ATOMIC WEAPONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1946, Page 3

ATOMIC WEAPONS

EFFECT ON FUTURE AIR

FORCES | SUBMERSIBLE_CARRIERS ? (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 30. 'j Discussing the effects of atomic j power and weapons on the design I and size of future armed forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park predicted that the anwser to the Navy s problem would be a submersible air- | craft carrier. _ j “Atomic power can either be a boon or an absolute curse to civilisation, depending on how we use it,” said Sir Keith Park. “I consider we ave sufficiently sensible to turn it into a . boon, and not let it wreck civilisation. “First, it is going to revolutionise all forms of transportation. One of the biggest factors in building up British Commonwealth in the been improvements in transportation, such as the introduction of the steam ship. Anything that greatly facilitates transportation is going to help the Empire and Empire unity, so that is one good thing about the development of atomic energy. Effect on Manufacturing.

“The next thing is that it is going to make enormous progress possible in our manufacturing industries. Mass production as we know it to-day will be completely out of date in 10 or 15 years, so that some of the backward countries like India will be able really to get into the civilised world. ‘‘Atomic energy is going to be the strongest deterrent to 'aggressive war. I don’t say it is going to stopywar, but it is going to make it less frequent. If war does come, instead of lasting six years it will last about six days. Such a war might be noisy and. devastating, but it must be admitted that a quick’decision would be an advantage. There would not be six years of turning the world upside-down socially and economically.” Sir Keith Park said he believed atomic energy would affect all warfare in the future. It would be no good at all to tie up manpower and material in having armies and navies unless there were air power to do the job. Perhaps a tiny air force might be all that was necessary, but it would need to be equipped with magnificent scientific weapons. The atom bomb had put a very high premium on air power. Atomic Missiles.

The next step would be to develop atomic missiles, guided by electronics or radar. Even then, though the missile was directed from perhaps 1000 miles away, it would never be as accurate as directing it from an aircraft above the target. Therefore, even if guided missiles were developed, there would still have to be trained aircrews to direct the weapon to the chosen spot.

“My one guess,” he continued, “is that the navy will be forced to take to the air or to submerge. The battleship as we know it now is so vulnerable, with all its brainpower exposed above the Water, that it will either have to take to the air or go deep. The future capital ship, therefore, may be a submersible aircraft carrier. It would come up to release its aircraft, .and then submerge again. Were such a proposition put to -sailors, he said, they would probably have a