The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-03-22
By REAR ADM. w. A. MoFFETT

By REAR ADM. w. A. MOFFETT
 WASHINGTON, March 22-One of the navy's greatest needs, if not the greatest, is additional aircraft carriers to make possible tactical employment of airplanes in large numbers at sea.
 Until recently. we had but one small aircraft carrier. the Lang ley, to carry out tactical opera tions. Now, with the Saratoga and Lexington added to the fleet, we are able to delve further into solution of naval aviation's stiffest problem, but we still are handi- capped when we compare our re- sources with those of foreign naval powers.
 Airplanes are comparatively use less at sea today without adequate set landing fields" from which to operate. It has been impossible to solve the problems of employing airpianes for war purposes without adequate carriers. The Lexington and Saratoga have made possible a broadening Of our knowledge along these lines, but we must have many more carriers to obtain the greatest benefits from seaplanes.
 Great Britain has acquired many years Of experience and much valu- able data on the tactical employ ment of planes at sea because her saas<ss ss.s.ss,s Eve sessslesG- i1asusa since. the war, all of them fast, modern vessels of fleet speed over 21 knots, whereas our Langley has a speed of only II knots.
 With the commissioning of the Glorious" soon Great Britain's air craft carrier tonnage will be boost cd to 107,550, while we have but three carriers-one of them obso- lete-with a total tonnage Of 78,700. Japan has three carriers, all capa- ble of keeping up with and operat- ing with her battle fleet.
 It is unthinkable even to consid- CT the retirement of the Lexington and Saratoga from active service because of their operation expense. Although we have had them in commission only a few months and it is difficult to ascertain their ex- act cost of operation, it is safe to say that their expense is little more than battleship of which we have 18 as compared to two carriers.
 The lessons we are learning from the operation Of planes from the decks of these carriers are be- yond the realm of valuation by the best experts today. Their incal- culable value will never be realized fully until future generations find themselves in a world revolution ized by aviation. Any expense would be justified.
 The cruiser bill, recently signed by President Coolidge, gives us one more aircraft carrier of 13,800 tons. This size carrier is the logical de- velopment in floating bases for our planes. Since we are limited on the total tonnage which can be built under the naval arms agree ment, and since it is important that we have many "sea landing fields" from which to operate, many small CT carriers should prove more valu- able than a few of the 33,000 ton size.
 Some of the most difficult prob lems facing those of us charged with the development of naval avi- tion are fast being solved. Our greatest need at the present time is additional carriers. Now that the cruiser bill has been passed, we hope that congress will author ize four additional carriers at the earliest possible moment; thus com pleting the carrier tonnage allowed under the limitation of armaments treaty and putting us on a basis of equality with other powers.