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Sweden’s Sea and Coastal Defense; Fastest Thing on Earth; New Ship for Hurricane Research; Royal Navy to Close Scapa Flow;
MATS Celebrates Eighth Anniversary; Learning with a Neighbor;
Biggest Ship Is Scheduled; Army Research Aides Expect Key Missile Developments; USSR Ice-Breaker with Atomic Plant; World’s Largest Closed Die Forging; Largest Floating Drydock; Missile Range Covers 5000 Miles; A Tentative Evaluation of Aircraft Shown to the West by the Russians; New French Liner; Portugal Puts Two Key Airfields at Disposal of Western Allies.
Siveden’s Sea and Coastal Defense*
Marinens Pressdetalj, Stockholm, July 1956.—Sweden is, as a trading and maritime nation, in effect an island. The land frontier with Norway is for most of its length made UP of a largely inaccessible mountain chain which can be crossed by road and rail traffic m only a few places. The short Finnish frontier is formed by the Torne River. The remainder of the country is bounded by the sea, with a coastline 1400 nautical miles in length.
These are the external conditions which from the dawn of history made the Swedish people a seafaring nation and so they have remained. Her trade and communications with foreign countries are today 97 per cent seaborne. The Swedish merchant fleet—the bulk of which is modern and efficiently maintained tonnage—is at present of the
* See pages 1223 and 1259, November, 1954, and Page 39, January, 1955 Proceedings.
order of two and a half million gross tons. The shipbuilding industry is large, highly advanced and one of the country’s principal export industries.
By reason of her seagirt geographical position it is obvious that the center of gravity in an attack on Sweden would rest on invasion attempts from the sea. It then devolves on Swedish naval power to try to prevent an enemy from making use of the sea for its transport requirements, while at the same time protecting the country’s own traffic lanes.
The Swedish Navy has at present a total complement of 150 vessels, made up of three cruisers, fifteen destroyers, six frigates, 31 motor torpedo boats, 24 submarines, two minelayers, and some fifty minesweepers. To these are in wartime added a large number of auxiliary craft requisitioned from the merchant and fishing fleets for minesweeping, guard duties and other needs. These auxiliary vessels are partly prepared in ad-
vance by their construction and equipment for such service.
Of the three cruisers, two—Tre Kronor and Gota Lejon, each of 8000 tons—were completed in 1946-47. They mount seven 152 mm (6-inch) fully automatic all-target rapid-firing guns, three in a triple turret forward and four in two double turrets aft. Their armaments also include powerful anti-aircraft batteries of the latest Bofors design, as well as torpedo tubes. Their top speed is 33 knots.
The role which atomic and robot weapons are expected to play in a future war at sea has decided the naval authorities against the concentration of the greater part of the navy’s striking force in the Baltic on a small number of large vessels. Developments in air power and submarine design have already tended in the same direction. In consequence the Navy is undergoing a transformation affecting not only ship’s material but also organization and tactics. The Commander in Chief of the Navy has been able to master the material and organizational demands pressed on him only by resorting to a line of action that in many respects does not conform to conventional concepts. The naval striking force must be scattered and the units made smaller in order to reduce their attraction as targets for atom bombs. Evolution is channelled in the direction of a “light fleet” which retains its striking capacity and seaworthiness, while the size of each unit is reduced in favor of greater numbers.
For successful attacks on sea transports, detachments of fast fighting units are required of such striking power as to be able to engage both enemy warships and transport vessels. The fleet fighting formations—destroyer flotillas—will be composed of destroyers—later robot vessels approximating destroyer tonnage—and large motor torpedo boats. Within each such tactical and organizational formation the ships are graded in such a manner as to present a substantial power aggregate of robots, all-target armament and torpedoes.
It will be seen, therefore, that the destroyer has been allotted a more important role than in the past. Of the destroyers now on the active list the majority are of 1150 tons, built in the period 1936 to 1944. There are, further, two destroyers—Oland and Uppland—of 1850 tons each completed in 1947/48 and also the destroyers Holland and Smaland, 2600 tons each, which have joined the Fleet last year. Four 2000 ton destroyers are at present building. These are to replace similar vessels which have reached the age limit. Two more destroyers of the Holland class are granted by the Riksdag to replace two older vessels which will reach their age limit in 1959. Halland-d&ss destroyers will for some time onward make up the bulk of the Swedish surface fleet. Moreover, older destroyers will be converted to fast frigates provided with special equipment for chasing submarines.
As the torpedo is still of very great importance in naval warfare, efforts have not been spared to develop fast M.T.B.’s suitable for Baltic conditions. These have resulted in the design of two types: a 40-tonner intended to operate in the immediate vicinity of the coast, and a larger type of 140 tons capable even in fairly difficult circumstances of cooperating with cruisers and destroyers outside coastal waters.
Independently of the destroyer flotillas, submarines are detailed for operation both singly and in squadrons. In the main the Swedish submarine fleet consists of two types, one medium-sized class of about 700 tons and a smaller of 400 tons displacement. One series of six submarines of a new type is at present building; three of them have already been launched. They are of 800 tons each and should prove capable of improved performance in various respects compared with earlier types. The Naval Board has been granted authority to build a further three of these submarines to replace a number of older types which will be withdrawn from active service at the beginning of the nineteen-sixties.
Almost every naval vessel is able to carry and lay mines; the slow craft can undertake defensive mining along the home coast, while the speedier vessels may be used for laying mines in unexpected positions even as far away as on the enemy’s coast.
For minesweeping are available both large and small vessels of various types and to these must, as has already been said, in wartime be added a large number of fishing vessels suitable for minesweeping. Six new minesweepers of 260 tons each have recently been delivered and a further twelve will be built in the next few years.
The Navy has at present some forty new ships building or authorized. Eleven of the older type destroyers are being converted to frigates and, generally speaking, most of the combatant vessels are being modernized. This new construction and rebuilding program is in the main governed by the seven- year naval replacement plan adopted in 1952 which, however, owing to the Government’s restrictive finance policy, will not be completed on time.
It should be borne in mind that to the Swedish Navy belongs also the Coast Artillery which, in many coastal areas vital to the country’s protection, makes up the very core of the defense system. The Coast Artillery has by now very largely “gone underground.” Emplacements for batteries of heavy naval guns have at strategic points been blasted out of the virgin Swedish rock of the hardest granite which should stand op even to atom bombs. There is also a large number of mobile coastal batteries of guns UP to a calibre of 21 cm. It is an integral part of the duties of the Coast Artillery to undertake minelaying along the Swedish coast.
It should be added, too, that the Coast
Artillery has at its disposal a not inconsiderable number of vessels, mainly minelayers, specially constructed for coastal conditions, but also landing craft for coastal defense.
The Swedish Navy last autumn carried out very extensive manoeuvres—the largest both in point of time occupied and forces involved since 1945. The manoeuvres began with a full-scale mobilization of certain parts of the Navy establishment. In the face of an assumed threat of war an urgent call-up of personnel from their civilian occupations was effected and these were fitted out at their several depots. Ships laid up “in mothballs” at the yards were manned and put to sea; “hibernating” coastal batteries suddenly came to life. The called-up service men were given a brief respite in order to freshen up their earlier training and bring them up-to-date with everything new; by that time Sweden was assumed to have been involved in the war. Then began the second phase of the exercises: repelling invasion attempts along the coast and countering other enemy action. The exercises were efficiently
carried out and provided many useful lessons.
During the operative phase of the manoeuvres use was made for the first time of the tunnels blasted out of the rocks where ships up to destroyer class may find protection against any missiles, including atom bombs. In these tunnels are also workshops where damaged ships can be repaired, and means are provided for calm rest periods for the crews between hard-fought actions.
Fastest Thins on Earth
Army-Navy-Air Force Register, June 23, 1956.—The fastest thing on earth is a rocket sled being used by the Air Research and Development Command to test rain erosion on exposed aircraft or missile parts.
Lt. Gen. Thomas S. Power, ARDC Commander, said that the sled had reached Mach 2 on three separate occasions on the 10,000 foot high-speed experimental track at ARDC’s Air Force Flight Test Center, Calif. Mach 2, equivalent to 1560 miles per hour was reached first on April 25 at the ARDC center and has been attained twice since then. The previous speed record was held by a rocket sled propelled at 1280 miles per hour.
The world’s fastest ground vehicle was designed and constructed by the Convair Division of General Dynamics Corporation for the Materials Laboratory of ARDC’s Wright Air Development Center. Embodying a pusher and a sled, the test vehicle employs 12 rockets, each developing 11,000 pounds of thrust. Five are on the pusher, giving the vehicle a speed of 620 miles per hour in the first 950 feet, seven other rockets on the sled then boost the speed to Mach 2 within 3800 feet. The vehicle travels along parallel tracks and is held on the rails by steel “slippers.” The sled is stopped by a water brake in the last 2000 feet of the 10,000-foot track.
The sled was designed to meet the requirements of full-scale rain erosion tests. Prior to its construction in January of this year, the WADC Materials Laboratory tested various parts by firing them through a water spray but this method faced size limitations. With the sled, however, a complete section may be mounted on the front and run through a spray equal to approximately
eight inches of rainfall per hour.
This is accomplished by erecting poles on each side of the track for 1200 feet. Nozzles on each pole direct a spray of carefully controlled “rainfall” across the track.
In the Mach 2 run, the pusher reaches the 620 mph speed in 950 feet, where a bronze screen stretched across the track is cut by two knife edges on the sled. This breaks a circuit, sending 600 volts through the line to ignite the seven rockets on the sled. The sled is boosted to high speed by the time it reaches the spray at 3800 feet. At 4000 to 4500 feet, the sled’s rockets burn out, but momentum continues to carry the sled through the spray at Mach 2.
The water brake takes hold at 8000 feet. So great is the speed of the sled that only 200 to 300 feet of the 10,000 foot track remain when the sled is stopped.
George P. Peterson, senior project engineer in the Plastic Products Section at WADC’s Materials Laboratory, said the entire run takes from six to seven seconds, but the part being tested is in the spray only a half second. With the volume of water used, however, the run is equivalent to approximately 16,500 feet of one-inch rainfall at Mach 2.
New Ship for Hurricane Research
Woods Hole Oceanographic Bulletin 7-56.— The first ship ever to be converted for hurricane research was taken over recently at the Munro Shipyard in East Boston by Rear Admiral Edward H. Smith, USCG (Ret.), Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The 125-foot ex-Coast Guard cutter Crawford, recently acquired as surplus government property by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been extensively renovated at a cost of about §200,000.
* * *
Hurricane Research
The tropical area between the Cape Verdes and the Caribbean where hurricanes are believed to form has been shunned by scientific research vessels during the summer months. It has now become extremely important to obtain oceanographic and meteorological observations in that area in order
to understand under what conditions hurricanes form and breed. A theory of this formation has been formed by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and it is thought that hurricanes start out as weak disturbances. “This is the time for man to try and attack them,” said Dr. C. O’D. Iselin, Senior Scientist, in a recent article in the publication Oceanus. “Once full understanding has been gained, the question of
whether or not weather modification at sea will become practical depends mainly on how weak the weak link in the chain of events turns out to be,” the noted scientist concluded.
The research vessel Crawford, is 125 feet long, 23 feet wide, and draws 9£ feet of water. Diesel-powered, the ship has twin General Electric 500 HP engines and now has a fuel capacity for a 6000-mile range at a cruising speed of twelve knots. During the conversion, the steel ship was completely air conditioned and sufficient refrigeration space was installed to carry food for one month for a crew of fourteen and a scientific party of eight men. Her scientific equipment, including a deep-sea winch with 25,000 feet of 5/32 inch wire, was installed at Woods Hole. The shipyard installation included such essential equipment as radar, two Long Range Navigation sets (Loran), a Raytheon shallow water echo-sounder, and an Edo deep water echo-sounder; together, the two mstruments will make continuous traces of the ocean bottom from start to finish of each cruise. A special precision echo-sounder recorder developed at the Oceanographic Institution was also installed. Radio-telephone and C.W. radio is carried and operated by a radio-operator—electronic technician. Oversized generators to provide D.C. and A.C. current for scientific and ship’s purposes are in place, while two small winches for temperature measurements down to a depth of about 1000 feet stand to port and starboard.
Other special equipment will include a continuously operated motion picture camera which will photograph the sea surface by exposing one frame every second and will stand in gimbals on the bridge. Sensitive temperature measurement devices will be fastened to the bow of the vessel to observe minute changes in sea temperature, while a device to measure the height of the cloud ceiling at night will be on bow and stern. The meteorological equipment will include a small house for radio-sonde balloons to measure wind speed at high altitudes.
Royal Navy to Close Scapa Flow
London Times, June 7, 1956.—The Admiralty have decided to close all the naval establishments in Scapa Flow, the Orkney naval base, except an oil depot and the services necessary to maintain it, an Admiralty official said.
The official said that the establishments to be closed included the boom defense depot and the wireless station. The reason was that the Admiralty could no longer foresee sufficient use for the installations, either in peace or in war, to justify the expense of their retention.
The effect of the reductions would be that about thirty established civil servants would be reposted to other duties and about 125 non-established employees would be discharged. The discharges would be the subject of careful consideration with the trade unions and staff associations.
The Admiralty had taken fully into ac count the effect which would be presented on the local employment situation, but other considerations were so strong that they could see no possibility of the decision being modified. Full details, including the timetable of the changes, had not yet been worked out. The official said that the closing of the establishments would obviously take some time because they were “so far from civilization.”
An Admiralty official informed The Times that Scapa Flow had been on a care-and- maintenance basis for some years. Few ships had used the anchorage since the end of the last war. There might be an occasional visit by one of the Navy’s ships which was in the vicinity and which had need of something that the naval establishment could supply, but that was all.
Scapa Flow, a natural harbor fifteen miles long and eight miles across, is formed by the Orkney islands of Pomona, Hoy, and South Ronaldshay. The German fleet was scuttled there after the First World War. During that war German U-boats made five attempts, all unsuccessful, to attack the Grand Fleet in its resting place. In the Second World War the battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed by a U-boat, in October, 1939, and the vessel went down with the loss of 833 officers and men. The harbor was then abandoned by the Royal Navy until its under-water defenses had been strengthened.
MATS Celebrates Eighth Anniversary
U. S. Air Services, June, 1956.—The eighth anniversary of Military Air Transport Service, the over-ocean transport command which provides strategic airlift for all agencies of the Department of Defense, was celebrated on June 1.
To carry about 3,770,000 military passengers and dependents and the vast amount of cargo flown by MATS in eight years, transports crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans more than 93,000 times, or an average of one plane every hour of the day and night.
However, MATS’ real reason for existence is its D-Day mission. Its day-to-day peacetime operations provide an intensive training program for that mission, and the airlift generated as a result is used to support our national interests throughout the world.
One of MATS’ prime missions—support of the Strategic Air Command—is perhaps the least understood. The global deployment of this force must be afforded the simultaneous movement of logistical support necessary to continued operation from advance bases. The importance of this support is such that it may be the difference between success and failure in mission accomplishment. Lieutenant General Joseph Smith, MATS Commander, summed this up a few weeks ago:
“The Military Air Transport Service maintains a state of constant readiness necessary to airlift the troops, technicians, and critical supplies to provide the logistical support for the combat striking force. Only through day-to-day training in every phase of actual air transport operations can we insure that this vital potential is maintained.
“We have to do this to exercise the system. We cannot achieve the same results nor be assured of a working system if we fly empty airplanes. We must handle real passengers and real cargoes, in order to develop the techniques and procedures that will be effective in emergencies.”
World War II operations showed how greatly combat forces benefit from the swift air transport of personnel and high-priority cargo. After the cessation of hostilities, a whittled-down Air Transport Command and Naval Air Transport Service continued to fly priority passengers and cargo.
Military Air Transport Service came into being on June 1, 1948, combining the two air transport elements and the supporting technical services into the first unified command of the Armed Forces.
Spanning most of the decade 1946-1956, MATS has taken its place as the transport component of the striking force, which has proved the greatest deterrent to would-be aggressors during “a Decade of Security through Global Airpower.” Time and again the command has supported Strategic Air Command movements across the ocean in serious training for any eventuality, while continuing to provide scheduled and special flights for normal transport operations.
Scarcely a month after the formation of MATS, the strategic importance of air transport logistics was brought into full focus as the new command was called on to provide the main force for the famed Berlin Airlift. In 1950 the massive Korean Airlift saw MATS pull out all the stops to provide support to the beleaguered U. N. forces, backed up by commercial aircraft called into action according to plan. On the return trips, tens of thousands of wounded were evacuated by air to hospitals in the United States.
MATS operates as an air transportation system, which means more than just transport flying. This involves the operation of bases and Ports of Aerial Embarkation, and maintaining passenger and cargo terminals and other supporting services at bases— operated by both MATS and other major commands—around the world.
The men, the machines, and the complex operations described here form the hard core of an air transport force in being, capable of rapid expansion by Civil Reserve Air Fleet planes to the size needed to carry the D-Day load. CRAF planes are certain aircraft flown by civil air lines, already modified for installation of over-ocean equipment, which can join the MATS fleet on a 48-hour notice.
In flying operations conducted to maintain a state of readiness, MATS carried a total weight in eight years of more than one million tons, including mail, cargo, military personnel and patients, a figure equal to 365 tons daily. This does not take into account the thousands of aircraft ferried by MATS pilots each year.
Flying safety, even with MATS’ widespread mission, improved as compared with the previous year as the command set a new safety record and again recorded the lowest accident rate in the Air Force. Attesting to the confidence in MATS safety, a major underwriter this spring began offering trip insurance policies to MATS’ passengers and crew members on scheduled flights at rates equivalent to those offered to commercial airline passengers and crew members, respectively.
Learning With a Neighbor
By Commander G. S. Davis, Jr., U. S. Navy*
To get along well with people you must know and try to understand them. The solu-
* Editor’s Note.—Commander Davis is a liaison officer at the Joint Maritime Warfare School, Halifax, . • S. This is an original article here printed for the first time. See Secretary’s Notes, page 1025, tion to many problems between NATO countries has been reached by just learning more about each other. When this knowledge of one another grows, the time required to understand the other fellow’s problem lessens and often a compromise solution acceptable to both is obvious.
The defense of the United States is a problem for Uncle Sam. He knows from the capabilities and limitations of his armed forces that he must have defense out-posts beyond the U. S. boundary. Naturally, our NATO neighbor to the north is vitally concerned. It is obvious that one of the keys to the defense of the U. S. lies in the ability of Americans and Canadians to get along. Naval Officers in the U. S. anti-submarine forces can request schooling to learn of current
British, Canadian, and U. S. anti-submarine thinking; and while obtaining this classroom instruction they can get to know Canadians, learn some of their problems, and how they face them.
The Joint Maritime Warfare School was established in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in November, 1950. Since that time it has gained in reputation as the leading Canadian tactical school for naval and maritime air force officers. The Commander in Chief, U. S. Atlantic Fleet has a standing quota for U. S. naval officers to attend each of the Joint Tactical Courses. In fact, during 1954 and 1955, nearly one hundred U. S. Naval Officers attended Joint Tactical Courses.
Some of the value to be gained from the courses can be indicated by the statement of the aim and by pointing out that the reputation of the school is proof that the aim is accomplished. The aim of the Senior Joint Tactical Course is to provide senior officers destined for staff posts or command of ships, and command of maritime air squadrons, with current anti-submarine warfare information; with the emphasis on the strategic implications and the importance of interservice cooperation. The aim of the Junior Joint Tactical Course is to give junior naval officers and aircrew members a general introduction to anti-submarine warfare, and enough practical experience to be ready for advanced anti-submarine exercises.
The student’s arrival in Halifax marks the
real beginning of his course. He is housed in &
the Wardroom Mess, HMCS Stadacona.
■ This wardroom resembles the most modern Officers’ Club on any U. S. naval base, in appearance. But, living there for two weeks with the other students who may be officers in the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Navy, or Royal Air Force is a completely new and pleasant experience.
The U. S. officer finds that if he knew a Canadian officer before coming to Halifax, nearly all the Canadian officers he meets will also know him; however, each one of the Canadian officers will ask him if he knows someone in the U. S. Navy that he has never heard of. After trying to resolve this state
of affairs, first to himself and then to his new friends, the very real difference in size of the two navies is realized. When it is understood that there are more midshipmen in the United States Naval Academy today than there are Royal Canadian Naval Officers, midshipmen and cadets on their active list, the student awakens to one of Canada’s real problems, the limited population.
Different accents are noticed in the Wardroom conversations and most of the accents are from those in Canadian uniforms. The heterogeneous mixture in the population is seen, and how Canada is trying to increase its population to build up its industrial and economic capacity can be understood.
In the classroom the student hears of the British Maritime Headquarters system, perhaps for the first time. When he understands this system he accepts the comments by the instructor in the Air Force Blue uniform even though prior to this time he has considered the air side of anti-submarine warfare a strictly naval air problem. Perhaps every U. S. Naval Officer should see how Canadians view inter-service co-operation in a school with two directors of equal status, one RCN director and the other the RCAF director.
Much time is spent in the discussion of new anti-submarine warfare developments in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The student wonders how Canada with its defense budget limited by the problems of population and economy can produce the St. Laurent-c\a.ss destroyer escort with the latest in anti-submarine equipment and weapons and afford to pursue the classified projects being undertaken. Another fundamental difference between the Canadian and U. S. Navy becomes apparent. The Canadian Navy has but one primary mission and that is to defend shipping from submarine attack. Their efforts are well channelled to accomplish this single mission and to become a navy of anti-submarine experts.
Each two-week course in anti-submarine warfare covers material which must be learned by all naval officers and the material is well presented. However, there is far more to learn than just what is presented in the classroom. An anti-submarine expert may already know what is being taught and still consider that the experience of meeting Canadians and getting the Canadian approach to their problems, first-hand, makes the course worth the short time it takes.
Biggest Ship Is Scheduled
By Helen Delich
Baltimore Sun, July 3, 1956.—The Maritime Administration today cleared the way for the construction of the world’s largest ship—a 100,500-ton tanker—by A. S. Onas- sis, the Greek-Argentine shipowner.
The Government agency has approved “in principle” the transfer to foreign flag by the Onassis group of twelve United States-regis- tered T-2 tankers and one Liberty ship.
In turn, interests of Onassis are to build the 100,500-ton tanker, another of 46,000 tons deadweight, and three of 32,650 tons each. Two of the latter are to be built in West Coast shipyards.
Two-Year Deadline Sex
Agreements for construction of the ships must be entered into within three months, the Government agency said, and they must be completed within a two-year period after the signing of the contracts.
The ships transferred foreign may go to Panamanian, Honduran, or Liberian registry, but must remain under effective control of the United States and may not trade with Russia or her satellites. The control of the vessels must be such as to permit them to be recalled to United States service in case of war or national emergency.
The foreign-flag transfer and new construction has been worked out as part of the settlement of Onassis with the United States Government for the purchase of surplus ships after World War II which later was ruled illegal.
The Government regained $7,000,000 in cash and several Onassis vessels, in addition to the new construction under American- fiag registry as a result of the surplus-ship case. Several Liberties and tankers were added to the United States reserve fleet S1nce the proceedings were conducted over a Period of several years.
The 100,500-ton tanker can only be constructed at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company or the Bethlehem Steel Company’s Quincy (Mass.) yard. It is believed it will be constructed at the latter, since the shipowner has had considerable work done by Bethlehem both in Quincy and at Sparrows Point, Maryland.
The giant supertanker will be about 17,000 tons larger than the Queen Elizabeth and 13,500 tons larger than the two 87,000- ton tankers now under construction in Japan for the interests of D. K. Ludwig.
Ludwig, Onassis, and Stavros Niarchos, another multimillionaire Greek shipowner, have been vying for the title of owner of the world’s biggest ship now that bulk carriers are reaching sizes never before considered.
Army Research Aides Expect Key Missile Developments
By Mark Watson
Baltimore Sun, June 28, 1956.—Army research chiefs are convinced that in the visible future they can develop two epoch-making new weapons:
1. A reliable, 1,500-mile missile, Jupiter, the much-discussed “Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile.” If fired from an overseas base, this would be comparable in effective range to a 5,000-mile missile fired from a base on this continent.
2. An anti-missile missile of such extraordinary efficiency that it could knock down an enemy long-range missile traveling at 4 miles a second—30 times the speed of today’s manned bombers.
The Army chiefs’ testimony before a Senate Armed Forces subcommittee was made public recently. Heavily censored as it was, it still provided more information on American missile planning and on suspicion of Russian planning than has hitherto been made public.
The belief that the United States Army’s anti-missile weapon will be ready to cope with a Russian long-range missile within five years provides its own evidence of a belief that Russia’s much talked of 5,000-mile missile itself may be ready in that time.
Of progress with America’s own offensive surface-to-surface missile, Jupiter, which is still quite a distance away from production, the Army’s research chiefs speak with marked confidence.
Inevitably they were called upon to compare this projected weapon in effectiveness and in delivery time with the Air Force’s rival projects. Their comparison was favorable to the Army’s enterprise.
They spoke with equal pride of the Army’s surface-to-air missile, Nike, and its prospective successors, Nike B and a later one of much greater potency. Said Lieutenant General James M. Gavin, the Army’s Chief of Research and Development:
“The Army is convinced that missiles will inflict very heavy losses against aircraft in the very near future . . . exceptionally heavy losses in the 1960’s. ... A manned interceptor cannot compare with the Nike B.
“The Nike 1 system is today the only operational land based air defense system capable of meeting the present air threat. We have anticipated the 1960 threat and have projects well along in development.
“We should aggressively push the antimissile missile now. It is the most imposing technical problem, and while it does not seem a matter of such great concern as the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, I predict it will be very soon ... we are on the threshold if not already in the IRBM area.”
Gavin’s discussion of missiles in principle was supplemented by that of other Army research officers engaged in specific enterprises, notably Major General John M. Medaris, who has charge of the development of Jupiter at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
The special merits of Jupiter—which the Navy is also engaged in developing for shiplaunching possibilities—were outlined as follows, in apparent contrast with the Air Force missiles contemplated:
1. Jupiter can be fired “without complex and fixed installations.”
2. Launched from sites several miles away from the front, it can have great mobility, and be widely dispersed to provide maximum threat.
3. Controlled wholly by the Army commander, it can be used with flexibility to meet any suddenly changed requirements of the battle.
4. Its supply introduces no new logistic problems.
5.*It*calls for no new skills.
6. It is clearly simpler to build than is a 5000-mile missile.
Under interrogation, General Gavin admitted that an enemy’s possible use of submarines for launching nuclear missiles against the United States would be a “very serious threat” against which there is no present capability of defense.
The army witnesses made only guarded answers to senatorial inquiries about just how far the Russian experimental weapons can be fired. Gavin went no further than to mention evidence that the Russians “have fired an object that must have been a rocket for several hundreds of miles in some numbers.”
As to the accuracy of the fire, nothing whatever was said in the testimony released for publication. As to whether the Russians are ahead of us or behind us, Gavin said that he did not know the answer.
The fact that both countries are hard at work on long-range weapons has been widely discussed for years. Only lately, and unofficially, was it learned that American scientists refuse to believe that the intercontinental ballistic missile is “the ultimate weapon” which cannot be resisted successfully.
They now say firmly that man cannot invent anything so good that it cannot later be improved on, or resisted.
USSR Ice-Breaker with Atomic Plant
Pravda, February 12, 1956.—The results achieved in the Soviet Union in the development of nuclear physics, radiochemistry, auto-controls, electronics, and other branches of science have made possible a broad development of the use of atomic energy for peaceful ends. In our country there is a considerable accumulation of experience in the use of atomic plants, and for more than a year and a half the first atomically powered electric plant has been in operation.
All this affords the possibility of still wider use of atomic energy during the sixth Five-Year Plan. The project for the Directive of the 20th Session formulated by the Central Committee calls for the construction between 1956 and 1960 of atomic electric power plants producing 2 to 2.5 million kilowatts, and the working out of details for
the creation of atomic plants for transport purposes.
An ice-breaker with atomic propulsion will be built. Soviet scientists and naval architects have already worked out the project for such a vessel, destined for arctic operations. This will be a new type of vessel which will change the tactics of ice navigation, lengthen the navigation season in northern seas, make possible new high latitude sea lanes, and widen the area of scientific research in the central polar basin. It will realize the vision of the famous Russian navigator S. O. Makarov, who dreamed of reaching the North Pole in an ice-breaker.
The use of atomic energy will give the icebreaker a number of advantages over icebreakers burning coal or oil. Compared to the traditional ice-breaker of equivalent size, the new vessel will remain at sea without refueling twelve times as long, and will be more than one and one half times as powerful.
On the usual ice-breaker, up to thirty per cent of the displacement is used for storing fuel, amounting to thousands of tons. For example, Soviet ice-breakers of the Arctic Fleet carry up to 3000 tons of fuel per vessel. Fhe daily expenditure will exceed one hundred tons. Thus ice-breakers cannot remain °ut of port for very long periods.
The expenditure of “fuel” (uranium) in an atomic plant can be reckoned in grams Per day. Hence the cruising radius of such a
vessel becomes practically unlimited.
Constructors have the possibility of using the tonnage formerly devoted to fuel for more effective propulsion and increased durability of the hull. In this way the new units will be able to penetrate arctic ice now impassable.
The new ice-breaker will have a main power plant of 44,000 H.P. Its displacement will be 16,000 tons. Stores taken aboard will be sufficient to last for one year without calling at port. The vessel will provide conditions for productive work and all the cultural and recreative activities of the crew. Cabins will house one or two men and will be air- conditioned and have fluorescent lighting. Comfortable furniture will be provided for all living spaces. There will be wardrooms, recreation rooms, clubs, cinema, and sick bay with modern clinical apparatus.
Personnel are protected against harmful radio-active rays from the atomic plant. The ship will have automatic push-button controls for navigation. This remote control will lighten the work of the crew. Instead of stokers, there will be operators working control desks.
The ice-breaker will be able to operate in the severe arctic weather where meteorological conditions are most complex. It will have to lay out its course in fog and snow, in the darkness of the polar night. However, its navigation and radar equipment will make possible safe piloting and intercommunication with the vessels being convoyed through the ice. Two helicopters will be carried for ice-reconnaissance. The captain may con his ship either from the flying bridge or from an enclosed bridge.
On one of the shipbuilding yards of our country, preparations are now underway for construction of a new ship—the first icebreaker with an atomic power plant.
World’s Largest Closed Die Forging
Aluminum Company of America Release, June 28, 1956.—A metalworking milestone has been reached by Aluminum Company of America with production of the world’s largest closed die forging.
The record-making aluminum part, a massive 3000-pound airframe member, is being produced on the Air Force’s giant 50,000-ton press. As it comes from the dies, the huge piece measures 13 feet in length, three feet across at its widest point, and a foot in thickness.
Produced for the Martin Company, the pace-setting forging will be part of the airframe in the P6M SeaMaster, the world’s
first multi-jet seaplane. It will help form the backbone of the fuselage and wing structure in the radically designed four-jet aircraft.
Achievement of the king-size forging makes possible a substantial weight reduction and a consequent increase in the performance level of the SeaM aster. It offers, in one unit, a part formerly assembled from many smaller components. Elimination of the previosuly required joining operations will mean savings of both time and money in production of the Martin plane.
Largest Floating Drydock
New York Times, June 13, 1956.—The largest floating drydock in the United States will be built here for the Bethlehem Pacific Coast Steel Corporation’s San Francisco shipyard, the corporation announced recently.
Costing about $10,000,000, the drydock will have a lifting capacity of 35,000 tons, a length of 850 feet and an interior width of 125 feet. Construction will begin late this year, with completion scheduled for late 1957.
T. C. Ingersoll, general manager of the corporation’s shipbuilding division, said between 200 and 300 men would be hired to work on the project.
Mr. Ingersoll said United States commercial shipyards are losing repair jobs on huge tankers that are being built.
“Last month a 45,000-ton tanker with a 102-foot beam came in here for drydocking, and we had to turn her down,” he said. The ship went to Vancouver, B. C., for the job.
A number of Greek-owned supertankers are expected to be operating regularly into San Francisco within the next few months, and the new drydock will be the only private United States facility on the Coast able to handle them.
At present the largest United States dry- dock on the Pacific Coast is a unit with a 22,000-ton capacity at the Bethlehem yards here.
Missile Range Covers 5000 Miles
New York Times, June 26, 1956.—Britain agreed today to allow the United States to fire test guided missiles from Florida over British island possessions to Ascension Island.
Agreements were signed at the State Department to increase the present 1000-mile United States test range to 5000 miles.
An Air Force spokesman said it now would be possible to test fully long-range guided missiles such as the Snark, one of the newest weapons.
As the terminal point of the range, Ascension Island reportedly will have elaborate tracking devices and other equipment to analyze the behavior of the missile in the crucial final moments of its flight.
John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, and Roger Makins, the British Ambassador, signed two agreements in a closed door ceremony.
Guided missiles are now fired from a test center at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. Until now, such missiles could be fired only 1000 miles under agreements signed with the British in 1950 and 1952. These old agreements permitted the missiles to be shot over the British Bahamas. Tracking stations on the islands charted their course.
The British Ascension Island to which the range will now be extended, is in the middle of the Atlantic, roughly half way between South America and Africa.
A Tentative Evaluation of Aircraft Shown to the West by the Russians
By Hanson W. Baldwin
New York Times, July 3, 1956.—The just- concluded visit here of United States Air Force leaders has raised the question as to how the Soviet planes they saw compared with American aircraft.
No exact comparison is possible, of course, for the only “hard” statistics given by the Russians during the entire visit was the thrust of the modified and improved Rolls- Royce Nene engine that powers the MIG-15 and MIG-17 day fighters and the IL-28 light bomber. This engine, according to the Russians, develops about 6100 pounds of thrust in the older version, and 7100 pounds of thrust in the later version with an afterburner—unimpressive figures compared with the later engines of both Britain and the Soviet Union.
The United States delegation, led by General Nathan F. Twining, Air Force Chief of Staff, made no estimates here of the thrust of other engines they saw, and their interpretations and conclusions apparently differed widely. But it seemed probable that, except for the Ilyushin four-engined, turboprop heavy bomber with swept-back wings and counter-rotating propellers, designated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as the Bear—a plane for which the United States has no exact counterpart—United States planes are well up in the van in the air power parade, and in most categories it may have advantages over comparable Soviet types.
Here is a thumbnail comparison as far as this can be made:
The Bear swept-wing bomber or tanker, powered by turbine engines that drive two counter-rotating propellers on each shaft, probably has longer range—5600 to 7500 miles estimated—than any United States straight jet bomber. The United States B-36, with ten engines, six reciprocating and four auxiliary jets, probably has a greater range than the Bear, but the top speed of the B-36, and then only for a relatively short burst, is only about 435 miles an hour. The Bear may have a higher speed.
The Soviet Bison, a four-jet heavy bomber, seems to be lighter than the 400,000- pound, eight-jet B-52. This may give it an altitude advantage, but it seems unlikely that it has as much range as the B-52, which has a top of about 5000 to 6000 miles. Its speed also may be less, except at extreme altitude, than the 600-mile-an-hour top of the B-52.
The Soviet medium, two-jet Badger is roughly comparable to the United States four-jet B-47 that is a 160,000 to 200,000- pound plane with a top speed of more than 600 miles an hour. The Badger is a good plane, but no better if as good as the B-47.
The Russians showed some good day fighters and all-weather fighters. The Farmer, or MIG-19, with swept-back wings and a single jet engine, probably is capable of 650 to 850 miles an hour, roughly comparable to the latest versions of the United States F-86 and F-100 Super Sabre.
The Soviet Flashlight, a twin-jet, allweather fighter, seems to be an excellent plane but in the version now available in quantity they probably are subsonic, or slower than about 700 miles an hour.
Of the new planes shown at the Tushino Air Show, and later at Kubinka Airfield, the most impressive probably were the improved MIG-21, which seemed to be very fast, possibly in the 900 to 1000-mile-an-hour class. The delta-wing planes shown were not very impressive and probably were experimental types that fly at relatively slow speeds. An improved version of the Flashlight also seemed very fast.
But the United States should have nothing to worry about for the immediate future in the fighter field. The United States has at least two fighters—the Lockheed 104 and the Chance-Vought F8U, which have bettered 1200 miles an hour in level flight.
There is one warning: though the newest United States fighters may be equal or superior to the best Soviet fighters, they may not have sufficient performance at very high altitude to handle with ease the best Soviet bombers.
The ground-attack and naval-attack ships shown at Kubinka were not particularly impressive.
The new Soviet transport cargo plane for forward, rough-field landings and short takeoffs, like the United States C-123 assault transport, may mark the beginning of the modernization of the Soviet military transport fleet, which definitely is far behind the United States, on the basis of what has been shown here. The C-123 is designed to airlift troops and army supplies, and the Russians now are taking up the same techniques.
The Soviet helicopters were good and serviceable but probably will not lift loads as heavy as the Russians contend they can.
All the interpretations and opinions given above are tentative and generalized, based purely on the available information, which is very sparse. As someone has said, the Soviet Union has no mysteries but many secrets, and very few of these secrets have been told, despite General Twining’s visit and a slight lifting of the Iron Curtain.
New French Liner
London Times, June 29, 1956.—Details have been announced of the new French liner which is to be built to take the place of the lie de France and the Liberte on the North Atlantic route. She will be called the France, will have a displacement of 55,000 tons and a speed of 30 knots, and have accommodation for 2000 passengers.
It is calculated that the France will be able to carry as many passengers across the Atlantic each year as the lie de France and the Liberte together, which since the loss of the Normandie have carried the full weight of the North American traffic for the Com- pagnie Generate Transatlantique. This is because the new liner will have a greater passenger capacity, and will also be faster (30 knots against 24) and so will be able to make the crossing in five days against their six.
Work on the France will begin in September in the Penhoet shipyards near St. Nazaire. She is due to be launched at the end of 1959 and put in service at the end of 1961. The ship will be 975 feet long. The engines and boilers will be so placed that an underwater accident or a torpdeo could not deprive the ship of more than half her power. There will be only two classes, tourist and first, and the latter will make up only one- quarter of the total number of passengers.
Portugal Puts Two Key Airfields at Disposal of Western Allies
By Camille M. Cianfarra
New York Times, June 30, 1956.—Portugal has placed at the disposal of the United States and other Western Allies two strategically important air bases on her metropolitan territory.
Colonel Fernando Santo Costa, Minister of Defense, made this announcement during an interview. He said the decision to do so had been reached after the United States and other Atlantic Pact members had suggested expanding the airfields at Montijo and Espinho.
“Work on the bases to provide the necessary additional features will begin shortly,” Colonel Santos added.
The 56-year-old military leader has been a member of the Portuguese Government for the last twenty years. He is not a general because under Portuguese Army regulations to be promoted he must pass some examinations and it was said he had not had time to do that.
“Under the terms of the agreement reached, Portugal’s Western Allies—especially the United States and Britain—will be permitted to use those two bases to carry out
their obligations as members of the Atlantic Alliance, the Defense Minister said.
Portugal to Enlarge Bases
He added that “Portugal quickly agreed to enlarge the two bases.” In view “of certain recent international ’ developments she felt might have an adverse effect on the system of western defense.”
Colonel Santos Costa said the bases were of capital importance to the Atlantic command.
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“The United States has proposed that the facilities in the Azores be expanded,” Colonel Santos Costa said.
“The Portuguese military authorities recognize the need for that enlargement. The conversations between Washington and Lisbon to settle the technical details have virtually ended.”
The Defense Minister said he had no doubt that on specific military questions there would be complete agreement.
Other sources explained that the point still under study concerned the duration of the new agreement. This was said to be a political question calling for an agreement between the Portuguese Foreign Ministry and the State Department—not the military.
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