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Navy Develops Torpedo Mine To Hunt Down Submarines
(John W. Finney in The New York Times, 15 April 1974)
The Navy has developed a novel torpedo mine that it hopes will help win any battle for control of the Atlantic by sealing off the Russian submarine fleet at the Norwegian Sea.
To naval officers who have been following the secret development program, the new mine represents one of the most radical advances in the 400-year history of mine warfare. In contrast to the present stationary mines, which go into action only if a ship or submarine passes in the immediate vicinity, the new mine would send out a torpedo to seek out and destroy its submarine target.
As seen by top naval officers, the new mine should lead to a revival of mine warfare, which has become something of an ignored stepchild in naval planning. They also believe it will prove to be a significant adjunct in maintaining control over the Atlantic sea lanes in the event war breaks out in Europe.
The principal threat to Allied control over the Atlantic sea lanes is not so much Soviet surface ships as it is 170 submarines attached to the Soviet Northern Fleet based in Murmansk. With present forces, naval planners believe it would take destroyers, aircraft and attack submarines at least 60 to 90 days to neutralize the Soviet submarine threat, during which time they anticipate substantial losses of Allied shipping.
The military value of the new mine, as explained by highly placed naval planners, would be to keep some of the Soviet submarines blocked in the Norwegian Sea, north of the principal At
lantic sea lanes, or to destroy Soviet submarines as they attempt to return to their home base for resupply.
Navy plans call for using the mines to set up barriers across the two principal access routes for Soviet submarines in the Northern Fleet into the Atlantic. One mine field would be laid in the Denmark Straits between Greenland and Iceland; the other would be in the broader stretch of water between Iceland and the British Isles.
While the present planning emphasis is on the Atlantic, naval planners believe the new mine could also have an application in closing off other "choke points” for Soviet submarines attempting to reach the open seas, such as in the Black Sea or lanes leading out of Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk in the Pacific. The latter is a major Soviet submarine base on Kamchatka Peninsula.
The new mine is called Captor—a navy contraction for encapsulated torpedo. Basically, it is a torpedo enclosed in a minelike device moored to the ocean bottom.
The Captor is so instrumented that it ignores passing surface ships. But when it picks up the acoustic signal of a submarine it releases the torpedo, which then homes in on the acoustic signals of its target.
Unlike most present mines, the Cap- tor mine can be laid in deep waters. In an unusual case of interservice cooperation, Navy plans call for substantial numbers of the mines to be laid by B-52 strategic bombers furnished by the Air Force.
After more than eight years of development at a cost approaching $ 100-million, the Captor mine is nearing production. It is scheduled to undergo operational testing this summer and be
ready for operational use by mid-1975.
The principal contractor on the Cap- tor program is the Goodyear Aerospace Corporation of Akron, Ohio. The total cost of the program is still classified on the ground that its disclosure would give some idea on how many mines the Navy plans to produce.
Reconstructed British Frigate To Be Part Of Bicentennial
(Lou Torok in The Christian Science Monitor, 6 May 1974, reprinted by permission. © 1974, The Christian Science Publishing Society)
The owner and curator of one of America’s most unusual floating museums achieved that distinction by rebuilding a replica of a Revolutionary War frigate.
John Millar embarked on the project of reconstructing HMS Rose, originally built at the British Royal Naval Shipyard at Hull, Yorkshire, in 1756.
Restored HMS Rose off Newport, R.l.
120 U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, July 1974
The original Rose had a busy history as a fighting vessel and eventually became the flagship of a British naval squadron based in Newport, R.I., under the command of Commodore Sir James Wallace.
HMS Rose’s tactical fighting ability leaves no doubt. She was rated as a 20-24 gun frigate although she normally carried up to 32 carriage guns and 10 swivel guns.
Her fighting days came to a strategic end in 1779 at Savannah, Ga. She was ordered deliberately sunk to block the channel at the mouth of the harbor. Because of this action, the French fleet was kept from bringing aid to the isolated Continental Army. Savannah thus remained in British hands until much later in the Revolutionary War.
Commercial dredging operations in Savannah harbor over subsequent generations have brought up bits and pieces of the Rose. Many of these pieces found their way into John Millar’s reconstructed vessel.
The hull of the reconstructed Rose was launched in March, 1970, at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The ship had been carefully rebuilt by master shipbuilders at a cost of nearly a half-million dollars. Most of these funds were personally raised by Mr. Millar, who strongly believed in the historic value of his project.
Mr. Millar enjoys taking visitors on a tour of the replica of the Rose afloat in Newport harbor. To answer the most frequently asked question, he replies,
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"Yes, HMS Rose still goes out sailing.” The vessel has been used to film educational documentary films. It was used in filming "The Man Without a Country” starring Cliff Robertson and another film, "John Paul Jones,” with Kim Branbery. It is often booked to film television commercials that call for an authentic Revolutionary War frigate.
The reconstructed Rose has been endorsed officially as a special project of the Rhode Island Bicentennial project.
The armament on the gun deck consists of 30 cannons, mostly nine- pounders, mounted and ready for attack.
Mounted on the bow of the vessel is a figurehead of a crowned lion standing about 9 feet tall. It was handcarved by a New England woodcarver.
In the great cabin, customarily used as the captain’s office, uniformed mannequins are dressed in British Revolutionary War costumes.
And a visitor cannot help noticing the cramped quarters and low ceilings.
History buffs traveling to Newport visit the Rose dockside on the waterfront. In addition to guided tours of the vessel, meetings and receptions are sometimes scheduled aboard the ship while moored to the dock. To add color to the programs, authentic sea chanteys and Colo
nial music are sung by local singers. The sponsoring organization, Seaport 76, a nonprofit historical group, also books lectures in Colonial and Revolutionary War history aboard the ship.
In addition to finishing the construction of the Rose as a floating museum, the group plans to rebuild a replica of the Continental sloop Providence, the first command ship of John Paul Jones. The group further plans to build as many /48 -scale models of Continental Navy vessels as possible within limits of time and their budget.
Harpoon Scores Bull’s-Eyes In Anti-Vessel Tests
(McDonnell Douglas News Release,
25 April 1974)
The Harpoon anti-ship missile under development for the Navy scored two straight bull’s-eye hits at Point Mugu, Calif, recently in the first two firings of the program’s final development phase.
Both Harpoons were launched over the Pacific Missile Range by a Naval Missile Center P-3 Orion aircraft. The first hit its target, a decommissioned destroyer, from dead astern on 31 March. Although the Harpoon carried
no warhead, the target ship was sufficiently damaged that repairs could not be made and the ship sank.
On 11 April, the second Harpoon in the current test series slammed into a moving patrol boat target after a launch from low altitude.
Previously, the Harpoon had scored seven hits against targets to pass the engineering design phase of the program. The recent launches were the first to use a production-type missile designed for producibility and cost reduction. Pilot production go-ahead on the program is scheduled for mid-1974.
The Harpoon missile has also been launched in tests from destroyers, hydrofoil patrol boats and from underwater submarine torpedo tubes.
In the air launch configuration, Harpoon is 151 inches long and weighs 1,150 pounds. The booster adds 29 inches and 300 pounds.
The missile is compatible with existing Navy ship-based ASROC (antisubmarine rocket) launchers, and Tartar and Terrier guided missile launchers, and as from P-3, S-3, A-6 and A-7 aircraft.
McDonnell Douglas is also developing a canister launcher to deploy the Harpoon on patrol hydrofoil craft and other surface vessels not equipped with missile launchers. Successful tests of this launcher have been made from USS High Point, (PCH-i).
New Submarine Missile Is Nearly Operational
(Dave Polis in The San Diego Union.
11 April 1974)
The Naval Undersea Center’s missile-in-a-can program, which will allow the Navy to adapt its new Harpoon antiship missile to submarines, "is next to operational,” an NUC spokesman said yesterday.
Arthur Sevy, one of the men involved with the original concept and development of the program, said canister launching tests are being conducted off San Clemente Island.
The Navy’s all-weather Harpoon missile is packaged in a canister designed to be fired from a standard torpedo tube, which measures 21 inches in diameter and 21 feet in length.
Sevy said NUC engineers want to be
Kaman’s SH-2F: LAMPS, Logistics and Life Saving
Search and rescue. Medical evacuation. Vertical replenishment. Courier. Mail carrier. Personnel transfer-a “Holy Helo” airlifting the chaplain to Sunday services on small ships and shuttling unit commanders to tactical briefings on the Flag.
Kaman's SH-2F performs all of these services for the fleet and many more. In its spare time. Its primary roles are antisubmarine warfare and antiship missile defense. And, pound for pound, it’s the most potent ASW and surveillance aircraft in the business. Flying from destroyer decks, it has provided naval gunfire support, electronic and visual reconnaissance and served as target for radar calibration and fleet training. New missions have been suggested, such as amphibious assault support and missile launching and control.
Multi-purpose, multi-capable, the SH-2F is an all-weather, day-night, overwater and over-the-horizon extension of the fleet's power. That's why it has been called "the most versatile new weapons system added to the destroyer force in the past ten years”.
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certain of the canister’s behavior in rough seas, adding they have the projectile’s performance in calm seas "down pat.”
The Harpoon missile, being developed by McDonnell-Douglas of St. Louis, is scheduled to be operational next year. The Navy describes it as having "extended stand-off ranges” and over-the- horizon range.
The missile development program has carried a top priority for several years as the Navy has attempted to overcome Russia’s leadership in small and medium sized patrol craft with ship-killing abilities.
U. S. Armed Forces Reducing Foreign Oil Use
(Dana Adams Schmidt in The Christian Science Monitor, 10 May 1974)
The armed forces of the United States are sharply and progressively reducing their dependence on foreign, especially Arab, oil, Pentagon sources say.
The significance of this development is underscored by reports from the Middle East that the Kurdish forces of Mulla Mustafa ..1-Barzani, and Palestinian guerrilla extremists in unrelated but parallel campaigns are threatening Arab oil installations.
Facing such hazards, U. S. armed forces—which, before the October war in the Middle East, depended on overseas sources for half its oil—have reduced this dependence to a third.
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The reduction in the armed forces dependence on foreign oil sources has necessarily increased the burden on domestic supplies, the officials say. This is one of the reasons why the Pentagon has scrupulously maintained most economy measures, even after the ending of
the Arab oil embargo early this year.
During the six months ending in April, Pentagon officials say, the armed forces, including all bases and the Pentagon itself, have reduced total energy consumption by 26 per cent, thereby exceeding a 7 per cent federal government goal.
The officials say this has been achieved mainly by cutting down movement of the armed forces, aircraft, ships, and vehicles, in exercises. Not only has the scope of exercises been restricted but aircraft, ships, and vehicles have been required to hold down their speeds to the most economical levels when not actually engaged in field exercises.
But the officials say the restrictions have begun to cut into the readiness of the armed forces. For that reason they intend to relax training limitations during the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Jet fuel is the largest and most critical component in the armed forces consumption of about 600,000 barrels of oil per day. During the six months from July to December 1973, which spans the period of the Middle East war, they say the Navy suffered a 40 per cent shortage in "contract coverage” for jet fuels while the Air Force suffered a 17 per cent shortage.
Use Of Freehand V/STOL Expected For Soviet Carriers
(Soldat und Technik, January 1974)
Since the launching of the first Soviet aircraft carrier in the Black Sea and the construction of further units, more and more helicopter carrier flight tests of aircraft with V/STOL capability are being observed. This test aircraft, which was shown by the Soviets for the first time in May 1967 at the air show in Domo-
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dedovo, received the NATO designation of Freehand. The employment of this type of aircraft from Soviet aircraft and helicopter carriers is expected in the near future.
Indian Navy Likely To Buy Yakovlev V/STOL
(Air Enthusiast International, February 1974)
According to the Hindustan Times, the Indian Navy is likely to buy the new Yakovlev V/STOL single-seat strike and reconnaissance fighter that is in production for the Soviet naval air arm. The choice is in place of the Maritime Harrier which, the report said, proved difficult to acquire; the Soviet type is also said to be cheaper.
Mystery Of The Northland— Norwegian Fjords Bugged?
(Sea Technology, April 1974)
It was about a year ago that the fascinating story about a foreign submarine trapped in a Norwegian fjord broke in the world’s press. A search lasting days produced little except that it was a Warsaw Pact Whisky-c\zss submarine, diesel-electric powered.
Now a sequel to that story has surfaced in Norway, so sensitive that every effort is being made to downplay it. It has been reported that a 600 pound sonar transponder-radio communications package was found in the area visited by the submarine. Such a transponder would reply to a coded acoustic interrogation and lead the interrogating submarine to it. At 600 pounds, the package is many times the size needed for a transponder alone.
Speculation has it that the apparatus is equipped with a retractable buoy carrying an antenna. That way, under cover of darkness, it could unreel the buoy and deploy the antenna to receive and/or transmit messages to and from magnetic tape, then retract the buoy. When visited by a submarine the messages would be picked off the tape and others recorded for later transmission. The packages could also be used for gathering electronic and acoustic intelligence direct or by agent relay.
Notebook 125
It appears that about ten of these packages have been found in the numerous fjords all the way from the North Cape south to below Bergen. If true, this would indicate a concerted Soviet effort to offset the vulnerability of its huge naval base complex in the Murmansk area, Russia’s only ice-free, unrestricted access to the North Atlantic. It is virtually certain that, in the event of all-out hostilities, many nuclear weapons would be targeted to Murmansk. In that event, logic would dictate use of the fjords as safe havens for submarines.
Lending credence to the story is intelligence evidence that there are heavy buildups of Soviet forces along the common Norwegian-Russian border in the Nikel area, a place so remote from Norway’s main bases of supply that it is logistically difficult to maintain a semblance of a defense there.
Politically, the situation is ticklish. Norway, a NATO member, is obliged to teveal the information to its allies. The
country has accepted much material help from the U. S. and other NATO members to enhance its antisubmarine warfare effort. Nevertheless, it is natural that some apprehension be felt about these actions by a powerful neighbor.
Planned Diego Garcia Base Seen As Threat By India
(William Drummond in Los Angeles Tims, 7 April 1974)
Day in and day out, the biggest naval power in the Indian Ocean is, surprisingly, India.
However, if the Pentagon succeeds in convincing Congress to supply funds for setting up a naval installation on the tiny Indian Ocean Island of Diego Garcia, the United States will again gain a permanent foothold in this region and its naval strength would grow.
When the Suez Canal reopens, the Soviet Union is expected to boost its presence in the Indian Ocean by sending in vessels from the Black Sea.
From New Delhi’s vantage point, successive rounds of naval buildups by the Russians and Americans would be bound to overshadow India’s predominance in her own mare nostrum—our sea.
Fears that Indian prestige would be buried under a great power naval race lie behind New Delhi’s outcry against the Pentagon’s plan to spend $29 million expanding harbor and airstrip facilities on the British-owned island, 1,400 miles southwest of the southern tip of the Hindustan Peninsula.
India and a number of other littoral states have demanded that the entire Indian Ocean be declared a "zone of peace”—thus making it off limits to foreign warships.
To win support for its view, India has launched a diplomatic offensive.
New Delhi has successfully lined up such normally pro-American countries as Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Malaysia in the chorus of protests against a Diego Garcia naval facility.
Under the proposed ban on foreign
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COMMAND OF THE SEA
The History and Strategy of Maritime Empires
by Clark G. Reynolds
“A major contribution to the understanding of naval history.” - ROBERT G. ALBION
“An impressive perspective of maritime rivalry that clarifies the past and illuminates the present.”
-RAYMOND G. O’CONNOR,* Chairman, Dept, of History, University of Miami
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men-of-war, India with her aircraft car- rier Vikrant, two cruisers, six destroyers, 21 frigates and four patrol submarines would by default assume a permanent role as the leading naval power in the South Asian region.
While the United States’ strategic case for the Diego Garcia facility is well known—to check Russian naval expansion around the oil-rich Persian Gulf- little attention has been paid to India’s remarkable status as leader of world opposition to the plan.
In 1963 when the 7th Fleet was reported cruising the Indian Ocean, New Delhi’s reaction was mild.
India was then recovering from wounds inflicted by China in the 1962 border war and was receiving American military assistance.
Today, India is one of the chief backers of the 1971 U.N. General Assembly resolution declaring the Indian Ocean a zone of peace.
The motion passed 60 to 0, with 55 abstentions. The United States, Britain, France and even the Soviet Union abstained.
Editor’s Note: India announced 18 May she had exploded her first nuclear device—to be used for 'peaceful purposes only.”
House Bill Would Require Nuclear-Powered Major Ships
(Space Business Daily, 30 April 1974)
All new major combatant vessels for the strike force of the Navy would be nuclear-powered under legislation (H.R. 14364) introduced in the House by Reps. Bob Wilson (D-Calif.) and Charles Bennett (D-Fla.).
The bill would also provide for maintaining "an adequate industrial base for the research, development, design, construction, operation and maintenance of such vessels.”
Ships covered by the legislation are: combatant submarines for strategic and/or tactical missions: combatant vessels intended to operate in combat in aircraft carrier task groups (i.e., aircraft carriers and the combatants which accompany them); and, those combatant vessels designed for independent combat
missions where essentially unlimited high speed endurance will be of significant military value.
The legislation specifically directs the DOD to annually fund the following minimum number of combatant vessels, "until such time as Congress determines that an adequate force level exists in any specific category”:
► Five tactical combatant submarines per year.
► Two strategic combatant submarines per year.
► One aircraft carrier every three years.
► Two major combatants to accompany aircraft carriers per year.
U. S.-Italy NATO Maneuvers Off Trieste Anger Yugoslavia
(Kingsbury Smith in Baltimore News American, 8 April 1974)
By a coincidence of fate, the United States has become involved in the latest flareup of the perennial dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia over Trieste. Yugoslavia has formally protested to
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127
Notebook
Changes in Status of Ships and Shore Establishments
the United States over American participation in joint maneuvers with the Italian navy in the Adriatic near Trieste. The Belgrade press has denounced the maneuvers as the "gravest provocation.”
Date:
4/30/74
American participation in the maneuvers is regarded in Yugoslavia as a sign of U. S. support for Italy in the boundary dispute which has once again sparked emotional tension between the two countries.
Although the date for the joint maneuvers was set months ago, long before the new dispute arose, the holding of them early in April came at a time when nationalist fever was running high between Italy and Yugoslavia.
Furthermore, while the maneuvers were billed as a NATO exercise, only the American and Italian navies participated in them.
Since joint Italo-American naval maneuvers in the northern end of the Adriatic could hardly be based on defense against any potential threat from Italy they were obviously designed as a precautionary measure against what might happen in Yugoslavia, especially after Tito, who is nearing 82 and reportedly suffered a mild stroke recently, ceases to rule.
When similar NATO exercises were held in the past they were interpreted as an effort to deter Russia from any military move in Yugoslavia, and Belgrade made no fuss about them. This time Tito’s regime chose to assail them as a threat to Yugoslavia.
It remains to be seen whether this is part of a Belgrade plan to keep the pot boiling over the boundary dispute or an excuse for backing down under the appearance of super-power pressure.
Soviets Flying Reconnaissance From West Coast Of Africa
(Soldat und Technik, February 1974)
The Soviets have recently started flying naval reconnaissance missions from the west coast of Africa. Thus, through this move the U.S.S.R. has succeeded in covering the entire Atlantic Ocean. The eastern and northern areas of the Atlantic are covered by recon efforts out of Murmansk naval base. Now the southern part will also be monitored by Blinder (Tu-95) long-range
Compiled by Commander J. B. Finkelstein, U. S. Navy 1-30 April 1974
Ships Decommissioned for Conversion:
(DLG-10) King
U. S. Navy Shore Establishments— Facilities Established:
1 April 1974 Naval Administrative Unit, Scotia, N.Y.
1 April 1974 Naval Legal Service Office, Naval Education and Training Center, Newport, R.I. (Developmental status)
1 April 1974 Human Resource Management Center London, London, England 1 April 1974 Navy Commissary Store,
Naval Education and Train ing Center, Newport, R.I. 16 April 1974 Naval Technical Training Center, Meridian, Miss.
turboprop reconnaissance aircraft out of Conakry in Guinea. U. S. naval operations in this area are relatively few in number, yet this area has become important with regard to the energy crisis in the United States, since supertankers exiting the Persian Gulf have to pass that way en route to America. The United States and the U.S.S.R. have a network of naval surveillance satellites which observe and photograph all ship movements. It has been shown, however, that additional submarines and aircraft are needed to cover areas which have poor weather or which are not flown over due to the pre-set orbital parameters. The Soviet Union has had good relations with Guinea since 1958. The former French colony declared its independence when France denied the pro-Communist regime military and economic aid. The U.S.S.R. has had several warships on station off the Guinea coast since 1970. In Washington the opinion is that the United States has, despite the new Soviet base, much better and more numerous bases in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at its disposal. However, the exact number of Soviet bases in India still remains unknown.
Facilities Modified:
1 April 1974 Change Naval Officer Training Center, Naval Base, Newport, R.I. to Naval Education and Training Center, Newport, R.I.
1 April 1974 Consolidate Recruit Training Command (Women), Orlando, Fla., into Recruit Training Command, Orlando, Fla.
Facilities Disestablished:
1 April 1974 Navy Electronics Supply Office, Great Lakes, 111.
1 April 1974 Naval Medical Research Unit No. 4, Great Lakes, 111.
1 April 1974 Fleet Training Center,
Naval Station, Long Beach, Calif.
30 April 1974 Naval Electronics System Command Activity, Boston, Mass.
Iran To Buy Two Spruance DDs
(Aviation Week, 1 April 1974)
Iran will buy two of the Navy’s new Spruance-chss destroyers for its growing fleet. The first of the 7,800-ton warships, the USS Spruance, is nearing completion at Litton Industries’ shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
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