Madison County Democrat. (London, Ohio) 19??-1958, 1952-09-19
Push-button Warfare Is
Now Reality In Korea

WASHINGTON OP - American
robot planes, untouched by man
in long-range flights, have sought
out and destroyed Communist tar
gets In Korea-heralding the ex-
plosive birth of push-button war
fare.
The Navy, which developed the
new secret weapon, withheld many
details but revealed it as:
An outmoded airplane, carrying
a 2,000-pound bomb and guided
from carrier-deck launching to on
target crash entirely by electronics.
A television camera is perched in
its cockpit to send back pictures
of its flight.
Associated Press staff photogra-
pher Fred Waters, aboard the 27.-
000-ton aircraft carrier Boxer,
cabled an eyewitness account of
the new missiles first use on Sept.
1, in Korea waters.
Navy censors delayed Waters
story until yesterday, cleared 1t
and then said in an announcement:
"a number of guided missiles
have been launched successfully
against Communist targets in
North Korea from the USS Box
err"
Waters, in an additional dispatch
placed the number already launch
ed at from four to six. His eye-
witness account said the pilotless
suicide" plane he watched was a
World War II Grumman, herded
to its target by a guide plane. Its
progress into the combat zone, he
said, was watched on a television
screen in secret room aboard the
Boxer, $50 miles from the target.
The Navy announcement lacked
many of the details in Waters
account, but gave this description.
i. The new missile, armed with
a powerful warhead, is sent aioft
from a catapult aboard the carrier.
z. There are two guide planes,
one on the carrier and one in the
air. Both are equipped with spe-
cial electronic equipment.
3. The first guide plane sends
the missile roaring skyward. At
a predetermined altitude, the air.
borne guide plane takes over and
directs the missile to the area of
its target. sa~
4. BY the time the missile goes
into its payoff dive, the guide plane
is miles away out of anti-aircraft
fire.
D. All during its flight, from the
carrier deck to the target, the mis-
sile records its progress via tele-
cast in a specially equipped cleo
tronics room aboard the ship.
The Navy announcement said the
Boxer has been using an ADJ Sky-
raider Douglas attack plane as the
GUIDE craft in its first such at
tacks.
The first operational team-five
officers and seven enlisted men
headed by 1t. Comdr. Lawrence
A. kurtz of Washington, D. c.
is Guided Missile Unit No. 80. The
unit trained at the Naval Air De-
velopment Center, townsville, Pa.
The Navy would neither identity
the targets nor assess the damage
inflicted.
Waters was struck with the wa,
electronics experts aboard the car.
rier rode With the missile, mile
by mile, through wondrous elec.
; tronic instruments.
On the television screen, he said
the men crossed the Sea of Japar
and watched the jagged peaks oi
Korea loom larger. He said ten.
sion in the room mounted as the
: target neared.
Then the target-"an enem,
concentration in a valley between
, two shadowy hills" And then:
: q. The hsrtuments suddenly
went blank. The screaming dive
had ended, squarely on target. anc
/ the missile had crashed to obi.
vion."
The heavily censored description
] of the new missile shows it to bt
apparently as far a cry from Other
guided missiles now in use.