Comment From The Capital NO DEFINITE OFFER YET ON OMEGA NAVIGATION SYSTEM

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 12

Comment From The Capital NO DEFINITE OFFER YET ON OMEGA NAVIGATION SYSTEM

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, September 6.-—An Omega navigation station may still be built in the South Island within three years, as part of a worldwide navigation system being developed. There is no indication that objections by a small number of persons in Canterbury have caused the delay which has occurred since the arguments reached a peak in this country in 1968.

According to advice received from the new project manager, Captain J. A. Burke, United States Navy, the delay was caused by reductions in low-priority military spending made by Washington. This has not meant that the Omega system, with its eight stations, has been abandoned, but that the system is being extended more slowly. Captain Burke has taken the place of Captain M. X. Polk, who visited Wellington in April, 1969, for discussions with the Government on the siting of a station at Lake Pearson or Lake Sumner. Captain Polk, a highly-qualified scientist, reached his Navy retirement age this year, and is now employed by the Lockheed Corporation.

During the last year there have been a number of unofficial suggestions as to where the station in the south-west Pacific might be built. Perhaps the most persistent has been that Tasmania has been chosen as the site. This was even backed up by local letters claiming that unnamed scientific publications in America were making no secret that the equipment for this station had been ordered.

There is no truth in these claims. Captain Burke has said that no decision has yet been made as to whether the Omega station will be sited in New Zealand or Australia. He said the Tasmanian site evaluation was completed not much more than a month ago. indicating that a New Zealand site was considerably further forward in the minds of the planners. Nothing Changed According to Captain Burke, nothing has changed —except, perhaps, that shortage of finance has forced the project to move a little more slowly. The Tasman Sea station will now be the last of the eight to be constructed, and as others are brought in, so the navigational net will be extended The eight stations, on sites chosen to give world-wide coverage, would be in Norway, Japan, Reunion Island, Argentina, Trinidad, the Tasman Sea area, Hawaii and North Dakota. At present a northern hemisphere system is working, using Norway, Trinidad, Hawaii, and New York. The New York station will be closed down when a new one now under construction in North Dakota, is finished.

Construction of the station in Japan, on which the Japanese Government is said to be paying the full cost, will begin this year. Work on the stations in Argentina and on Reunion Island is expected to begin in 1971, leaving only the Tasman area station undecided.

In reply to questioners in New Zealand, Captain Burke has said that the Tasman station is of special importance. “System accuracy and reliability in the South Pacific, Indian Ocean and South-East Asia areas depend largely on this station,” he wrote in one letter, replying to an inquiry. “We hope to arrange for this station in time to permit completion by the end of 1972.” Matter Of Money

It has been suggested that neither the Australian nor New Zealand Governments has been prepared to put up the money required to construct an Omega station. This is not correct: the proposition has not been put to either country. The cost of building a station has produced much j speculation. One “authority" has spoken about a figure “in excess of $4 million.” This could only be for the complete operation, nothing less. The idea, according to Captain Polk last year, was for New Zealand to build the

station. The cost of this would be $200,000. It was assumed that the United States would provide the electronic equipment. Captain Burke has said: “We are still very much interested in assisting Australia or New Zealand to construct their own station." He is obviously troubled about the reduction of funds by Washington, but has indicated privately that “there are enough funds available for assistance in the construction of one foreign-owned station." Does this mean that next year or early in 1972 an offer will be made of part sponsorship? It is doubtful. The United States will be providing a great deal in any case, and the mere housing of equipment is not a great difficulty, There is a hint, however, that the Lake Pearson site is regarded by the scientists as far better than anything else available here or in Australia. The Objections

Perhaps the most valid objection to the establishment of an Omega station in the South Island has come from the scientists themselves. They claim that Omega, as a low-frequency system, would destroy low-frequency research in this country. This has much more logic in it than some of the suggestions that if New Zealand permitted the installation it would also turn itself into a prime target in a nuclear war. Some of those who claim this have persisted in earlier charges that Omega is merely a contrivance for directing missiles and facilitating the navigation of Polaris submarines.

The very slowness of th* Omega development no* seems to argue the other way. With directional and coi* I munications satellites avail* able, it would be unlikely that nuclear submarine* would require an Omega bearing any more than they would need a sight-bearing from an old-fashioned lighthouse.

“The United States Navy remains as firmly convinced as ever of the value of Omega for general-purpose navigation.” Captain Burke wrote recently. “In spite of the development of other navigational aids, including satellites, nothing has arisen to diminish the importance of the project.”

He said that about 70 Omega receivers were being used in various ships in the Northern Hemisphere, that these included some United States Navy ships—and that none of them were submarines.