INTERIM ARMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26197, 6 July 1946, Page 8

INTERIM ARMY

WORK OF RADAR UNIT CARE OF VALUABLE EQUIPMENT New Zealand’s interim army will have to maintain £16,000,000 worth of radar equipment. The army has nearly 100 radar sets throughout the Dominion, and it will require 50 technicians, in addition to numerous operators, to keep them in good working condition. Some of the recruits of the interim army will be trained as technicians, because outside of the services there is little opportunity for wireless men to gain a knowledge of radar. By the time these recruits have completed their army course they will be as up-to-date as radio experts can be in New Zealand. They will not only have a knowledge of all the latest types of test instruments and of radar itself, but also of the latest developments in television. Radar, in common with television, uses the cathode ray tube and is in the van of modern trends in the science of radio. The Army School at Trentham has one of the most completely equipped electrical laboratories in the Dominion. It has instruments for measuring voltages from minute fractions to currents in thousands of volts. It has every conceivable measuring device and tool for repairing equipment. In addition to the electrical laboratory, Trentham has a most comprehensive range of workships. From the blacksmith’s to the finest instrument repair section there is all the machinery to make anything required, and it is a craftsman’s paradise. Most of the army’s radar sets came from England, and are of two types. Some are used for close defence in conjunction with coastal guns, guiding them on to their targets with an extremely high degree of accuracy. Other types of radar are used to give early warning of enemy approach by sea or air. Consequently, New Zealand's future army will not need to be spread so thinly through the country, for it will be able to concentrate in strong, mobile units capable of travelling to any point threatened. As New Zealand has not the population to guard every yard of its long coastline, radar is partly the answer to the Dominion’s problem of defence.