Evening star., 1950-01-19
War and Tomorrow's Weapons

War and Tomorrow's Weapons
In perhaps a much shorter time than
most people imagine, air power as we know
it today-a complex of man-piloted fighter
planes and giant strategic bombers like the
B-36-may be about as obsolete as the
whalebone corset or the surrey with the
fringe on top. BY the same token, within
the next ten years or SO, our most basic
current military concepts-in large part
hangoverS from the Second World War
may be completely revolutionized in every
branch of every nations armed services.
The latest evidence along this line may
be found in what Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge, jr., is reported to have told the
Senate Armed Services Committee IN con-
nection with his recent tour of duty at
Fort Bliss, Texas, where a lot of significant
things are being done with guided missiles
and anti-aircraft weapons. Mr.. Lodge,
combat officer in the recent war and
diligent student of military developments,
is well versed in this subject, and his find-
ings-accounts of which may safely be
assumed to be accurate, although he him
self has not made them public-are there
fore of special interest and Importance.
According to the reports, one of the most
meaningful things Mr.. Lodge has told the
Senate committee is that the United States
Army-as of the present moment-has
anti-aircraft weapons capable of insuring
an extremely effective defense against at
tacking planes of supersonic speed. These
weapons combination OF
radar, proximity fuses, homing devices and
guns that sweep the sky with extraordinary
efficiency-are said to be able to set up an
almost impenetrable barrier against air.
craft flying 1000 miles an hour at attitudes
much higher than that which the worlds
best bombers and fighters can now achieve.
This does not mean, of course, that no
attacker could get through, but there is
every reason to believe that what Mr.. Lodge
has seen at Fort Bliss would be deadly
enough to infiict terrible slaughter on
any air feet daring to strike at the CONT
mental United States-a fact suggesting
that such an assault might be far too costly
for an enemy to undertake.
All this ties in with earlier authoritative
reports indicating that we are well on the
way toward perfecting ground-to-air
guided missile of devastating potentiality.
As unof1cially, but expertly described, the
missile whose mass production may be
near-would be able to travel far faster
than the speed of sound to attitudes scores
of miles above the surface of the earth.
It would be particularly deadly because
Cd it would be directed by radar toward
the attacking bomber, (2) 1t would have
a homing device automatically making the
bomber attract destruction to itself, and
90 it would contain proximity fuse guar
anteeing the destruction even without
actual physical contact with the bomber.
Obviously, when, as and If such weapon
becomes available in quantity to the United
States and other countries, the most ad-
vanced types of today's man-piloted mill
tary aircraft-such as the B36 and our
best jet-propelled f1ghters-will become
mere museum pieces much too outmoded
and much too vulnerable to be used in
anything but essentially fruitless suicide
attacks. '..
What this suggests is that strategic
bombing-if the world cannot maintain
peace-probably will be carried out, even
tually, by something like uninterceptable
machine -piloted intercontinental rockets
flying accurately, at terrific speed, to de-
liver atomic bombs (or perhaps hydrogen
helium bombs to targets thousands of
miles away. The prospect also suggests
that the black art of warfare in all its
phases-on land, at sea and in the sky
will be thoroughly transformed in the years
ahead, with the defense conceivably having
an initial advantage over the offense, but
with the ultimate possibility being an un-
imaginable nightmare ending in the virtual
extinction of the human race.
1t is no longer lurid or excessively alarm
ist to think of the future in terms of this
sort. What Mr.. Lodge has seen at Fort Bliss
and what others are seeing in such things
as atomic weapons and the still theoretical
hydrogen bomb are not wild fantasies.
They are real, either actually or potentially
If they do not already exist, then the
chances are that they will exist tomorrow,
next week, next year, or decade from
now They are not far away They are
crowding in on us so fast that an enduring
peace is imperative. Certainly, the very
thought Of a war involving their total use
should make every ones flesh creep in
all nations.
The Navy Is Stuck With Her