Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-28
BY CAPT. DUDLEY w. KNOX,
United States Navy. Retired.


TINE conclusion Of the very i'm
pressive maneuvers of the gal
liant Army airmen, together with
Il the similarly successful opera
tons of large naval aviation
forces off Panama earlier in the year,
have strikingly demonstrated the i'm
mense Importance which aviation is
bound to play in all future warfare.
af1oat and ashore. Naturally and in
evitably the question again arises in the
public mind whether aviation is destined
soon to supplant the older forms of
armies and navies.
So far as the latter are concerned
there Is no warrant for an affirmative
answer. The heavy freights of the
world constituting the basis of national
and international economics, must of
necessity continue to be transported in
ships very vulnerable to attack and re-
quiring the protection of various kinds
of naval vessels. Aircraft is an I'M
doubtedly serious menace both to mer-
chant ships and to men-of-war against
which protection has to be devised in
the future in addition to the older dam
gers from gunfire, torpedo and mine.
Cannot Supplant Navies.
The premature contention so widely
propagated that airplanes have strapped
navies has been largely upon the as
sumption that there can be no adequate
defense against aerial attack upon ships.
The spectacular bombing and sinking
of a number of antiquated vessels while
lying stationary and unresisting, and
with all other conditions highly favor
able to the planes. has been widely &C
cepted among uniformed persons as
conclusive proof that navies are out OF
date.
The tenacious opposition of the Navy
to this assumption has had a firmer
basis than its alleged love of riding
around in big and comfortable battle
ships. The Navy soon realized that one
of the best modes of defense against
attack from the air is defeOse in the
air. At once it undertook to make a
flying navy Of itself. At stroke Of the
pen all young officers were required to
qualify in the air before they could OBJ
tain commissions. Some are debarred
from becoming pilots by the severe
physical qualifications of this speciality
But there are many other military duties
to be done in a plane besides sitting at
the controls.
That the American Navy is now a fly
ing navy has been amply testified to by
extensive maneuvers within the last few
years, when several hundred planes have
been constantly engaged in flying mil
lions of miles over thousands Of square
miles of open sea during a period OF
several weeks at q time. In the late
maneuvers of this sort neither single
man nor a single plane was lost. Evil
IDENTIFY the Navy is well prepared to get
full value out of the method of defend
ing itself in the air against the attacks
OF other planes.
Plane Carriers Vulnerable.
Strong naval aviation forces insure
another method of defense also-that OF
attacking the hostile aviation at its
source of operations. This is the most
certain method of defense, both on land
and at sea. If the enemy aircraft can
be bombed out of their bases, especially
if this can be done before they are fully
in the air, then obviously their activities
will be severely hampered, If not pre-
vented.
The weakest member Of seagoing avia-
ton is the ship which must mother