U.S. fleet stretched to cover two oceans

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 14

U.S. fleet stretched to cover two oceans

By

ANDREW WILSON

in London

Has America still a twoocean navy, capable of effective deployment in the Atlantic and the Pacific? This urgent question is one of several raised in the latest issue of “Jane’s Fighting Ships” published this month.

The editor, Capt. J. E. Moore, R.N., gives a highly doubtful answer, in view of the halving of the United States Navy in the last 10 years.

America, he says, could have difficulties in concentrating sufficient forces in either ocean in a serious emergency because of geographical factors. “Any concentration of forces must involve long passages. From San Diego in the Pacific to Norfolk, Virginia, in the Atlantic is 4500

miles via the Panama Canal. “For those carriers and other ships too large to transit the canal the closest route is via Cape Horn, a passage of 12,000 miles. Even at 30 knots this means 17 days of straight steaming — in the event of a crisis such a deployment might be too late.”

Complicating the strategists’ headache is the fact that trade figures show that about 43 per cent of United States traffic crosses the Pacific, 57 per cent is carried on the Atlantic.

But “Jane’s” sees some consolation: The Russians, too, have a deployment headache.

“The Soviet Navy is split into four fleets, each of which has to emerge through narrow defiles. The Northern Fleet must make

passage through four main openings in the GreenlandUnited Kingdom gap; the Baltic Fleet must make use of the Danish waters or the White Sea canal. “The Black Sea Fleet is forced to move through the Turkish straits or north through the Volga canal chain; the Pacific Fleet is hedged about, except in the very north, by the mainland of Japan.” Capt. Moore’s foreword also deals with material differences between the Soviet and American navies. The gap, he says, is beginning to close with the introduction of Harpoon, Phalanx and Standard missiles in the United States Navy.

“If both the strategic and tactical versions of the cruise missile Tomahawk are also included in the United

States Navy’s inventory, the balance will be considerably tilted in their favour,” he writes.

“No Soviet surface ships at present carry any form of strategic weapon and it would be to the great benefit of the U.S.S.R. were they to forestall the introduction of the strategic Tomahawk by the processes of SALT H (the second and current round of strategic arms limitation talks).”

The present naval ballistic missile balance favours the Soviet Union. Both the Soviet submarine-borne SS-N-17 and 18 have materially increased the range at which strategic bombardment could take place and have thus widened the search area for any hunting force.

“As the SS-N-18 can be fired to any point in the northern hemisphere from the Soviet coastal zone it will be seen that the prob-

lem of countering these monsters is formidable, but by 1980 the Soviet Fleet will have a similar task when the American Trident I missile is at sea in the Ohio class.”

It is significant, says “Jane’s,” that a new base for these submarines is in the north-west of the United States of America in the state of Washington, giving access to an area from which Trident I could reach all points in the U.S.S.R. “Thus in the next couple of years the proposed introduction of Trident II with a 6000-miles range would further ensure the invulnerability of the submarine carrying it.” In naval aviation, according to “Jane’s,” the United States continues to retain overwhelming superiority. With more than 50 years of experience the carriers constituting that strength have

probably reached the ultimate in this form of shipbuilding, although their modernisation and replacement are of extreme importance.

The greatest compliment paid to this type of naval strength is Russia’s long-de-layed decision to follow suit. But the Soviet Kiev carriers are a very different kind of vessel from the American carriers.

They have considerable armament for surface fighting, including surface-to-surface missiles; on the other hand they may have problems with their comparatively low free-board.

"Jane’s” judgement on the Kiev: "As the focal point of a task-force deployed to enhance wars of national liberation, to deter uprising or to demolish political foes inimical to the U.S.S.R., this is a very potent and important class of ship.” O.F.N.S. copyright. t