NEW DEMANDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1942, Page 3

NEW DEMANDS

MET BY AMERICAN NAW CHANGES IN CONSTRUCTION PLANS. INFLUENCE OF AIR POWER. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, May 24. The influence of air-power upon sea-power has completely altered the United States naval programme since December 7, has hastened the adoption of an aircraft-car-rier construction programme ol very great size, and has forced the Navy to shift the emphasis from traditional dependence upon flying-boats to land-based bombers and reconnaissance planes, writes Hanson Baldwin, military and naval expert of the “New York Times.” Details of changes in the Navy’s programme are closely guarded secrets, but some ships planned and contracted for on December 7 will never be constructed. Others are being modified or converted. The cruiser programme has been increased and the present submarine construction programme calls for the building of 200 to 230 submarines, but major emphasis is placed upon carriers, which have number one priority at the expense of battleships. Battleships will not be abandoned—the new 35,000 and 45,000ton leviathans of considerable speed and great armament and gun-power will soon join the fleet—but the carrier is recognised as the most urgently needed type. Carriers of every class are being planned, built or converted from merchant hulls, tanker hulls and naval hulls. The ultimate United States Navy, with tactics modified by the influence of air power, will probably comprise a considerable number of powerful task forces. The ultimate Navy will also include considerable numbers of land-based, planes. Actually, the Navy has been using for some time past what had hitherto been considered -Army type planes. The vulnerability of the naval patrol flying-boat such as the Consolidated Catalina to enemy pursuit planes was graphically demonstrated in fighting in the Far East. Landbased planes of the Lockheed-Hudson type, long used successfully by the R.A.F. Coastal Command, are more defensible, much faster and more manoeuvrable. The Navy’s adoption-' of land-based planes is in accord with the practice of the Japanese Navy which operates ship-based, water-bas-ed and land-based planes for the aviation arm. Thus in composition, tactics and building programme the United States Navy has undergone what amounts to a virtual naval revolution since December 7.