MIMIC WARFARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20867, 8 May 1931, Page 16

MIMIC WARFARE.

'Again this year the Royal Air Force will engage iu mimic war, devised to test the home defence system. For a number of days and nights in July the tightens and bombers of the R.A.F. squadrons, divided into opposing forces, will dispute again the age-old battle of ilefenco and attack in au effort to get further data about the many problems , of efficiently defending Britain from possible air raids, and to exerciso machines and .men in war-like operations. Last year tho opposing forces, fighting for mythical lands entitled / Red Colony and Blue Colony, worked out campaigns which threw considerable light on air tactics that might bo necessary, in certain circumstances, in some parts of the Empire. /Incidentally, the 250 aeroplanes employed during the hours of the " war " demonstrated beyond dispute the trustworthiness of British aeroplanes and engines. They flew an aggregate of 2908 hours, much of it by night, and sometimes in conditions of poor visibility during the day, covering a distance equivalent to more than twelve times round the equator. Yet not a single serious incident marred the " war." Not a machine was .seriously damaged or a man hurt'. This yedr, the exercises, reverting to the practice of earlier years, are likely to bo concerned more directly with the actual defence system of London. Air . and ground defences will be tested, and not only the defending fighters, but the network of listening and observation posts, searchlights, and, perhaps, guns, are likely to be called into action. The speed of present-day aeroplanes means that raiders which cross the English coast can be over London in -less than twenty-five minutes, oven in staill air. The magnitude of the job before the defenders may he gauged from the brevity of this interval. in which all the organisation of defence must be thrown into gear. The task involves a most highly efficient system of intelligence and requires defending fighters whicty can reach operational heights of, perhaps, 20,000 ft. or more above the ground in a very few minutes after leaving the aerodrome.