The Navy Vol_22_Part2 1960 - Navy League of Australia

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MELBOURNE, C.I.PtO-ORIENTWORLD-WIDE ROUTESvia Suez ... via the Far Cast... via America . . ,via Panama and Holiday Crwltet In the PacMc.LINESWith aPAO - Orient Lines'ship as your home... whetheron a refreshing short sea holidayor on your choice of thewonderful, world-wideroutesof discovery and delight withwhich these two great passengerLines girdle the earth(linking 5 continents) . . .you'll find every modernamenity at your disposal andthat your every taste and preferencehas been thoughtfullyanticipated throughout eachlong eventful day at sea. .THE NAVYLatest Developments inSoviet Naval PolicyOVIET Naval Policy hasS changed sharply once again,the fifth time in the history ofthe 42-year-old Soviet Navy,h'or some years Western observershave noted that workon the hulls of several of the"Svcrdlov" class cruisers hadstopped, and it was obviousfrom many Soviet statementsthat they did not know to whatuse to put these new cruisersexcept for training and forcarrying V.I.P.s abroad. Nobody.however, expected suchc o in plete condemnation asKhrushchev pronounced duringhis trip to the rnitedStates when he remarked casuallythat 90 per cent, of Russia's cruisers would be scrappedin the near future. This wouldleave her with about three orfour, probably one for eachof her main fleets ill the Baltic.Arctic. Black Sea and Pacific:and these survivors are to heemployed for training andprobably as peacetime flagshipsonly.Among vessels to be builtunder the "new look" programme.submarines are toreceive top priority, followedby minesweepers, motor torpedoboats, patrol craft andlarge destroyers. This trendwas confirmed in Khrushchev'sspeech to the Soviet Assemblyin January. 1960. As the Russianshad been building from50 to 80 submarines a year, besidesmany cruisers and numerousother warships, tankers andmiscellaneous merchant vessels,this concentration on submarinesand small craft will nodoubt enable them to launchJuly, i960By J. MEISTEReven more submarines andsome of them nuclear-powered.The Western navies have alsocollie to the conclusion thatbattleships, and perhaps evencruisers, have no raison d'etreiu the nuclear age: although itis hard to see why the aircraftcarrier, for instance, shouldhave a better chance of survivingan attack by missiles withnuclear warheads. At the sametime neither the British northe U.S. Navies would takesuch radical steps as the Russiansanil scrap cruisers onlya few years old. In peacetimeand in limited war, cruisersmay still play an importantrole, and it is surprising thatHie Russians do not seem tocontemplate converting some oftheir cruisers into missilelaunchingvessels or light aircraftcarriers. They intend torearm their modern destroyerswith missiles as soon as possible(most of these vesselscarry at present conventionalarmament which is weak andobsolescent); but a cruiser hullcan obviously carry more , andheavier missiles than a destroyerwhile offering at leastsome armoured protection, bettersea-going qualities, andwider cruising range. For theseand many other reasons theSoviet decision seems revolutionary— putting all its eggsinto one basket so far as theSoviet Navy is concerned. Ina few years the Russian Navywill resemble that of Oermanyin 1944-45—with many submarinesand some coastal forces,but no surface ships whichmight tie up superior N.A.T.O.forces.The disappearance of theSoviet cruisers will ease thetask of the N.A.T.O. Navieswhich may now concentrate almostexclusively on Sovietsubmarines and mines, and oncountering amphibious assaultsover somewhat short distances.For the time being, however,the said cruisers are still quiteactive and towards the end of1959 the ADMIRAL SBN.JA-VIN. belonging to the PacificFleet, paid a visit to Indonesia.This beautiful vessel and herescort of two heavy destroyerscertainly did more to impressthe Indonesians than a wholeflotilla of Soviet submarines. Itis tempting to conclude that ifthe Russians really scrap theircruisers and concentrate evenmore on submarines than theyhave done so far, they contemplateeither total war or totalpeace, but certainly not limitedwar. For the latter their Navy,composed exclusively of submarinesand coastal forces,would be quite unsuited,especially if the war were to hewaged far from the Russiancoasts. As for total peace, tobuild a submarine fleet of 720craft, nearly 500 of them alreadyin existence, hardlyseems to be the best solution.Unfortunately, there are otherindications, too. that the SovietNavy is trying to secure newbases abroad, both in the Mediterraneanand in the PersianGulf. and to develop its influencein the Pacific. Hand inhand with this goes a worldwideincrease in underwaterresearch work and spying incoastal areas.