reports every six hours.
“We are also taking along ‘grasshoppers.’ That’s a gadget which looks like a 500-pound bomb. You drop it from the air and things begin to happen. Legs pop out and raise it about three feet off the ground. Doors fly open and you are in business. It is a completely automatic weather station and also can be used as a homing device for aircraft. No matter how it lands, it will right itself.”
Commander Vernon L. Pendergraft, air officer, said that next year the Navy would have a squadron of 15 aircraft with 44 officers and 226 men in the Antarctic.
“Our great problem in flying will be snow smoke. The clouds and sky are indistinguishable to the eye. We are taking three sets of dark glasses for different conditions. One is so black it permits only 15 per cent of the light to enter.
“All the aircraft will be painted orange to make them easier to spot on the snow and every one will have a 30-day supply of food aboard. We are taking 30 malemutes and huskies for rescue operations in bad flying weather or for work over rough terrain where the tractors can’t go.”
As for food, Supply Officer Donald Kent said: “All the food will be prefabricated; that is, it will be boned and cut beforehand and frozen. Interestingly enough, it will be a high beef diet. Pork and lamb, even if frozen, will deteriorate in about three months, so we are taking only along enough of that to cover three months. All the meat will have the fat left on for its high caloric content.
“The mainstay will be pemmican (about 45 per cent dried beef, 43 per cent fat). A 15-ounce block contains 2,260 calories. The rest of the food will be margarine because of its spreadability, bacon, pemmican biscuits, cocoa, Oatmeal, dried fruits, powdered lemon, chocolate milk powder, milk powder, peanuts, salt and sugar.
Suribachi Launched in Baltimore
Army-Navy-Air Force Register, October 29, 1955.—The Suribachi (AE21), first of a new line of ammunition ships, was launched on November 2. The Suribachi was constructed at the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc., Baltimore, Md., and was the first naval vessel launched in the Baltimore area in many years.
The Suribachi represents the most recent development in ships designed to conduct rapid replenishment-at-sea operations of
ammunition and explosives. Elevators are incorporated in the stowage holds for handling ammunition, and ships may be serviced along both sides of the Suribachi simultaneously. Air conditioning, redesigned crew quarters and additional crew facilities are a few of the habitability features incorporated into the design of the ship.
The new ammunition ships are named after volcanoes. The Suribachi bears the name of the famous peak on Iwo Jima. The Suribachi has an over-all length of 512 feet and a beam of 72 feet. She has a light displacement of 7,500 tons with a cargo capacity of 7,500 tons. Steam turbine propelled, she is equipped with one screw. She carries a complement of 20 officers and 330 enlisted men, and is armed with four 3 in./50 twin mounts.
Army Named Custodian of Service Food
By Sam Fogg
Washington Post and Times Herald, November 8, 1955.—The Army has been made the sole custodian of all military foodstocks.
* [2] *
A sweeping order issued at the Pentagon requires the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to turn over all their depot food supplies to the Army to establish a unified purchasing and distribution system.
The Army already was the sole purchaser of military food, but the buying for other services had been done by request, and the
Army did not control the amounts to be purchased or the reserve supplies.
Deputy Defense Secretary Reuben Robertson explained that under the new “single manager” plan, the Army’s responsibility will cover every phase of military subsistance.
He said this included “cataloguing, standardization, requirements determination, procurement, production, inspection, storage, distribution, transportation and maintenance.”
Robertson described food buying as “one of the most perplexing problems besetting the Department of Defense,” and said the unified system will “eliminate duplicate pipelines, duplicate depot storage facilities and costly cross-and-back hauling.”
He said “this makes interservice supply automatic, provides for effective rotation of mobilization reserves, and insures effective use of stocks, services and facilities.”
* * *
Robertson indicated that the “single manager” plan, with one service carrying all the responsibility, will be substituted for the so-called “joint” system wherever purchasing is unified.
He said the department has under study plans to apply single management to a number of military items other than food.
Project Vanguard
Aviation Week, November 7, 1955.—
Present plans call for the Project Vanguard* satellite to orbit the earth at a 40 deg. plane to the equator. In this orbit it will be possible to view the satellite from Washington, D. C. at dawn or dusk. It also will be possible to illuminate the satellite with searchlights operated from the ground. Power for the instrumentation in the first satellite will come from batteries, although the possibility of using solar energy is being investigated. Expectations are that the satellite will remain in its orbit about a month.
New Seaplane Dock Facility
Army-Navy-Air Force Register, October 29, 1955.—Attack seaplanes such as the Navy’s new 600-mile-per-hour XP6M-1 Martin
SeaMasler will be given increased mobility with a new dry dock facility which the Navy and Martin announced would be ready for testing early in 1956. The facility is designed for use in semi-sheltered areas with seaplane tenders, and will serve as an integral part of the Navy’s new concept of mobile seaplane striking forces.
The dock will contain padded wing carts, which are secured beneath the plane’s wing and move forward with the aircraft as it enters the docking area. The dock will remain partially submerged, and a series of hull pads, which can be operated individually, will be raised from beneath to secure the aircraft. To raise the dock to the servicing, or higher dry-dock position, the facility will have inflatable air bags submerged beneath the water. Hydraulic, electrical, and pneumatic power will be provided for both servicing and dry dock operations from special below-deck chambers. Rooms will be available for use in loading or engine-change operations.
Upper Atmosphere Research
Armed Forces Management, November, 1955.—A new and relatively inexpensive method of conducting research in the upper atmosphere, has recently been announced by the Navy. In a recent test, a Navy fighter, flying at 30,000 feet, launched small rockets which reached 90,000 feet. The office of Naval Research has named the new technique “Rockair,” and while they cannot reach altitudes penetrated by larger rockets launched from the ground, their comparative inexpensiveness opens doors to research previously ruled out because of the cost.
Nylon in Warships Saves Weight, Money
Marine News, November, 1955.—Changes in material and design for one type of electrical fitting have made it possible for the Navy to reduce weight in large aircraft carriers by an estimated 30 to 45 tons.
The fitting, a “stuffing tube” used to form a watertight seal where an electrical cable enters a fixture or terminal box, is now molded from “Zytel” nylon resin. The new fittings are specified by the United States Navy for all new ship construction and as replacement parts when the present supply of metallic tubes is exhausted.
In addition to weight reductions of approximately 80 per cent, lowered costs and greatly simplified installation and inventories account for the changeover. The simplified design and installation is expected to save the Navy an average of 50 per cent in initial cost and labor for each stuffing tube used.
The new molded stuffing boxes are three- piece threaded fittings, using neoprene grommets to grip the cables. Instead of being welded in place, as was the case with a metal stuffing tube, the “Zytel” fitting is tightened down on a neoprene O-ring to form a watertight seal. Variations in grommet size make it possible for nine standard stuffing tubes of “Zytel” to do the job which formerly required 27 sizes of metal fittings. Since welding is no longer necessary, the expense of repainting terminal boxes is eliminated.
Designers in the Bureau of Ships are currently working on modifications of the stuffing tubes to permit their use in carrying cables through bulkheads. Completion of this work will make it possible to more than double the number of these nylon stuffing tubes used on board ship—with accompanying savings in weight and costs.
“Zytel” 105 BK-10 nylon resin, a nylon formulation which is particularly resistant to the destructive effects of weathering, meets Navy specifications. In addition, the resin is extremely tough and resists corrosive effects of salt water and galvanic action.
New Place for Navy on Nation’s Military Team
By John G. Norris
Washington Post and Times Herald, November 10, 1955.—Events of the past decade have had a much greater impact on the Navy than on the other armed forces of the United States.
The revolution in arms is only partially responsible. Equally important has been the altered world and domestic political picture, which has brought a shift in American naval missions and a new place for the Navy on the Nation’s military team.
For since World War II, the Navy has taken more than a zig-zag course from its pre-war top place in the defense scheme. It has gone way down and come way back up.
The View 8 Years Ago
Eight years ago the official Government and majority public view was that the United States no longer needed a big Navy. Why keep a large fleet of aircraft carriers, battleships, etc., when no other nation had anything remotely similar to oppose it, it was asked? Only anti-submarine forces—small carriers and convoy craft—were necessary, many contended. Land-based atomic air power would keep the Nation safe, while enemy A-bombs made aircraft carriers risky investments, it was said.
From its historical position as the Nation’s “first line of defense” and the “greatest fleet in world history” in 1945, the Navy seemed destined to play a third-rate role.
Today, things are different. True, the Air Force has replaced the Navy as the “first line of defense” and is taking the biggest share of the defense dollar. But after a period of uncertainty, the Navy again is riding high on the waves heading confidently into the future.
How have new weapons and world events revamped the Navy?
Picture Changes
In the first place, the destruction of the Japanese Fleet left the United States Navy with no serious surface fleet opposition. A major Russian post-war warship construction program, emphasizing new-type sub
marines and commerce-raiding cruisers, has changed the picture.
Russia’s 400 submarines—100 of which are long-range craft—and its dozen-odd Sverlov-class cruisers present a dangerous threat. (Hitler started World War II with much less than half this strength and at one time came close to winning the Battle of the Atlantic.)
There have been recent reports that Russia soon will launch two big aircraft carriers, but the Pentagon says there is no evidence of this.
Atomic Attacks
In addition to its traditional mission of keeping sea communications open—largely an anti-submarine job today—-the fleet now has another role.
The Navy’s presently deployed fleets in the Mediterranean and Far East have the capability of launching atomic attacks against both enemy land and sea targets. They are equipped with the Regulus surface- to-surface guided missile, which carries an atomic warhead, as well as carriers with A-bomb carrying planes.
It means that naval forces not only would attack enemy submarine bases, but also take part in what undoubtedly will be a major phase of the next war—the battle for supremacy of the air. That means bombers from aircraft carriers hitting air bases with A-bombs and fighter planes taking on land- based enemy fighters.
Joining Fleet
Theoretically, carrier-based fighters are not capable of taking on land-based fighters, because of limitations in developing high performance shipbased aircraft. Navy fliers, however, believe their new F8Us and F4Ds can take on enemy supersonic craft, and the long-legged A3Ds and shorter-ranged A4Ds can meet land-based planes on equal terms. Such craft will join the fleet within coming months.
Since World War II there have been great advances in all elements of sea power. Here is a summary of such progress:
Carrier Aircraft.—With the jet A3D, attack plane, and improvements in ship operations, the Navy is multiplying the range
of carrier air operations by some three to four times over World War II. It means not only that Navy aircraft carrier task forces can extend their radius of action inland, but the carriers themselves can stay farther out to sea and thus be safer from attack.
Radius Extended
This 1,200 to 1,500 mile radius of carrier planes can be extended by aerial refueling.
Carrier operations have been greatly improved by the construction of bigger flattops introducing four British developments: the “angled deck,” the steam catapult, armored deck, and mirror landing system.
The angled deck provides what in effect are separate landing and takeoff runways. The steam catapult has greatly extended the range of carrier planes by permitting heavier loaded planes, bearing more fuel to be launched. The mirror landing system enables planes to be landed more quickly and safely.
Anti-submarine Warfare.—German submarine improvements just before VE-day— too late for World War II—greatly changed undersea warfare. The “snorkel” breathing tube made World War II sub fighting techniques—based largely on locating U-boats by radar—obsolete.
New tactics and weapons were designed to meet the enemy sub threat. Convoying the merchant ships in a future war still will be necessary, the Navy concludes, but the job will be handled differently.
Will Hunt Down Subs
' Small aircraft carriers will travel in the center of future convoys, bearing helicopters. The rotor planes will carry “dipping sonar” —listening devices suspended by lines below
the surface. Destroyer escorts will be on hand to attack subs when located.
“Hunter-killer” forces consisting of Essex- type carriers with angled decks, and destroyer escorts, will hunt down the enemy subs. .
But aircraft will not attempt to patrol large sea areas, looking for surfacing enemy submarines, as in World War II. Instead, planes and surface craft will concentrate on areas which enemy subs would have to transit, such as the approaches to harbors, and the areas between Greenland and Iceland, and Iceland to Scotland.
Submarines will join in the defense. They can lie in wait, submerged, better able than surface craft to hear submerged enemy subs approaching and attack them with acoustic torpedoes.
Major Mission Changed
The United States submarine force’s major mission has been changed from its
World War II objective of sinking enemy surface ships—naval and merchant crafts— to “anti-submarine operations.” This means laying anti-submarine mines off enemy ports, as well as actual fighting Red subs.
Atomic Power.—The Navy is bending every effort toward making its fleet atom- powered. The 1957 new shipbuilding program is expected to provide for starting work on reactors for A-powered surface ships as well as expanding the atomic powered submarine program. Some of the new A-powered subs will be faster than the USS Nautilus. They will resemble the USS Albacore—an experimental submarine which is pioneering in high-speed underwater design. The Albacore is “tear-shaped”—rounder, fatter and shorter than the conventional-shaped Nautilus—and reportedly capable of submerged speed of 25 knots.
Guided Missile Ships.[3]—Future naval shipbuilding programs will emphasize warships firing both bombardment and anti-
aircraft missiles instead of guns. Within a generation they may become the chief weapon of an atomic powered fleet.
New Horizons
Seaplanes.—Jet power has opened new horizons for seaplanes. Heretofore, the problem of propellers hitting waves handicapped the development of flying boats. But the new Martin P6M Sea Master has performance qualities equal to that of landbased bombers. It can carry atomic bombs and land and take off from the open sea. Refueled and supplied by submarine, such craft will greatly strengthen the Nation’s retaliatory threat.
FOREIGN
Western German Navy
La Revue Maritime, October, 1955.— Western Germany recovered her independence and sovereignty after the signing of the Paris agreement of 23 October, 1954. Since that time she has become part of the Union of Western Europe, created by the treaty of Brussels of 17 March, 1948, and a member of NATO, 6 May, 1955. By Protocol III of the Paris agreements, Germany renounced atomic, chemical, and biological weapons.
She likewise agreed not to manufacture long-range missiles, strategic bombers, influence mines, atomic-propelled vessels, surface vessels of more than 3,000 tons, and submarines of more than 350 tons. However, Germany could be authorized to manufacture these weapons on the recommendation of the supreme commander of NATO, and on the condition that this be approved by the Council of Western Furope by a two-thirds majority.
According to Vice Admiral Ruge, the future German Navy should be able to:
(a) protect the maritime flank of land forces in Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland;
(b) maintain the security of communications with the Baltic.
These two missions can be effected by light, rapid forces well armed and trained.
The naval section of the Blank AMT. which has been planning the German rearmament, provides for a small fleet entailing:
about 20 escort vessels, some as large as 3,000 tons;
2 fast mine layers;
ocean-going coastal mine sweepers;
coastal patrol vessels;
a dozen 350-ton submarines;
landing craft and auxiliary vessels.
To begin with, these vessels will be acquired abroad, principally in the United States. Two of the 9 patrol craft of 300 tons, Fougueux class, built in French yards are destined for the Federal Republic. They are the P.7 and the P.9.
The personnel strength will reach 20,000 men. The first cadres will be furnished by the present Federal Maritime Police, who are now operating a number of small vessels, fast patrol boats and fishing patrol vessels, manned by about 6,000 men.
There will be a single officer corps who will receive a uniform training initially, and then go on to specialized instruction (naval officers, mechanics, engineers, supply). Training will extend over a period of more than 3 years and will include a cruise aboard a school ship.
It is planned to set up two maritime districts, each headed by a Vice Admiral.
Wilhelmshafen will be the principal base of the fleet.
The Blank office is now negotiating with appropriate American authorities in Europe and of NATO for the incorporation into the German Navy of a flotilla of mine sweepers flying the American flag, but manned by German crews. Press reports indicate that the Rhine patrol, now effected by American vessels, will be taken over by German forces.
Nazis’ Sunken Tirpitz Is Cut Up as Scrap
Washington Evening Star, October 25, 1955.—Scrap crews have recovered about 40,000 tons of metal from the Nazi battleship Tirpitz, which was sunk by allied bombers near Tromsoe in World War II.
The work, begun in 1947, is expected to be finished in 1956. Salvagers have brought up 250 tons of ammunition without an accident and salvaged motors from the Tirpitz now provide electricity for many homes and plants.
Belgian Air Force Seen in Precarious Condition
Christian Science Monitor, October 22,
1955. —The abrupt pensioning of two Belgian Air Force generals and a series of surprising questions put to the government in Parliament have made the Belgian press and most military experts unanimous in the opinion that Belgium’s Air Force is in a precarious state.
Conditions are said to be so grave that most fighter aircraft are almost perpetually grounded and some experts declare that unless something is done to remedy this soon, the Belgian Air Force will continue to exist only on paper.
The present situation is, according to reliable reports, as follows: Belgium agreed at the Lisbon Conference of Atlantic Pact members in February, 1952, to supply, by
1956, some 530 front-line combat aircraft. This agreement, later revised and approved by North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders, reduced the number to 440. It now appears that, even by inclusion of propel- lered craft and wooden-built wartime machines, the actual number of Belgian airworthy planes amounts to some 40 per cent of the demanded number.
As an example, Belgian newspapers and members of Parliament have recently pointed at the case of a major Belgian air base which, theoretically speaking, has 75 planes and which, under the most favorable conditions, will have none at all operative this year.
This situation, it is claimed, is due to the grave lack of regular maintenance. Planes are bought from Holland and Britain without adequate spare parts and the armed forces administration is incapable of supplying these. The result has been that 60 per cent of the Air Force has remained grounded for many months and that pilots lack normal and continuous training.
Soviet and China Build Rail Links to Strengthen Strategic Position
By Harrison E. Salisbury
New York Times, November 15, 1955.— Communist China and the Soviet Union have completed without fanfare a new strategic rail line through Mongolia that eases a major Chinese transport weakness.
Completion of the line effects the Far Eastern long-range strategic situation, since it renders China considerably less vulnerable to naval blockade.
Regular rail service on the new 600-mile line, which connects the Soviet Transsiberian Railway with the Chinese rail network has not yet started.
But construction of the line has been finished. Railroad stations are being built and signal equipment is being installed, United States experts report. The line will go into regular service Jan. 1.
The major part of the line was built by the Russians and all of it is the broad Soviet gauge. Trans-shipment of freight to the standard Chinese gauge will be required at Tsining, northwest of Peiping.
Construction Began in 1953
Construction of the line, a joint Chinese- Soviet project, started in the middle of 1953. The Chinese constructed the segment from Tsining to the border point of Erhlien. The most difficult construction problems were on the Chinese side, but this segment, 210 miles long, was completed first.
The Chinese were understood to have provided most of the equipment for the Chinese part of the line. It was expected that the link would utilize Soviet transport equipment, including Soviet locomotives.
Before the link was completed the only rail communication between China and the Soviet was through the old Chinese Eastern connection with the Transsiberian. This provides a long, indirect and highly vulerable route to Mukden and then to Peiping along a railroad that runs so close to the sea that it can be interdicted by naval gunfire. A second line from Mukden to Peiping was torn up during the Japanese war but is now being restored.
The new route, cutting off from the Transsiberian at Ulan-Ude, running through Ulan- Bator in Mongolia and on to Peiping, provides an interior line of communication.
The new line will also assist in the development of a new steel center that the Chinese are setting up at Paotow, near the Chinese terminus of the new Mongolian line.
Sinkiang Railroad Pressed
The construction of an even more vital strategic link deep in the interior of China is being pressed.
This interior line is to run from Lanchow northwest through Sinkiang Province and connect with the Soviet rail net near Alma- Ata.
The Chinese portion, running through very difficult terrain, is now beyond Chang- yeh and is expected to reach Hami, in Sinkiang Province, within two years. The road will then push on through Urumchi and to the Soviet frontier. It is estimated that the route will be completed sometime between 1962 and 1963 if the present rate of progress is continued.
The Sinkiang Railroad, following the old
Marco Polo silk route, has been called the most strategic railroad in the world. Running through the heart of the Asiatic continent, it will provide a rail connection between the Soviet Union and China that is invulnerable to anything but the longest-range aircraft.
At the same time the Chinese are engaged in an extensive program of rehabilitating other rail lines, many of which were destroyed during the long years of war with the Japanese and during the Chinese civil war.
Atom-Age Warship Unveiled in Canada
Christian Science Monitor, October 28, 1955.—The Royal Canadian Navy has unveiled its first atomic-age warship, the 2600- ton destroyer escort St. Laurent.
Bearing the French name for the St. Lawrence River, the vessel is the first of 14 such ships being delivered for 15 million dollars apiece.
Under a gun-metal sky, the St. Laurent left her builders, Canadian Vickers, Ltd., for a spin up the St. Lawrence with a group of reporters aboard. The maximum speed is secret, but the ship will do more than 25 knots.
The St. Laurent's lines are paradoxically, similar to those of a submarine. She is well rounded, fully packed with radar and sonar, and built close to the water.
The rounded hull is to help prevent heavy icing in the North Atlantic. But, more than that, she can be completely sealed in—there are few portholes—in case of an atomic dusting.
The St. Laurent can decontaminate by hosing herself down with sea water without a man ever having to show on deck.
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[1] See Page 1398, December, 1955 Proceedings.
[2] See Page 1403, December 1955, Proceedings.
[3] See Page 108, this issue, Procf.edings.