Strike ‘shows high risks’

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 10

Strike ‘shows high risks’

■ ■ By . ■ ■ 2

CHRISTOPHER HANSON

of Reuters (through NZPA) , Washington A'deadly missile strike on a United States warship near the Iran-Iraq war zone shows American efforts to protect shipping there carry high risks and may be futile, military and Middle East experts say. “This tragic incident shows the super-Powers cannot be cavalier in inserting themselves,” Frederick Axelgard, an expert on the war at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (C. 5.1.5. said in an interview. American sailors died when a missile fired by an Iraqi jet hit the United States U.S.S. Stark. The attack, which Defence Department officials say appears to have been an accident, was the first on a United States warship in the sixyear Iran-Iraq war in which America is offi-

cially neutral. ' Ships appear on ’ pilots’ < radar screens as blobs of light and lt is difficult to distinguish friend from foe, warship from oil tanker, the officials told, reporters.' i President Ronald; Reagan'' said yesterday: “We remain deeply committed to supporting the self-defence" of our friends in the Gulf/and to ensuring the free flow of oil.”' Ab. i- . . But critics doubted American deeds could match his words. “Those United States Navy ships are like sitting ducks,” said a retired Admiral, Gene Laßoque, director of the private Centre for Defence Information, which often criticises the Defence Department ; He said a serious effort to protect shipping in the region would require between 30 and 40. United States ships, but that such a build-up could easily backfire, providing more targets for missile strikes, either accidental or inten-

tionaL ' r Key problems, he said, would be to identify hostile planes in time to attack them and to deflect deadly sea-skimming cruise missiles such as the Exocet, which played havoc with the British fleet during the 1982 Falklands war with Argentina. '' •>, Powerful, cruise mis- - sites had made surface < ships desperately vulnerable, he said. A i? The Stark had tracked' * the Iraqi plane on radar and issued a •. warning against attack, identifying itself as a United States warship, according to Defence Department officials. But once the missile was fired, from a range of some 18km, the crew had only about a minute to react before impbet The Stark failed to use its weapons against the Exocet according to officials. The ship’s defensive systems — including antimissile missiles, “chaff’ decoys, and a rapid-fire

computerised, radar-oper-ated “Phalanx” 30mm gun designed for use against -skimming missile BB should have worked. / Admiral Laßoque disagreed, telling Reuters: “There are no good defences against the cruise missile.” . < Mr Axelgard said the six-ship United States, force, was in the area to symbolise American resolve, hot to provide a militarily effective shield for commercial , shipping. He compared the ships to a United States Marine peace-keeping force that was withdrawn from Lebanon after 240 American troops died in a suicide bomb attack in 1982. In both cases, he argued, military forces were misused for “a vague political mission.” Admiral Laßoque, agreeing with Mr Axelgard, said: "To go into harm’s way simply to show the flag is foolish.” The United States tentatively has agreed to elevate its naval profile in the area by flying Ameri-

ran flags on 11 Kuwaiti tankers and protecting ■ them from Iranian attacks.;; in the Gulf. . Iran' has been attacking Kuwaiti shipping, accusing that moderate Gulf State of backing Iraq in the .. war,.? ./-AcAlthough the? United States flagging deal has not yet been./completed,. Kuwait earlier agreed to lease three tankers from the Soviet Union to carry its oil, a move that defence officials fear will increase Soviet influence in the region. A C.S.I.S. Iran-Iraq expert, Ms Shireen Hunter, said the Soviet Union had been shrewd in its Gulf dealings, increasing its influence without making itself too vulnerable. It maintained no regular naval force in the area, although one Soviet destroyer or frigate regularly entered the Gulf to escort Soviet shipping. ' “I believe the Russians will be. very careful,” Ms Hunter said. “They don’t want to get themselves into deep trouble.”