AIR BASES IN ARCTIC

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25084, 16 January 1947, Page 8

AIR BASES IN ARCTIC

ADVICE OF U.S. ENGINEERS

CONSTRUCTION POSSIBLE (From Our Own Correspondent.) . NEW YORK, Dec. 21. Engineers have advised the Army Air Force that air bases capable of accommodating at least fighter aircraft can be successfully" constructed on the ice masses of the Arctic, said MajorGeneral Orvil A. Anderson, commander of the Air War College, Maxwell Field, Albania, in .an interview. General Andersen, in an hour long discussion at his suite in the Henry Hudson Hotel, discussed some phases of the Army Air Force’s strategic preoccupation with the Arctic areas and declared that a “realistic” globe must include Arctic air-power planning. Discussing the range capabilities of the United States latest type bombers, such as the B-36, which has a 10,000mile range with a 50-ton bomb load, General Anderson said that “air power, by the very nature of its base requirements, gravitates toward land masses or solid surface masses. “We must have advance bases within the range of all types of aircraft,” he added. “The polar region has surface conditions that provide, in terms of economy, for decisive airpower. “The potential foes we see to-day are on the other side of the Arctic,” he said. “In planning for future wars, particularly in the air, we must have a planned strategy pointed and timed for specific operations.” General Anderson emphasised that there was no such thing as a mythical foe, only “potential foes.” Because military weapons were so .costly, they could not be bought for general - purposes but must have a specific known application in terms of distance, weather and opposition. Fighter Escort for Bombers At present, he said, the Army Air Force must still consider the necessity of fighter escort for its bombers. This, he said, accounted for the polar studies. Planes could land and take off on ice once steel landing mats had been placed on the surface. The Army Air Force, General Anderson told interviewers, in seeking a “realistic” strategic glpbe, had become convinced of the coming of age of “air logistics.” He cited as an example a study which showed that a fighter aircraft with a 50-mission combat lifetime could be maintained at one-third of the expense incurred in using surface transportation by feeding its technical requirements forward to advanced bases by air. “Wars will soon be won so fast,” he declared, “that we cannot afford to have big pipelines to provide our materials.” A six-month pipeline for an atomic bomb would be “ludicrous,” he added. “The polar regions,” he announced, “would be explored both by us and a foe—if we developed one.”