The DLGN-38 Is Born
By Commander James K. Nunneley, U. S. Navy, Acting Assistant for Ship Design, Naval Ship Engineering Center
A major milestone in the Navy’s escort replacement program was reached on 21 November 1969, when the design specifications and drawings for the DLGN-38 were signed by the Commanders, Naval Ship Systems Command, and Naval Ship Engineering Center. This event marked the conclusion of one of the largest and most complex naval ship design efforts ever undertaken. It also marked a change in nomenclature for the Navy’s newest generation of nuclear-powered frigates—the DXGN became the DLGN-38 class.
The DLGN-38 class is the U. S. Navy’s fourth “class” of nuclear-powered frigates. The USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) and the USS Truxtun (DLGN-35) were commissioned in 1962 and 1967, respectively. The two-ship DLGN-36 class is now under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. Completion of the lead ship of this class, the California, is expected in mid-1972.
The DLGN-38 design was developed over a two-year period, using “in-house” contract definition (CD), an adaptation of the classic CD approach, devised in this case to expedite completion of the design and to exploit specialized Navy in-house capabilities in nuclear propulsion systems design and the integration of complex weapon systems. This approach combined advantages of the traditional Navy in-house design process, principally more active participation and day-to-day control by Navy technical personnel, with those of competitive CD as used in the fast deployment logistics ships (FDL), amphibious assault ships (LHA), and DD-963. The result was a Navy-industry team effort involving those from the offices of the Chief of Naval Operations and Chief of Naval Material, all the systems commands, several Navy laboratories, and over 30 private contractors. This writer served as the design manager for the DLGN-38 project.
As the first in-house contract definition, the DXGN design process differed from previous Navy in-house ship designs in several significant ways:
A greater depth of study and analysis prior to the baseline (or preliminary) design than was ever previously possible. Literally hundreds of feasibility, technical, and trade-off studies were completed to provide the bases for operational and technical decisions which had to be made in the course of designing the ship.
Technical support disciplines such as human engineering; reliability, maintainability, and availability (RM&A); integrated logistics support (ILS); and value engineering were injected into the design concurrent with its development. Logisticians, human engineers, and other technical support personnel were in continuous dialogue with the ship designers and engineers.
The collective talents of a much larger number of people were brought to bear on the design. This involved the participation of more private contractors, beginning at an earlier stage of the design process.
Active participation of ship operators was stressed throughout the design process, from the earliest feasibility studies through the final review of specifications and drawings. A special panel of destroyermen with recent operational experience was appointed by the Chief of Naval Material to evaluate the design from an operational viewpoint early enough in the process to permit the panel’s recommendations to have an impact on the design.
The contract definition of DXGN was an outgrowth of the DX/DXG concept formulation studies completed in 1967, which demonstrated a requirement for sizable numbers of nuclear escorts for the nuclear-powered carriers now authorized or planned. DXGN contract definition began in January 1968 with the initiation of the Baseline Development Phase. During the next six months, most of the studies mentioned were completed, and provided the basis for establishing the ship characteristics. Exploitation of the digital computer’s capability, using the Navy’s destroyer feasibility program, permitted thousands of DXGN ships satisfying the requirements for speed, strength, stability, space, and crew accommodations to be synthesized. The effect of hundreds of “trade-up” or “trade-down” alternatives on the total ship were evaluated, thus providing a qualitative basis for both operational and engineering decisions, which had to be made in the process of developing this complex ship.
The baseline design, developed between August and December 1968, consisted of translating the characteristics into a preliminary design. During the Basic Ship System Design, which was the final phase, this baseline design was used its the starting point from which contract and contract guidance drawings and technical specifications were developed. These documents describe the ship in sufficient detail for a shipbuilder to construct the ship. They therefore form the technical requirements portion of a contract between the Navy and the shipbuilder. They were provided to prospective builders as part of a Request for Proposals, which was issued in late December 1969.
The DLGN-38 will carry the most advanced electronic sensors and weaponry, and, being nuclear powered, will have the capability to operate for extended periods at sea. The ship will be a “flush-decker,” as will be the DLGN-36 class. This is different from the DLG-16 and DLG-26 classes, which are “long raised-deck” designs. The ship’s offensive armament will consist of two MK26 combined launchers and two 5-inch 54 lightweight gun mounts. Use of the combined launcher, “standard” surface-to-air missiles or antisubmarine rocket (ASROC) firing capability, made unnecessary the use of a separate ASROC launcher. This was an instrumental factor in the reduction in the length of the ship by ten feet from the DLGN-36. Sensors will be mounted principally on the two enclosed towers and associated top hamper, positioned on top of the superstructure deckhouses.
Many compromises must be made in any ship design, but in the case of a multimission surface warship, the optimization of the total ship system is a complex undertaking. The integration of a number of subsystems, such as the gun, ASW, and radar surveillance systems, into a single ship system necessarily results in suboptimization of each of these subsystems to some degree. The measure of the effectiveness of a ship is, in essence, a reflection of how well these subsystems have been integrated.
In reaching some of the compromises which had to be made in the DLGN-38, a number of design features were stressed. The more important of these are:
Combat Systems Integration—The DLGN-38 is the first ship with an all-digital combat system design, using the Navy’s new third generation computer, the AN/UYK-7, in each of the combat systems. This permitted a greater degree of integration than was ever before possible. with consequent improvements in data flow and reduction of reaction times. The computer’s capability and flexibility to share data, memory, and hardware between systems was exploited, resulting in significant savings in hardware and also a reduction in manning requirements.
Advanced Surface Missile System (ASMS) Convertibility—The DLGN-38 was designed to accommodate the installation of the ASMS, which was undergoing contract definition concurrent with the ship design. As presently planned, later ships of the DLGN-38 class will be built with the ASMS installed during construction, while earlier ships of the class will receive the system during a later conversion period. The exact changeover point will be dependent upon the progress of the ASMS engineering development which is now underway.
Manning—Recognizing the dominant influence of personnel costs on system life cycle costs, and the effect of the number of crew accommodations on ship size and acquisition costs, the Navy concentrated considerable contract definition resources on establishing manpower requirements for the ship. New techniques, such as the computer manpower determination model (MDM), were developed. The MDM was used extensively during the early phases of design to assess manning implications associated with the trade-off alternatives that were evaluated. Manning analyses were expanded in depth as the design progressed. A preliminary ship manning document was completed with the design. Significant manning reductions from the DLGN-36 were achieved, principally through greater integration of the combat systems, use of longer-lasting protective coatings, design innovations and manning improvements in some of the new weapons systems.
Replenishment—Emphasis was placed on the shipboard handling of stores and weapons to facilitate rapid receipt and strikedown. Aside from the flush deck which enhances the flow of material about the ship, stores and ammunition elevators, pallet transporters, and forklift trucks are also included in the design. A wide, clear main deck passageway is provided on the starboard side, main deck. Three sliding padeye replenishment stations, two in recessed trunks, one forward and one aft, and the third a fixed installation on the port side amidships, are provided. Vertical replenishment stations are also provided forward and aft.
Habitability—The ship will include advanced habitability concepts, developed by the Naval Ship Engineering Center and other naval commands and activities during the DLGN-38 design state. The keystone of these new features is the total living complex in which a relatively small number of men (average 20-25) are provided separate spaces for sleeping, dressing, sanitation, and recreation, grouped together as a unit. Navy studies and experience have shown that Navy enlisted men can associate living in these complexes closely with their pre-Service living pattern, hence feel more at home and more inclined to maintain their living spaces as they would their home. The complexes contain no through passages, the bane of many enlisted berthing compartments in past Navy ships. Extensive use of vinyl wall coverings, sheathing, flush acoustic overheads, fluorescent lighting, and countermounted sinks will make these living complexes attractive, yet simple to maintain. The mess decks will feature an improved table and separate stack chairs to facilitate maintenance and cleaning and provide greater flexibility for various seating arrangements. Habitability in the DLGN-38 can be summed up in one word, “livability.”
Helicopter Capability—In addition to helicopter land, launch, and refuel capability provided in earlier DLGs, a hangar is provided in the DLGN-38 immediately beneath the fantail flight deck. A telescoping hatch cover and an electro-hydraulic elevator are included in the design. The ship should be capable of receiving the Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System (LAMPS), when that system had completed development. The LAMPS or a similar system would greatly enhance the ship’s fighting capabilities.
Seaworthiness—In order to fully exploit the capability for making high speed, at almost unlimited endurance, provided by the nuclear propulsion plant, the DLGN-38 design emphasized seaworthiness. Extensive analytical studies were conducted during the baseline design. These were followed by model tests at the Naval Ship Research and Development Center, Carderock, Maryland, well in advance of design completion, so that results could be fed back in time to be included in the ship’s lines. The resultant hull will be smooth riding and maneuverable in all conditions of weather and sea, and will not be subjected to shipping large quantities of water over the bow in heavy seas.
Although cost is not a design feature, it was a major factor in every decision made in the DLGN-38 design. The basic approach called for every system and subsystem to be evaluated on a cost-versus-effectiveness basis, and only those which clearly “paid their way” were included in the design. Many desirable capabilities, for example, fin stabilizing systems, failed the cost test and were discarded. The final design places appropriate emphasis on cost and effectiveness.
Completion of the DLGN-38 is still some four years away, but when the ship and her following sister ships join the Fleet during the 1970s, they will be key elements of the Navy’s nuclear-powered carrier task force.
Student Activism: Civilian and Military Institutions
By Dr. Charles L. Cochran, Political Science Department, U. S. Naval Academy
The CIA, the ROTC, and also military suppliers, have often been the targets of campus demonstrations. However, the evidence suggests that most student disorders were aimed at other grievances, but that the Students For a Democratic Society (SDS) were well-organized to take control of the general distress that many college campuses experienced.
Legitimate student grievances could be exacerbated by the SDS seeking a confrontation rather than a settlement. Only by a confrontation, in which the SDS appeared to be the leading spokesman for student demands and consequently the “victim” of counter-action by university officials, could the SDS claim to be a spokesman for student demands and insert their own demands, not originally a part of the dispute.
Since the preferred way to prevent disorders is to remove the causes if possible, the administrations of institutions of higher education would do well to try to examine their institutions and make adjustments before a crisis makes a satisfactory solution far more difficult. Large institutions (those over 10,000 students) are the most likely to experience difficulties. There are several reasons for this. These appear to be the most impersonal from the student’s view, and indeed, the larger the institution the more impersonal it has to become. The student who senses that he is known only by his identification number finds ample evidence that in a large university, no one is interested with “his” or “her” concerns and problems. As the size of the university increases, the more the individual is lost in the sea of humanity.
The disenchantment of a student who hopes that college will prepare him for his career begins to form quickly, when he finds little help from guidance counselors, often over-worked and understaffed with poorly trained personnel. Many students have concluded that lack of help in choosing appropriate courses for careers is the result of indifference.
The student may also find little interest in his concerns in the classroom. It is a common occurrence in many institutions for a student to sign up for a course given by a noted scholar in the field only to find that the course is being taught by a graduate assistant.
The emphasis placed upon publishing frequently results in a younger instructor’s engaging in research to a degree that compromises his course preparations. This, in turn, may possibly result in his teaching from notes that he took as a graduate student. This is a choice encouraged by the fact that publications are a “hard” measure of one’s productivity, while lectures or teaching ability are more uncertain measures. It is impossible to quantify accurately classroom teaching ability. The effect on the student, of course, may be dramatic. A subject that fired one’s imagination is suddenly found to be dull under the circumstances.
The problem is compounded if the instructor and student have no interchange between them because of overcrowded classes. This discourages the students from communicating with the instructor as well as with other students. Those conditions are particularly unfortunate, since the learning experience is heightened by the participation of the student in expressing of ideas in exchanges that force the student to think about and digest ideas. It is also more fun than listening to one lecture after another throughout each class day. Another disadvantage of large classes is that the possibility of distractions increases geometrically with the number of students if the class size exceeds 20.
If the instructor does not respect his students and their ideas, it may show up in many unintentional and perhaps unconscious acts. For example, smoking may encourage informality, but constantly pausing in a lecture to light a pipe may convey an attitude of disrespect by implying that “your time is of such little significance that you can wait.” The import of such an implication is immediately understood by students.
Other causes of student unrest may include the requiring of courses in which the student sees no value, and, all too often, the course has no value in the curriculum. The unhappiness of the student may become apparent in the classroom and feelings of mutual antagonism between faculty and students may result. Administrations are prone to take a long-range view of changing a curriculum because it is their career. But to the students, their college career is over in four years and the snail’s pace of administrative change often appears intolerably slow.
Students also face the difficulty of communicating their problems to a university. Whom do you approach to seek a change in curriculum or even to have its reasons explained? Protests and boycotts are one way, and unfortunately, at times the most effective way of communicating student problems to otherwise immovable faculties and administrations. It is often at this critical juncture that relations break down between students and faculties and administrations (collectively referred to as the “establishment”). Issues become emotion-laden, with students making excessive demands with an eye towards accepting something less. The “establishment” may counter by indicating that to compromise by, for example, including a representative from the student government on a committee on “curriculum” would be to “cave in under pressure and show a lack of backbone,” thus making progress most difficult.
The more objective question to be asked is, “Can students have a positive input into the particular committee?” The difference in perspective by rewording such questions can be startling. It is with just cause that diplomats spend many hours in the careful wording of questions to be discussed at a conference.
It is in just those circumstances where reason has broken down that student extremists from the left and increasingly from the right, being relatively well-organized can take advantage of the conflict and take control from the unorganized student majority. Then the targets of the extremists, such as ROTC, Vietnam, and the like, are brought to the forefront and made to appear that these were the points of friction all along. Indeed, they may gain the sympathy of many students who feel that the university has rebuffed their own milder and more reasoned objectives. There are instances, however, where moderates have rejected the radicals’ demands in which issues were put to a vote, such as CIA recruitment at Stanford and ROTC at Yale.
There is little indication that student unrest will decrease in the future. In fact, many institutions that have avoided these difficulties in the past will very likely be subjected to disorders in the near future. Faculties and administrations would do well to concern themselves with legitimate student demands now before they erupt into disorders.
The Naval Academy, as well as the other service academies, are by their very nature insulated from a certain amount of student unrest. The code of military discipline obviously goes a long way towards maintaining order. But the Academies also have other advantages that have been lacking in many institutions that have experienced disorders.
First, academy students have tentatively chosen a career, to be an officer in the armed forces of the United States. Having thus made a decision on a career and having accepted the general value system of the military officer corps, an academy Midshipman or Cadet has, by that act, established an identity. Military academy student bodies tend to have a self-confidence in their own identity that is oftentimes lacking in the average college student. The relative maturity of the academy student is sometimes stereotyped by his civilian institution counterpart as being merely an individual who accepts the “dictates” of others without serious thought. Other civilian institutions, where the student body has made a tentative commitment to a career, such as engineering schools or teacher’s colleges, do not have a serious “identity crisis” and, as a result, have been relatively calm.
The academies are not so isolated or insulated from other causes of student involvement as is sometimes believed by the uninitiated. The requirements for a naval officer’s education change as rapidly as curricula in other schools. The constant changing and upgrading of Naval Academy educational requirements attest to the concern with the question of “relevancy” in the curriculum. The varied patterns that a naval officer’s career may take is reflected in the wide variety of courses for Midshipmen, and small classes improve communications.
Obviously, adapting the situation of the Naval Academy to other institutions is neither possible nor desirable. Greater understanding of the military academies by other institutions is desirable, however, and each type of institution can learn from the other.
Operation Helping Hand
By Lieutenant Commander John A. Martin, U. S. Naval Reserve, Deputy Public Affairs Officer, U. S. Naval Forces, Vietnam
Although the Vietnamese Navy (VNN) will soon have all the necessary operational assets and trained personnel to ensure continued success in the naval interdiction effort against Communist infiltration and aggression, the rapid growth has created critical internal problems.
Pay is low, even for senior officers of the Vietnamese Navy. Housing and foods—meat, vegetables—which are basic to a healthy diet are scarce and expensive. These conditions, coupled with the war-inflated economy, have forced the Vietnamese Navymen and their dependents to live at a near-poverty level. Disabled veterans are even worse off. Separated from the service because of permanent injuries, they have virtually no effective vocational rehabilitation program—and consequently little hope to become productive in a postwar society. These conditions make it extremely difficult to establish within the Vietnamese Navy the strong, loyal, career-oriented cadre which is vital to the preservation of a viable, effective, and professional fighting force.
To alleviate these adverse conditions, the U. S. and Vietnamese Navies have embarked on a multi-faceted effort called “Operation Helping Hand.” The program is designed to upgrade the standard of living and benefits available to Vietnamese Navymen and their dependents, veterans, and widows. Included in the program are housing construction, food supplement projects, and a rehabilitation center for disabled Navy veterans.
The Vietnamese Navy and Marine Corps have an estimated need for 21,000 dependent shelters. To meet this need, construction of dependent housing is being accomplished by a self-help program, with Vietnamese and U. S. sailors working side by side. Construction has started at 17 bases with nearly 1,000 units completed and another 1,100 under construction. At some bases, unused barracks are being converted into apartments. The two Navies will finance 10,500 units with appropriated funds, leaving a balance of about 11,000 units still to be funded.
While inflation negates the value of an increase in pay, food supplement programs can provide tangible, in-kind increases to the Vietnamese Navyman’s standard of living. Animal husbandry, agronomy, and fishing projects are underway to provide these needed dietary supplements.
Using volunteer U. S. Navymen, all experts in their fields, as advisors, the projects have progressed at an extremely fast pace. In animal husbandry, U. S. sailors share their knowhow in the construction of facilities and the care and breeding of livestock, while the Vietnamese provide the labor and materials. Aside from the initial outlay of funds, the projects are designed to be self-supporting and self-sustaining.
In agronomy, U. S. sailors again provide the knowledge of crops in advising their Vietnamese counterparts in modern crop raising techniques. Vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and feed crop projects are all part of the agronomy program.
The success of Operation Helping Hand’s food supplement program will go a long way toward stabilizing the Vietnamese Navyman’s income and improving his standard of living, while providing the essential supplements to his diet.
The government of South Vietnam currently has a Vocational Rehabilitation Center located at Cat Lai. Because of housing shortages and the cost of moving and maintaining families while attending the school, however, many disabled veterans and widows of Servicemen are unable to use this facility. To correct this situation, and make vocational rehabilitation a reality for the Vietnamese Navy veteran, the Vietnamese and U. S. Navies are constructing a 500-family hamlet, which will provide housing and food supplement programs for Navy veterans and their dependents. Some 40 acres of land for the project have been given to the VNN by the residents of Gia Dinh Province. The land adjoins the Vietnamese naval base at Cat Lai, seven miles from Saigon.
The center’s primary goal is to ensure that former Vietnamese Navymen can return to their homes as productive members of the postwar society. Veterans will receive training in carpentry, auto mechanics, electricity, refrigeration, welding, plumbing, and typing. Self-help food supplement programs will also be established—the products of which will be used for food supplement and income.
Support of Operation Helping Hand is not restricted to the naval advisors serving in Vietnam. It is a Navy-wide effort, with assistance being sought from all Navy commands, both afloat and ashore. The Vietnamese navy has been given “priority one” on all Project Handclasp shipments. Another program is called “Operation Buddy Base.” This provides both counsel and advice in the operation of a Vietnamese naval base, while the Vietnamese are improving their organization, base programs, and standard of living.
The programs within Operation Helping Hand are limited only by the amount of available funds, and while all of these programs make maximum use of excess and donated materials, a large gap still exists between the needs and the funds available. To assist the Navy in bridging this gap, a group of prominent American business and professional men, who live and work in Saigon, have established the Operation Helping Hand Foundation,* a non-profit organization, set up to administer the private funds for Operation Helping Hand.
Both the Vietnamese and U. S. Navy Chiefs of Naval Operations have expressed their belief that Operation Helping Hand will strengthen the Vietnamese Navy by providing the financial means to develop a stable corps of career personnel, improve family security, and build service loyalty. Results thus far have shown that these goals are becoming a reality.
* See PDL Notes, p. 102, this issue PROCEEDINGS.
Notebook
Mideast Air Combat Tactics Impress Sixth Fleet Pilots
(George Weller in the Long Island Daily Press, 26 June 1970)
A proxy war is underway in the Mediterranean between the Russian and American weapons, held by alien hands. The Palestine struggle is approaching the phase of a testing ground for weapons, as Spain was in 1936.
Dark Egyptians and pale Israelis operate the costly hardware. But Americans and Russians are sitting behind them, attentive though invisible, watching all they do, represented only by a camera’s all-seeing eye.
Slouched in their soft chairs in the five “ready rooms” of the 25-year-old carrier, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), the U. S. Navy’s pilots experience the dives and climbs of their favorite multipurpose plane, the F-4 Phantom,* as Israeli pilots pursue the Egyptians. These battle films are part of the payoff Israel provides to compensate the United States for the lost friendship of 13 Arab states.
The brown clad Navy fliers are impressed. “When those Israelis go after the MiGs in our airplane, we’re right in the cockpit with them, watching their rudders and their stick work,” says Lieutenant Steve Zimmerman, a radar officer. “We can see the Egyptian pilot trying to get away, too, and learn from his mistakes.”
On this aircraft carrier, a Navy pilot can learn more than a Soviet air general peering from a Suez Canal dugout with field glasses into a blinding sun. Kills have been running seven or eight to one in favor of the Israelis. A dead Egyptian pilot can bring home no performance record of the MiGs.
The ardent admiration of the Israelis is qualified by only one important factor: The Soviets have not yet given the Egyptians their best plane, the MiG-23, while the United States has sold Israel the Phantom, the world’s best multipurpose plane. The tools are somewhat unequal.
* See R. V Welch, Comment on “Development and Problems in Carrier-based Fighter Aircraft,” U, S. Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, this issue, pp. 96-97.
Why are the Israeli pilots so far ahead? Do the kill-ratios prove the superiority of the 1,200-mile-an-hour Phantom, which cost $4 million, over the MiG-19s and 21s, costing a quarter as much?
“The Israelis push those Phantoms and Skyhawks right up to the limit of their designs and well beyond it,” say the Navy pilots. “They turn tighter curves, using up less air space, putting strains on the wings we would never try.” “They get it from living in a small country,” jested the wit of the ready room. "The Egyptians are spoiled because they have too much desert to turn in.”
Without airborne refuelling, the Phantom, fully-loaded with some seven tons of bombs, can fly for about 100 minutes at 550 miles an hour. It can accelerate and hold speeds like 1,200 miles an hour for not much longer than about three minutes. That is because such speeds eat up 1,000 pounds per minute of its total of 17,000 pounds of fuel.
“We think, watching these air battles, that something may be wrong either with Nasser’s pilots, or with the training they are getting,” says one pilot.
“To stay alive in this game you have to be constantly alert for the man who is trying to get on your tail. Lookout discipline seems to be a deficiency of the Egyptians. They do not watch everywhere.”
Before the Six-day War, the Egyptian pilots were getting much too little flying, nothing like the 25 hours a month averaged by the Americans.
There is some sympathy for the suicidal role of the Egyptian pilots. Aware of their inferiority in plane and perhaps in training, they are being forced to keep up Nasser’s “war of attrition.” They see their best pilots shot down. After 20 years of Soviet training, Egyptian pilots are still underequipped and undertrained.
Humphrey Sees Soviets As U. S. Seapower Rival
(Hubert H. Humphrey in The Jersey Journal, 5 June 1970)
While the United States has had its eyes on the moon, the Soviet Union has quietly mounted the first great challenge to our seapower in a generation.
Measured by naval power, by maritime fleet, by marine training and engineering, and by oceanographic research, the Soviet Union is rapidly catching up with us, and in some areas, already has passed us. They have done this by making a concerted national effort at a time when we have been doing business as usual.
This new Soviet seapower is changing the equation of world power. Once largely limited to moving across Europe, the Soviet Union is now a mobile power which can move with confidence all over the world.
Even more important, the Russians recognize the potential of the relatively unexplored oceans which make up two-thirds of the earth’s surface.
It was only a few years ago that Soviet naval power was small and predominantly defensive in nature. Now its large, modern navy has a very visible presence in the Mediterranean. It is deployed in the Indian Ocean. Its submarines prowl the Central and South Atlantic. Its electronic surveillance ships ply our coastal waters.
Long a landlocked nation with no warm water ports, the Soviet Union now is moving to dominate the Suez Canal and Dardanelles.
We cannot deny the Russians the free use of the seas, but neither can we continue to live on our reputation as the world’s number one seapower. Half our naval fleet is over 20 years old, and we have lost our technological lead in such areas as nuclear submarines.
With the need to reorder our priorities away from huge Pentagon budgets, our Navy will have to do better than simply ask for more money than the $20 billion a year it now gets.
The U. S. Navy will have to look at its priorities in light of our lower profile around the world. It will have to decide whether a fourth nuclear powered aircraft carrier is needed in the 1970s, or whether a fourth nuclear-powered air- [sic] spent for modern submarines and fast missile cruisers and destroyers.
In the peacetime use of the oceans, the Soviet Union also has dramatically closed the seapower gap. The rapidly-growing Soviet maritime fleet is a result of a concerted, unified Russian effort to exploit the potential of the seas. Our maritime policy is fragmented among a score of offices, bureaus, boards, and commissions.
Our merchant marine has been subsidized by about $5 billion over the past ten years. But much of the subsidy has been for ships and services that do not serve our national maritime interests.
Now President Nixon has proposed spending another $3 to $4 billion over the next ten years to subsidize the construction of 300 new cargo ships.
We must preserve our American shipbuilding industry, but we must insist that the ship builders, the ship operators, and the seamen start working together more effectively.
Eastern Mediterranean Becoming Soviet Lake?
(Thomas B. Ross in the New Orleans Times Picayune, 27 July 1970)
The White House has ordered the Navy to sail no closer than 25 miles to the coast of Egypt in order to avoid a confrontation with Russia’s growing Mediterranean fleet.
Reliable Navy sources reported that the order, modifying the standard three-mile limit, has been in effect for several weeks.
It clearly reflects President Nixon’s stated fear of a “collision of the superpowers” in the Middle East. It also recognizes that, as a high White House official recently conceded, the Eastern Mediterranean is rapidly becoming a “Soviet lake.”
The Russian fleet is so large, a key admiral said, that it would be the “hardest naval job in the world” for the United States to come to Israel’s aid from the sea.
“We would have to go through the Russian fleet,” he observed, “and if challenged, we would be forced to fire the first shot. And you know how difficult that would be in the present political climate in the U. S.”
Exact figures on Russian ship movements are classified, but knowledgeable naval officers say they have increased eightfold in the last three years.
The most ominous aspect, the sources say, is the fact that a large Russian amphibious force has been operating off Egypt for more than a year.
Joseph J. Sisco, assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, disclosed with some alarm that the Russians had delivered a shipment of amphibious equipment to the Egyptians.
Should the rest of the Russian amphibious force be turned over to the Egyptians, the Middle East power balance would be radically altered. Moscow has repeatedly insisted that its military aid to Egypt is “defensive.”
But, as Sisco noted, ships that could transport Egyptian troops across the Suez Canal do not “. . . look like defensive equipment to me.”
U. S. Navy Gets New ASW Surveillance System
(Aviation Week & Space Technology, 13 July 1970)
The Navy’s new moored surveillance system will be air-deployable, self-mooring, and probably command activated. The system, for which 11 companies are competing, consists of long-life sonobuoys which can be dropped from aircraft. The sonobuoys then moor themselves to the ocean floor and, when activated, transmit antisubmarine data to ASW aircraft operating in the area. The system will permit the Navy to rapidly deploy an antisubmarine barrier where none existed.
Navy Plans Reduction In Combat Aircraft Purchasing
(Aviation Week & Space Technology, 6 July 1970)
The Navy plans a sharp reduction in combat aircraft procurement between now and the end of Fiscal Year 1975, in connection with lower force-level projections.
During Fiscal Years 1962-70, aircraft accounted for an average of 7% of the Navy’s procurement budget. This is projected to drop to 6% for Fiscal Years 1971 to 1975, but the reduction in numbers of aircraft will be sharper than the one % figure indicates, because of generally reduced budgets.
Norwegian Navy Gets First Of Six Fast Patrol Boats
(La Revue Maritime, April 1970)
The Boatservice Verft of Mandel has delivered the fast patrol boat Snogg (P-980) to the Norwegian Navy. It is the first of a series of six ordered from that yard.
The five other patrol boats will be the Rapp (P-981), Snar (P-982), Rask (P-983), Kvikk (P-984), and Kjapp (P-985).
Characteristics of these fast patrol boats are:
Displacement: about 140 tons
Length: 121 feet
Propulsion: diesel
Maximum speed: 36 knots
Armament: 4 TLT/533 and 4 surface-to-surface Penguin missiles, or 6 TLT/533 and 6 missiles; 1/40 AA .70-caliber Bofors
Complement: 3 officers and 7 enlisted men
The Penguin is a subsonic surface-to-surface missile, with an 11-foot fin span, five-foot diameter, weighing 254 pounds, and a range of from ten to 12 miles.
South Africa To Get First Of Three French Submarines
(The New York Times, 21 July 1970)
The first of three submarines ordered from France by South Africa in 1967 has been handed over at Lorient [sic].
She is the Maria van Riebeeck, a high-performance submarine of 700 tons, with a maximum speed of 16 knots.
The principal characteristics of such vessels are their completely silent operation submerged and their greatly increased diving capabilities.
The others ordered by South Africa are under construction. Portugal and Pakistan have each ordered two, and Spain has also adopted the type.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In mid-August, the Maria van Riebeeck reportedly sustained serious damage in a collision with a French submarine in the Mediterranean. Further details were lacking pending investigation.
Communist China Aiding Ceylon
(The Christian Science Monitor, 9 July 1970)
A delegation from Communist China is in Ceylon. Its mission: to survey what aid is needed by the new leftist government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who was returned to office in May.
What New Delhi fears is that any aid from Peking may have the end result of Ceylon’s letting the Chinese Communists use the former British naval base at Trincomalee—so vital to the Allies during World War II following the fall of Singapore.
Access to the base would give Peking a supply facility on the Indian Ocean. From there, its fleet of conventional submarines could challenge the Soviet Navy, which has been steadily moving into the area.
Japanese Begin Study Of Million-Ton Tanker
(The New York Times, 12 July 1970)
Japan, the world’s shipbuilding leader for more than ten years, has begun to study the construction of a 1,000,000-d.w.-ton oil tanker.
The Transport Minister, Tomisaburo Hashimoto, has instructed the Transport Technology Council to review the technological problems involved in building a tanker of this size. Hashimoto’s order stemmed from his belief that the Japanese shipbuilding industry should be prepared for the next stage in the trend toward increasingly large tankers.
He said that although docks in Japan can only accommodate vessels up to 500,000 d.w. tons, recent technological advances have made it possible to construct a 1,000,000-d.w.-ton tanker in halves at two docks.
Japan Called Worst Offender In Tanker Oil Sea Pollution
(The New York Times, 24 July 1970)
A British shipping official has accused the Japanese of being the worst offenders in polluting the world’s sea lanes.
Speaking at a news conference, John Kirby, vice president of the United Kingdom Chamber of Shipping, said that every year 600,000 tons of oil are dumped into the sea.
Kirby said that 80% of the world’s tanker fleet employ the load-on-top system, which eliminates discharge of oil into the sea when cleaning tanks. The rest of the world fleet, mostly Japanese ships, do not use the system.
With the load-on-top system, the tank-washing water is not pumped out into the sea but is discharged with the next load of oil at the refinery, where it is separated. Thus a small salt-water content is left in the tanks.
Japanese refineries refuse to take oil with a salt content, although refineries in other countries have been prepared to accept some salt in their oil for some time.
Kirby said that the attitude of Japanese refineries meant that even British or Norwegian tankers equipped for the load-on-top system have to dump oil into the sea when cleaning tanks when they are chartered to Japanese refineries.
Kirby, who is also head of Shell Tanker, Ltd., said the Japanese tanker tonnage was 13 million tons, 10% of the world fleet.
Pass-Down-The-Line Notes
The Civil Affairs Division of the U. S. Army Combat Developments Command, Institute of Strategic & Stability Operations, is desirous of obtaining for their reference library a three-volume work titled “United States Naval Administration of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands,” by Dorothy E. Richard. Members having information on the subject are requested to address the above-named command at Fort Gordon, Georgia 30905.
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Anyone knowing the weight of the explosive charge in the U. S. torpedoes in use in 1941, please communicate with Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, U. S. Navy (Retired), Monkton, Maryland 21111.
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The Operation Helping Hand Foundation recognizes that many Vietnamese Navymen and their families exist on a substandard of living. It is a non-profit organization, started by a group of prominent American business and professional men who live and work in Saigon. They work closely with the Vietnamese and U. S. Navies. The Foundation seeks financial support from interested citizens in both the United States and South Vietnam. Donations to support the Operation Helping Hand program may be forwarded to: Operation Helping Hand, Box OHH, FPO, San Francisco, California 96626.
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Scholarship recipients are being sought by the Second Marine Division Association’s Memorial Scholarship Fund. According to John Hruska, the fund chairman, of 7505 Halleck St., Washington, D.C. 20028, the Association will award up to $500 per school year to eligible applicants. He said, “Our first preference in awards goes to the orphaned children of Second Division Marines. However, applications from other qualified dependents of Second Division Marines will be considered.” The Memorial Scholarship Fund is supported solely through contributions by Association members. There are presently 25 scholarship recipients attending colleges throughout the country.