SURFACE SHIPS NOW FAVOURED

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30063, 22 February 1963, Page 11

SURFACE SHIPS NOW FAVOURED

U.S. Change May Annoy Allies

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, February 21. A United States shift in favour of surface ships instead of Polaris submarines for the NATO, nuclear force was described today as “pretty unsettling for allies of the United States.” The “Washington Post” commented in an editorial that as recently as December, when Britain agreed to adopt the Polaris* armed submarine, the United States had been arguing that surface vessels were unsatisfactory.

“The shift of the defence establishment from thermonuclear Polaris submarines to missile-carrying surface vessels as the backbone of the NA.T.O. multi-national thermonuclear weapons systems must be pretty unsettling for our allies.

“We persuaded the British that the Skybolt is no good by arguing that a bomber moving at supersonic speed is a sitting duck for the Soviet union’s antiaircraft defences,” said the newspaper.

“So the British agreed to change to the Polaris-armed submarine as a thermonuclear weapon. Now it turns out that we are to offer our other allies missilecarrying surface vessels. “The given wisdom at Nassau was that surface vessels were unsatisfactory. They could be located by the enemy and locked in by the Soviet missile system and destroyed at will because of their slow speed. So, the British were told, the carrier •had to be submersible.

“Now suddenly and unpredictalbly, the surface vessel is all right. One may be forgiven for suspecting that Soviet missiles are as

good as they were two months ago and for believing the surface vessel is no more invulnerable than it was then."

Missile firing surface ships rather than nuclear powered submarines might form the basis of a multilateral North Atlantic Treaty atomic force, United States officials said.

The Kennedy Administration wae now giving increasing attention to the possibility that surface ships might be more suitable than submarines. The disclosure of new interest in the possibilities of surface ships was seen in Washington as a significant change of emphasis in United States policy. The advantages of surface ships as seen from Washington included; (1) Such a force could be created more quickly than a Polaris force and the Kennedy Administration is eager to establish some kind of N.A.T.O. deterrent as quickly as possible to prove its stated intention of shar-

ing nuclear responsibilities. (2) As well as being cheaper and simpler to build, missile-bearing surface ships could become operational without the complex training required for nuclear submarine crews. They also could be man-

ned by mixed crews of several nations. (3) The ships could be built in European shipyards, easing the cost problem.

Officials said that President Kennedy’s special envoy, Mr Livingston Merchant, who will leave for Europe 0.1 Friday to discuss the creation of a N.A.T.O. nuclear force, would present both the submarine and surface ship arguments to the European allies. It would be up to them to decide which system they wanted. Officiate made it clear that the new emphasis on surface ships did not affect the Nassau agreement under which Britain will buy Polaris missiles from the United States for installation on British submarines.