409 



the center of gravity. The bear also senses that if he is checked 

 on land by alliances of independent states, the use of the ocean 

 allows him to get behind his prey. Thus the Russian fleet has ac- 

 complished what the Red Army can not do, it has turned the NATO 

 flank in the Mediterranean. The bear must surely now perceive 

 that the Indian Ocean offers equally bright prospects. Conversely, 

 a modern maritime stragegy widens the area of maneuver for the 

 United States. Where land intervention in the Eurasian land mass 

 is contemplated, gains and costs must be weighed. A maritime 

 strategy will permit its possessor to intervene at a time and place 

 of his choosing and to define the area of conflict in the most 

 favorable terms " 



Secretary of Defense, MelvinR. Laird, is testifying before the Senate 

 Foreign Relations Committee on the Non-Proliferation Treaty affecting nuclear 

 weapons, reported that the Soviet Union is pursuing a crash program to build a 

 fleet of ballistic missile submarines comparable to the U.S. Polaris submarine 

 fleet. This could bring the Soviets to an equal status with the United States in 

 missile firing submarines by about 1973-1974. 



The U. S. Navy's most urgent problem is the development of its mastery 

 of the oceans depth, so that it can at all times detect, locate, tract, identify, and 

 if necessary, destroy this primary strategic threat. Fornner Defense Secretary, 

 Clark M. Clifford, in the outgoing administration's final defense budget reported 

 that the Russians had surpassed American intelligence estimates by moving from 

 250 ICBM's in mid-1966 to 900 by last September. They have now drawn about 

 even with the American land based ICBM force at around 1, 000. He also re- 

 ported that the Russians had only about 45 Polaris type missiles compared to the 

 656 accounted for by U. S. Navy fleet of 41 feet ballistic missile submarines 

 (each carries 16 missiles). Nevertheless, the Soviet submarine threat continues 

 to grow and Mr. Clifford reported that this fact had led the Defense Department 

 to a number of moves in the anti-submarine warfare field. For instance, last 

 year's plan to cut back anti-submarine aircraft carriers from six to five has been 

 scrapped, as was a plan to decrease the number of anti-submarine patrol aircraft. 



More land-based Lockheed P-3C Orion patrol aircraft will be bought, 

 and a new carrier-based ASW plane will also be procured. A team composed of 

 Lockheed and LTV- Aerospace is presently competing against General Dynamics 

 Corp . to be the procurement source for this new airplane presently designated 

 VSX. It is anticipated that one of these companies will be selected as a procure- 

 ment source by March 31st. Furthermore, Secretary MacNamara's old plan to 

 linnit to 69 the number of nuclear powered attack submarines to be used in combat- 

 ing the Soviet submarines has also been scrapped. Plans are being made to buy 

 a number of new types of faster and quieter nuclear-powered submarines, the 

 first three of which are proposed in the new fiscal 1970 defense budget. We 

 reported on these new submarine types in the previous issue of this report. 



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