Evening star., 1961-02-19

good sized limited wars with
conventional weapons stimuli
taneously in different parts Of
the world. Two countries were
picked as hypothetical trouble
spots-one in Africa and one
in Asia.
Service Needs
The replies of the services
were:
The Army would need one
extra Strategic Army Corps
division plus backup forces and
equipment. Army size would
have to be increased by about
Sc, 900 men and the Army bud
get would 60 up by almost 50
billion a year.
The Navy would need two ad-
ditional aircraft carrier task
groups as a minimum with at
least 10000 men. Still another
study indicates the Navy woulS
need an additional 10000 men
to support the Army. The cost
again would approach 50 billion
a year.
The Air Force threw up its
hands at the request and said
in effect that it was almost
totally unprepared for q limited
war with conventional weapons.
It did not submit any plans
for such q two-war contingency
but indicated 1t would have to
build a whole new non-nuclear
Air Force from scratch.
Seeks Answer
The study was an effort to
find an answer to q haunting
limited war problem: What
! can American forces do II the
: Communists confront us with
; two Koreas at onceP
The American Pacific Com
: mand is confident that 1t can
handle one good-sized limited
war in Asia If 1t can draw on
! the forces held in reserve in
the United States. American
7 troops in Europe believe that
they can put out fires in the
Middle East or Africa provided
. also that they can use the
stateside forces.
II there are two warS-and
the Communists are assumed
to be capable Of starting them
available forces would be too
small to cope with them both.
Army and Navy Commanders
have simply kept their fingers
crossed for several years,
hoping a double war would not
: start.
Mr.. Mite said 1t was logical
that a truly adequate limited
|, war force should be able to
fight two wars. So he assigned
his Limited War Study Group
, to get a definitive answer to
the two-war question.
Mr.. Mite told his group to
: use these assumptions:
, Two enemy armies invade
countries which we are COM
h mitted to keep free. The enemy
in each case uses several di-
visions Of ground troops plus
! adequate air support. One in
vasion is in Southeast Asia, the
. other in an airlifted attack on
an independent country on the
West Coast of Africa. The
. American objective is to defeat
, the invading armies, not just
, stop them and create another
divided country like Korea OF
: Wet Nam. The enemy does not
use nuclear weapons, so we
, don't either.
Nays Task
The Navy, of course, would
use existing free units. but in
order to handle a double war
they said they would need two
new carriers Of the Forrestal
class plus eight destroyers, two
or three oilers and various
cargo ships.
J; Since it is assumed the wars
would be lengthy. two steady
streams Of supply ships would
have to shuttle back and forth,
and ammunition and equipment
would have to be manufac-
tured and shipped to the fronts.
If the Navy also must help
transport and supply army
troops. ten to Is transports
would have to be taken out of
mothballs for even a short war.
The Navy says this would re-
: quire calling another 10000
men to duty.
Airlifts for the Army would
require an additional 1000
planes (C-l24 types) and sew
eral thousand Navy and Air
Force men to crew them. This
is four times the number OF
such planes now available in
all the services, the Civil Air
Reserve Fleet and the Air Ma
tional Guard, according to a
Navy study.
Army Needs Large
The Army now has three
mobile. ready STRAC divisions.
The Army would need a fourth
for a double war plus more
equipment for the existing
three.
The division would add $500
men, another $4,000 to 10000
men would be needed for the
logistic support units. the
artillery, armor, engineers,
medics, signal corps, etc.
Long wars in jungles would
eat up large amounts Of am
munition and take great
numbers Of mortars, grenade
launchers and recoiless rifles
as we'll as the small guerrilla
war weapons. The troop in
crease would necessitate a sharp