COMPARISONS OF AIR POWER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27690, 21 June 1955, Page 13

COMPARISONS OF AIR POWER

Relative Strength Of U.S. And Soviet (Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 19. Senator Stuart Symington (Democrat, Missouri) said today that the United States was leading in only one class of air power and the Soviet Union was ahead in at least two. Senator Symington, who was Air Force Secretary in the Truman Administration, released a speech prepared for Senate debate tomorrow on a Defence Money Bill. The Senator is leading a Democratic effort to hold the Army and Marine Corps near recent manpower strengths and to increase funds for supersonic jet fighters. He said the administration sought to justify cuts in ground forces on the basis of air supremacy. “That is becoming more and more questionable,” he commented. “Of the five chief categories of airpower—fighters, light bombers, medium bombers, heavy bombers, and missiles—the Soviet is ahead in two, probably ahead in two more,” he said. “The United States is ahead in one.” Expanding on this, Senator Symington said that the United States had hundreds more medium-size bombers than the Communists, but they had “thousands more modern jet fighters” and also “thousands more modern light jet bombers.” He said the Soviet also might have passed the United States in production of modern long-range jet bombers and might be well ahead with the intercontinental ballistic missile. General Nathan Twining, the Air Force Chief of Staff, told Senators that the first United States long range 852 heavy jet bombers cost nearly 10,000,006 dollars (about £3,627,000) each.

Informed sources said that eventually the United States would have at least 500 852 s able to deliver nuclear weapons to any part of the world.