Evening star., 1940-02-18

case our long-range DOmDefs ldii III
their missions of stopping enemy craft
before they can take off. The outer
circle will consist of fast. medium
range pursuit fighters. The middle
circle in this scheme of defense will be
the radius of safety afforded by pur-
suit airdromes at which swift pursuit
interceptors will be stationed, ready
to take off and fight those enemy
bombers that have eluded the pursuit
fighters. The inner circle of defenses
will be made up of batteries of anti
aircraft guns, which would lay sky
barraRes of bursting shells that the
enemy must penetrate to drop its
bombs within the protected area.
This is the last-word conception OF
modern air defense. As far as the
United States is concerned it is GER
tainlyno morethan mere conception.
because at this moment We have none
of the elements long-range bombers.
interceptor fighters. pursuit fighters.
automatic location devices or antiair-
craft guns - in sufficient numbers to
make a single American city safe.
even if all we possessed in continental
America we're brought together. At
present we have eight antiaircraft
guns to guard the whole Greater New
York area. These eight guns are actu-
ally only enough to protect a 1000
yard radius 1t is only fair to add that
within a little more than year we
shall have the guns and material for
thirty-seven mobile antiaircraft regi-
ments. but the majority of these will
be National Guard troops.
Obviously all this has to do with
purely defensive measures against air
attack. 1t is an old military maxim
that the only true defense is offense -
and this is where the long-range
bomber comes into its own.
Our flying men propose that our
bombers shall have the range. the
speed. the ceiling and the bomb
carrying ability. to defend our coun-
try by meeting the enemy on his own
home grounds - whether those home
grounds be land air bases, or aircraft
carriers at sea. Their immediate con-
Germ consists in seeing that no outside
country obtains any sort of air or
naval base in any part of the Western
Hemisphere. including its islands.
Any such base might permit enemy
bombers to destroy the Panama Canal
- the key to our whole naval de-
fense - and wreck naval shore bases
and our great coastal cities and fac
tories Certainly we have laid down a
definite and necessary national policy
in regard to keeping Europe and Asia
out OF this hemisphere forever.
This is the immediate problem -
and once our Air Force reaches its
present expansion. and our Army.
small as it is. becomes seasoned.
equipped and well-balanoed machine.
and our great proposed Navy attains
completion. We should have little
need to fear this immediate problem.
The problem that will faoe Us in the
future is paced to the increasing range
of the bomber. When enemy planes
can fly the Atlantic ss< bsck. then our
bombers must be ready to do the same
thing.
Our Air Expansion program. calls
for l78 lo0g-range bosnbers by the
middle Of June. l94l (aloog with
several hundred medium and light
bombcrs). That means 178 long-range
bombers out of 4 grand total Of the
$500 planes that will make up our
projected air force Yet the long range
bomber d our one master defensive
air weapon. tscasse i IS lhe ssly sse
tAa bscks . seeslissssy thra2. ssd oss