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REF ID:A39407 

THE WASHINGTON POST 

Sunday, 1uly 26, 1953 

• 

5B 

Matter of Faet 

Air Vulnerability Shifts Grimly 

By Joseph A.lsop than the B-36, with better speed, altitude and 

other qualities. FAIRLY HARD EVIDENCE is now available· As the TU-4 can be ~quated with our B-5Q. 

that the Soviet air force has started series and as B-36s and B-50s make up the bulk bf our ...i- t b b b Strategic Air Force, it can be seen that the production of a six-en5 .u•e ur o-prop om er Soviets are beginning to be serious competitors 

with a round•trip range of approximately 5000 in this vital form of air power. · miles. 

ti i · kn th t th · t t AS TO THE SECOND of the foregoing items, In addi on, t is own a e unpor an its significance can be equally unpleasant. To 

group of aviation factories in the neighborhood all intents and purposes, the United States has 

of Moscow, which formerly produced the no air defense, to guard against the growing 

MICH5, have now been converted to produc· power of Soviet strategic air. As has just1>een 

tlon of a new Soviet fighter. The evidence revealed in this space, our air defenders are 

not expected to destroy more than one-tenth strongly suggests that this new ~rplane which of 1 percent of the attackers, in the event of 

is now in mass production, is a night and all· an air-atomic attack launched by night. 

weather fighter for the use of the Soviet Air By way of contrast, the Soviet air defense 

Defense Command. Is massive and well developed, having only U what is important were always il!t!WS, both ·one weakness. It now. depends upon the MIG·l5, 

the foregoing small, dry paragrajhs would which is a day fighter, blind by night. It is 

rate ·eight-column headlines in American news· because of this dependence of the MIG·15 that 

papers. They have, at any rate, a rather inti· the Soviet air defense is thought to be penemate meaninr for every citizen of the United tral;lle by our obsolescent B·36s and B·50s, Our 

States. air planners admit the B·36s and B·50s •lll 

As to Paragraph 1 above, a debate has been become wholly obsolete when the Soviets can 

going on ever since 1951, when the prototype produce a good night fighter in quantity. of the new Soviet 'strategic bomber was ob- Concerning the Soviet night fighter, there 

served at the Moscow. air show. The question has again been controversy. The argument was 

was whether Type 31, as this single plane was brought to a head last summer, when a Navy named, presaged or did hot presage a Soviet patrol plane was intercepted in solid soup over · effort to turn out an aircraft comparable to the Black Sea and chased, still through solid 

our B-36. soup, all the way to Cyprus. Only a night . Most intelligence experts forecast that such fighter ·could have accomplished this. '· 

a plane would be in quantity production this The Air Force was still reluctant to face the 

year, after the usual interval for testing and facts, but an inter-service agreement was 

improving the prototype. But the Pentagon, reached, nonetheless, that Soviet night fighter with its customary reckless optimism about production was on the way. 

soviet deficiencies, !llaintained this forecast THE CONVERSION f ~i.- M f to i 

was quite groundless. o """' oscow ac r es obviously provides the missing piece in this 

IT IS NOW ALMOST CERTAIN that the particular puzzle. Analysts wh,o are not warped forecast bas come· true. The new Soviet stra- by service special interests give the odds at 

tegic bomber is known to exist. There is every approximately 4. to 1 that the conversion is bereason to believe, in addition, that it is being ing made to produce the new night fighter. produced in quantity. · The· capacity of the Moscow air complex Is 

The meaning of these particular facts is very large. Thus it is entirely conceivable that 

bleakly simple, The new bomber has approxi· the 3000 to 4000 MIG·15s which now constitute 

mately the range and weight-carrying charac· the Soviet home defense force will be replaced teristics Of the American B-36, which ls the with the new night and all-weather fighter, backbone of our own strategic air arm. Bence with its alr·borne tracking radar, within two 

it overcomes the main weakness that the Soviet rears or a little more. 

strategie air has suffered from to date. Sum up these facts. On· the one hand, the 

As more and more units are equipped with vulnerability of this country is again increasthe new bomber, the Soviets will cease to be ing, by another quantum jump. On the other 

dependent on the TU-4, which can only reach hand, the vulnerability of the Soviet Union is 

American targets on one-way, sacrifice missions. again being lessened; the deterrent value of 

Every American target will be within round· our Strategic Air Command is being reduced· 

trip range of the Soviet advanced bases in and thus this ktnd of protection is also weak: 

Kamchatka and on the Arctic fringe. In addi· ening. These are trends about which no sane 

tion, the new bomber is a more modern aircraft American can be complacent. 

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