Japanese Self-Defense Forces To Be Stationed On Okinawa
(Flight International, 4 April 1972)
The Japanese government has approved plans of the National Defense Council to base Japanese Self-Defense forces in Okinawa, beginning with about 100 men from the three Services. By the end of this year, a total of 2,930 Self-Defense personnel will have been sent to Okinawa.
The Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) will deploy six KV-107 helicopters, two UH-1s, and two single-engined liaison aircraft. The Maritime Force will base six P-2J antisubmarine aircraft on the island, and the Air Force will deploy 18 F-104Js and six T-33s. By the end of June 1973, Hawk missiles of the GSDF and Nike-Hercules of the Air Self-Defense Force will be added.
First Complete CAAIS System To Undergo Royal Navy Trials
(Navy International, April 1972)
The first complete Computer Assisted Action Information System (CAAIS) to go to sea will be that installed in HMS Torquay during her refit at Chatham. The system, developed by the Digital Systems Division of Ferranti, Ltd., will undergo sea trials later in the year. The CAAIS is to be fitted in all the new Type 21 (Amazon-class) and a number of Leander-class frigates, although the Torquay, a Type 12 frigate, will be the only ship of that earlier class to carry the system.
The CAAIS, which is based upon a Ferranti FM-1600B integrated-circuit computer, having 32K words of core store, will feed six Decca CA-1600 conference displays. The system is designed to enhance the performance of the Action Information Organization in the future Fleet. The displays can show a combined radar and computer-generated tactical picture. The system can autotrack radar targets and process information from the ship’s sonars and electronic warfare systems to provide accurate target indication information to the ship’s weapons systems, as well as computer solutions to navigation problems and attack orders for weapon-carrying antisubmarine helicopters.
Blowing Up Of Ice Tested As New Icebreaking Method
(Marine Engineering/Log, May 1972)
An icebreaking concept that vibrates and literally “blows up” ice in way of a ship, clearing a channel for her progress, was tested successfully this past winter on Lake Muskegon, Michigan, by the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas. Called Sub-Ice, it breaks up ice by the sudden release of high-pressure combustion gases underneath the ice sheet from “combustion chambers” attached to and ahead of the bow.
The Coast Guard, who sponsored this experiment, set as a goal a system capable of clearing a channel 40-feet wide through ice two feet thick at the rate of five miles per hour. Results of the tests indicate that the Sub-Ice system could perform this task having three combustion chambers mounted ahead of a vessel, with the chambers firing every 1.5 to 2 seconds. This would require the addition of between 400 and 500 h.p., in the form of air compressors, to the horsepower needed for the vessel’s usual open-water movement.
Japanese Shipbuilders Cutting Back Production
(Peter Hill in The London Times, England, 12 April 1972)
Leading Japanese shipbuilding groups are cutting back on production of large vessels, such as oil tankers and bulk carriers, in which they have hitherto specialized.
The industry has been severely hit by international monetary uncertainties, revaluation of the yen, and the worldwide business recession. It reported a 43% drop in ship export orders during the last fiscal year.
Hitachi Shipbuilding and Engineering has already announced that it will curtail production of large vessels by 25% from 1975, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Nippon Kokan Kaisha (NKK) are also reducing output.
These moves come on the eve of a meeting in Paris of the shipbuilding working party of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
According to reports from Tokyo, the Japanese Transport Ministry intends to support draft proposals to be put to this meeting, which call for the gradual abolition of government shipbuilding subsidies by 1975 and new conditions for deferred payment ship exports.
European nations, however, have become increasingly concerned at the growth in Japanese shipbuilding capacity and the Japanese appear to have accepted, to some extent, the warnings which have been sounded. They announced that a committee had been set up to provide a basis for discussions with West European shipbuilders.
These discussions would be on the measures which could be implemented to deal with the expected slump in orders after 1975.
Naval Sea Cadet Corps Observes 10th Birthday
(Naval Sea Cadet Corps News Release, 27 April 1972)
The Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC), an all-volunteer, youth-training organization of young men 14 through 17, will observe its tenth anniversary this fall. Federally chartered in September 1962, the Naval Sea Cadet Corps is jointly sponsored and administered by the Navy League and the U. S. Department of the Navy.
After rigid mental and physical requirements have been met, the Sea Cadet recruits are given an opportunity to learn the ways of the Navy and Marine Corps. But they are in no way obligated to any of the Services. The Corps is not a recruiting program. (If a Sea Cadet develops a true interest in the Navy, however, he can enlist as an E-3). Patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and confidence are qualities which the Naval Sea Cadet program develops. While some Cadets go on to lifetime careers in the Navy, others are sparked to scientific and scholarly pursuits fostering oceanic advancement.
The Naval Sea Cadet’s training includes classroom training, a two-week summer program, shipboard training, and, on occasion, exchange programs with allied countries. Sea Cadets are afforded the opportunity to study in various disciplines, including oceanography, construction, medicine, naval officers’ preparatory courses, engineering aspects of avionics, and nucleonics. In addition to the classroom and advancement-in-training programs, extensive instruction is provided in water safety, military bearing, and Navy history customs and traditions. Cadets are also given presentations explaining both civilian and military career opportunities during special career counseling periods.
The activities and accomplishments of the Sea Cadets are varied and worthwhile. Indeed, the Navy League and the Navy share a deep pride in their Sea Cadets. In this, the tenth year of the NSCC, opportunities for advancement are unprecedented. The Corps has grown to 300 units with nearly 10,000 cadets and officers participating. It is an unusual opportunity to both educate and learn. For science, exploration, technology, jobs, and adventure, the seas are a new frontier. Those who seek to join will be those who meet the challenge of sailing far into the future.
Royal Navy Publishes First Of New International Charts
(Royal Navy News Release, 21 March 1972)
Britain has taken a lead in world-wide hydrographic cooperation by publishing the first of a new series of marine charts to agreed specifications recommended to member states by a commission of the International Hydrographic Organization in Monaco.
Produced by the Hydrographer of the Navy and covering “Lourenço Marques to Mogadiscio,” it is one of 15 international charts on routes from the English Channel around the Cape of Good Hope to the Persian Gulf and Malacca Strait that the United Kingdom has agreed to compile.
Nations have been allocated areas of responsibility for the new series which is aimed at reducing duplication of effort resulting from several countries making charts of the same general sea area with differing scales, geographical limits, and information.
Important features of the international charts will be contours at every 1,000 meters throughout the whole of the depth range and a new symbol—an encircling dotted line—for reported, but unconfirmed, depths or danger. Compass roses will be in magenta rather than the usual black.
In Others’ Words
Selected excerpts from foreign professional journals.
German-Danish Maneuvers
(Soldat und Technik, October 1971)
The German-Danish maneuvers Ziegelstein (Brick-Stone) in Schleswig-Holstein mobilized 7,000 wheeled and 1,400 tracked vehicles with 25,000 soldiers. The Danish Jutland division for the first time put tanks on German soil. Ziegelstein was the largest exercise in Schleswig-Holstein since the NATO maneuver “Hold fast” in 1960. Belgian air power, together with Danish and German, also participated.
At the beginning of September, the four-day maneuvers Stärker Schild (Strong Shield) took place on the exercise grounds at Bergen-Hohne, in which nearly 9,000 men of the 2nd Jäger division and 1,000 reserves from the Bundeswehr and some American units took part. Both exercises were intended to deepen cooperation of mixed national groups. The Soviet military paper Roter Stern (Red Star) described in its 8 September issue this maneuver as “poisoning of the atmosphere” and imputed to the alliance “wide-ranging goals.”
Soviet Admiral Speaks
(Soldat und Technik, October 1971)
The deputy chief of the Russian admiralty, Admiral Wladimir Alexejew, said in an interview after the successful completion of the major maneuvers “Jug”—South, that the atomic submarines now form the backbone of the U.S.S.R. Navy. Armed with rockets and the newest types of torpedoes, they have practically unlimited range, great diving depth, and also high speed underwater. Without surfacing, a group of atomic-powered Soviet subs on a trip around the world traveled 20,000 miles underwater. “Atomic submarines are in the position to attack enemy installations thousands of kilometers away with atomic rockets (nuclear rockets) and to destroy enemy surface ships and submarines with rockets and torpedoes,” said the admiral.
Alexejew declared that the Soviet fleet has become a completely new ocean fleet. It has demonstrated its possibilities in the “Okean” exercises. All naval weapons took part in these exercises. The Navy operated under difficult meteorological and climatic conditions in the Atlantic and Pacific, in the Barents Sea, and in the waters of Norway, the North, Japan, and the Philippines as well as in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Baltic. In this year the Navy and the Army held their combined and coordinated exercises in the “Jug” maneuvers.
Defense Marshal Gretschko expressed himself very appreciatively on the subject of the state of development of the ships as well as the units of the naval air force and the naval infantry. “The process of the further perfection of the Navy—ships, aircraft, and weapons—is going ahead without interruption,” said the admiral. He spoke of the personnel of the Navy with the greatest appreciation and said that over 50% of the officers have above average school training. “Many of these officers work in research institutes of the Navy on complex technical problems. Their recommendations and advice help in the effective use of the newest technical means and weapons under battle conditions . . . .”
Skory-class Destroyers
(Soldat und Technik, October 1971)
Of the 45 still existing ships of the Soviet Skory-class destroyers, the oldest of which have been in service almost 20 years and thus are approaching overage, a few (between six and ten) have been modernized beginning toward the end of the 1950s. The Soviets have left most of this class in their original condition, apparently because the investment of material for such a modernization no longer is acceptable. Nevertheless, occasional ships of the Skory class have been observed lately that have been improved with better electronic equipment. An example is one destroyer, with radar mast installed behind the forward torpedo launcher; the mast carries a Knife Rest antenna for air surveillance. This is one of the first representatives of the Skory class on which it can be discerned that she still carries the 3.7-cm. AA single-gun carriages (instead of the twin carriages, with which later ships of the class have been armed).
Last DO-24 Seaplane Retired
(Soldat und Technik, October 1971)
The last DO-24 still serving, one of the most successful seaplanes ever built, is being returned to the manufacturer at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance after decades in use as a search and rescue craft. This machine, built in 1943, was, until a few months ago with two other craft of the same type, still in service with the Spanish air force on Majorca. The DO-24 was originally commissioned by the Dutch Navy in 1934 as a transport and surveillance seaplane. The first flight took place in 1937 on Lake Constance. More than 200 craft in the various versions of DO-24 were built in Germany, Holland, and France. In all, about 12,000 shipwrecked people were rescued by the DO-24, which could normally take 24 men on board. The seaplane with its robust construction was fully useable up to Sea Condition 5. The 13,700-kg. plane had three Bramo 323s, each 1,000 h.p., and could reach a speed of 250 km. per hour. The maximum range was 4,700 km.
Soviet Reconnaissance
(Soldat und Technik, October 1971)
The reconnaissance activity of Soviet aircraft over Icelandic territory has greatly increased. According to U. S. observations in the past year alone, there were 300 air space incursions. Also in the first six months of 1971, the Soviet reconnaissance activity has again increased, so that the intercept groups had to be alarmed repeatedly, in order to force the Soviet aircraft out of the Icelandic air space. In connection with the earthquake in Peru, Soviet transport craft received permission to refuel in Keflavik, an important NATO base with an international air station. Although the air lanes were defined ahead of time, the Soviets took every opportunity to gather reconnaissance information outside the prescribed routes. In this connection, the Swedish government has also protested Soviet air space violations.
Of the 53 allowed Soviet overflights, 21 craft flew off the prescribed routes in order to fly over military objectives. Simultaneously, the activity of the Soviet naval forces in the northern area sharply increased. In the last four years, it increased by a factor of five, featuring the appearance of complete battle groups. Submarine replenishment reached a volume never seen before. The U. S. naval units attached to Keflavik reported an increase of Soviet ship movement of 500% over 1967. In the meantime, the popular front government of Johannesson, with two Communists in the cabinet, made known its intention of requesting the Americans to leave their bases.
Pass-Down-The-Line Notes
Herr Graf von Niezychowski-Voss, Curator of the Von-Möller Naval Library in Bleibach, West Germany, would like to locate and obtain a copy of the log book of the Spanish armored cruiser, Cristobal Colon.
The Naval History Division, Department of the Navy, has announced that, for the academic years 1973 and 1974, it plans to grant two fellowships for pre-doctoral candidates of $4,000 each to individuals undertaking research and writing on dissertations in the field of U. S. naval history. Applicants should be U. S. citizens, enrolled in a recognized graduate school, and have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. except the dissertation. The deadline for submitting completed applications will be 1 February 1973. For further information on the fellowships and submission of applications, individuals should address a letter (including approved dissertation title) to the Director of Naval History, Washington, D.C. 20390.
The theme for the Fifth Military History Symposium, to be held at the Air Force Academy on 5 and 6 October 1972, is “The Military and Society.’’ Four working sessions and a banquet address have been planned: Session I, Keynote Address and 15th Harmon Memorial Lecture to be delivered by Russell Weigley (Temple University). Session II, “Impact of the Military on Developing and Developed Societies.” Session III, Banquet Address, “The Response of the Military to a Changing Society.” Session IV, Panel Discussions, Panel A: “The Study of Military Affairs on College Campuses;” Panel B: “The Writing and Publication of Military History.” Session V, “The Military as a Social Force in American Society.” For further information about the Symposium, including motel reservations, write Major Ronald Fogleman, Department of History, U. S. Air Force Academy, Colorado 80840.