Russians build up big Pacific fleet

Press, 4 October 1984, Page 14

Russians build up big Pacific fleet

NZPA staff correspondent

Washington The Soviet Pacific Fleet now comprises more than 700 ships, including submarines, according to Admiral Robert Long, who retired last year as American Commander-in-Chief, Pacific.

Admiral Long, writing in the 1984 “Almanac of Sea Power,” published by the Navy League of the United States, says that Soviet military capability in the AsiaPacific region, which includes 'New Zealand, “continues to grow”. The Soviet fleet in the entire Pacific includes more than 120 submarines, an anti-submarine-warfare aircraft carrier, more than 80 cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, and more than 300 amphibious craft, he writes. “This very large, modern fleet is home-ported in the Sea of Japan at Vladivostok and at Petropavlosk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.” Admiral Long said that in years past only a small percentage of Soviet fleet operations were conducted outside those north-west Pacific areas, but in 1982 the aircraft carrier Minsk sailed from Vladivostok to the Indian Ocean. “This deployment of the Minsk underscored the enhanced Soviet naval capability in the Pacific, and served notice to the countries on the Pacific littoral that the Soviet Union had the capability to project its military power and pres-

ence when desired.” The already significant Soviet air threat in the Far East continued to increase, Admiral Long said. “Deliveries during 1982 raised the total of ‘Backfire’ bombers to about 70.

“This bomber fleet, when combined with other such assets as ‘Bear,’ ‘Badger,’ and ‘Fencer’ aircraft, provides a formidable longrange strike potential. “During September and October, 1983, naval aviation ‘Backfires’ for the first time conducted simulated strikes — monitored closely by our forces — against United States carrier battle groups operating in the northern Pacific.”

He said that after three years of intensive modernisation the Soviet Far East fighter force was now aP most completely composed of new-generation aircraft.

“The Soviets also continue to expand their Far East ground forces. In the last 15 years, those forces have been more than quadrupled, to a present strength of about 50 divisions. Furthermore, the Soviets have the mobilisation capability to increase this force rapidly to more than a million men.

“Constituted primarily of motorised rifle divisions, it possesses high mobility, modern equipment, excellent air defence capability, and heavy firepower, including nuclear, chemical, and conventional munitions.”

This steady build-up had not been limited to conven-

tional forces, Admiral Long wrote. “Modern and capable bal-listic-missile submarines regularly patrol the Pacific, ’ providing an impressive strategic nuclear threat Soviet theatre nuclear capability also has been improved by the continued deployment of SS2O mobile intermediate-range ballisticmissile systems to the Far East. More than 100 SS2Os, with a total of over 300 warheads, now are based in the region.” These developments sharply enhanced the Soviet Union’s ability to project power throughout the entire Pacific command region. “Access to facilities at Cam Ranh Bay and Da Nang, in Vietnam, gives the Soviets the capability of conducting operations anywhere in South-East Asia at their own choosing.” Admiral Long said that after the Vietnam War the United States figuratively

turned its back on the Pacific. “All United States forces, including the Navy, were drawn down,” he said. “The trend was down in every

weapons category — bombers, ships, tactical aircraft — and in troops too. “The Soviet Union, on the other hand, has conducted a remarkable build-up of forces in the last decade.” In his view, the stationing of a Soviet ground division and the improvement of Soviet air assets in “Japan’s northern territories” increased the threat to Japan. “The Soviets’ powerful Pacific Fleet, with naval infantry, the growing bomber fleet — all based in the area — are clear indications of Soviet understanding of the importance of this area. “We expect steady Soviet build-up and modernisation of its Far East military forces to continue.” North Korea was. continuing to expand its offensive military capabilities “well beyond any reasonable assessment of its defensive

requirements,” Admiral Long said. North Korea’s “well exercised military machine which is increasingly less dependent on Soviet or Chinese support poses a constant threat to the Republic of Korea”. In South-East Asia, he said, Vietnam “maintains the largest force in the region, with more than a million men under arms, and contributes to regional instability through its continued aggression in Kampuchea and Laos.” It was likely that Vietnam would remain the “predominant military power” in South-East Asia and that its aggression in Kampuchea would continue in order to consolidate its domination over what was once Indo-China. “Thailand is particularly vulnerable to the potential threat posed by Vietnamese forces lalong its border with Kampuchea,” Admiral Long said.