European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 6, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes february 1981 Drew Middleton Navy  meet Russ Challenge the Advent of new administration in Washington finds the Navy deploying Power on three oceans and the Mediterranean sea with forces that senior officers regard As barely adequate for a Onanda Hal Ocean there is a View at the Headquarters of the North Atlantic treaty organizations naval forces that american maritime based on Carrier Battle would at the moment be insufficient to meet a soviet Challenge on the alliances Southeastern flank and simultaneously counter a russian move on the Northern Harry the nato supreme Allied commander for the said that in a War against the soviet Union and the Warsaw pact in the Mediterranean the concentration of Force required to operate successfully in the Eastern Mediterranean in support of our allies in Greece and Turkey is four Carrier Battle groups operating a Carrier Battle group consists of missile armed surface combatants and attack sub marines built around an aircraft but in the event of with the soviet the Admiral the United states would have to begin immediately the reinforcement and resupply of forces in eur Success in this would require naval operations to guarantee the integrity of William Safire Norway and its bases and to halt the move ment of soviet ships into the North Atlan this the Admiral would also require four Carrier Battle we have already reached eight Carrier Battle groups and there Are Only seven in the Atlantic to begin train and one or two of those Are always in a ship the deployment of a Fleet of two Carrier Battle groups in the Indian Ocean has meant the diversion of one such group from the Mediterranean and another from the american naval officers insist that a minimum of 15 Carrier Battle groups in a Navy of about 590 ships in trains the minimum Force to provide Secu Rity for the country National interests and to provide political leaders with a variety of options in a military leaders reject with some bitter Ness accusations that their realism about the nations military posture is inspired by their desire to increase the new administrations arms spending and funnel much of the expenditure into this service or they argue on the an in crease in military spending should have taken place years ago and that the present global military which they regard As has been developing for almost a when you look at soviet aircraft and tank you Are looking at train what should worry us is what they intend to do with that new with the launched in and the Bon homme launched in and the Coral sea remaining in serv ice and the nuclear powered Carl Vinson being the Navy would barely reach its goal of 15 Carrier Battle train believes that with some modifications both the old carriers will be Able to deploy the navys newest including the but he and other senior offi cers argue that in the Long run the Small Carrier is the most expensive Way to put aircraft into the big carriers such As the Nimitz and the Dwight Eisenhower carry More than 90 or about twice As Many As a Small but since it is Navy doctrine that the ability to deploy carriers tips the naval bal Ance with the soviet Union in favor of the United the services preoccupation with a Force of 15 carriers is Likely to con if we want to Slop kidding ourselves about the rapid deployment which is just said one who did not want to be we have to real ize that the Only practical reaction we now have to russian pressures in the persian Gulf area is the Fleet in the Indian this is the Only deterrent we have in the area to further soviet at the same time it is acknowledged that the ultimate Security of the Gulf Region will require land based air Force and army units somewhere in the for a credible one officer weve got to have the base and weve got to have the ability to expand the forces there rapidly from the United states or from the base that senior naval officers regard As the bes suited for american purposes is the one at where the so Viet Union built a runway on left a number of buildings that could be converted for the use of american naval and air the port of on the Gulf of is classified As a major port by the Central Intelli gence intelligence analysts estimate that from aircraft and ships would be Able to Survey the Entrance to the red sea and the soviet installations in Southern it would also serve As a backup base for any military facilities used by the Navy and air Force in which is to the Northeast and closer to the persian c times under Placid government reshapes itself till character of the embryonic Reagan administration May not be what it seems to on the surface is a Placid scene of cab Ine style with a deferential White House staff limited to the gentle chores of and with a Well meaning though not Well briefed chairman of the Board presiding at Cabinet meetings and conducting newly decorous press conferences at which even those reporters who consider themselves female piranhas Are called Young commentators who accept that Lidback formality As the True picture along with liberals who overlay their Hopes for a Cen Trist government and a breathing space administration with images of relaxed republicans during one term of their conservative thing interpret the recent spate of cab inet meetings As merely the or takings of the old the delay of sub Cabinet appoint ments to be the bumbling of the supposedly and the hiring freeze to be the quaint Promise keeping of ideologues who will soon become but under the Guise of a deter mined band of men Are using their moment of greatest Power to Force the government to reshape the Paradox in order to have the strength to disperse Federal you must first centralize Federal a concentration of Energy is needed to split the Federal Here is How the new general manager of the United de has focused Power in the Early Days of the Reagan White he has entrapped the Cabinet in meet five Cabinet meetings the first with two a week on the schedule in the near have made Cabinet members virtual prisoners of the Cabinet departmental bureaucracies cannot grasp and enslave secretaries who Are luxuriating in meetings in the Lap of he has Short staffed the Cabinet in the crucial Early How come most of the sub Cabinet jobs have not been filled heres one motive while the slots Are a few voices Are raised in the bureaucracy to protect departmental when finally the appointments almost invariably come from the White House and Are acquiesced in by the Cabinet he has used a genuine hiring freeze to Send the first chill through the unlike reagans Job freeze is retroactive to last election and there by blocks the Las minute surge of sinecure under worse for this refusal to hire is being run by the White not As is the custom by the departments that Means that the Tough office of management and Bud not the tender departmental rules on the attempted he has been exploiting the transitional weaknesses in the departments to reduce the rate of growth of the bomb director David in cahoots with Meese and his Domestic Martin an is applying the Brake to spending As never with Bosses absent and democratic Senate Protection Agency Bud gets Are naked to their but wait Hast Al Haigs assertion of his Labelling of my appoint disproved this interpretation of Mees Power just the opposite state department budgets Are the Loose change in the scheme of Federal consider the foreign Aid where state has a president Carter proposed to add billion to the billion Given away this year Stockman proposed to can cel Carters and Cut a Hal billion to Haig gave the ritual holler to be Friend the world Bank and Stock Man will put a billion allowing con Gress to Cut foreign Aid by a half billion or As it likes to the result of this charade will be that foreign Aid will stay about the As a result of the frequent Cabinet ses the foot dragging on the Job freeze that really an the  predictions of budget slashing which will amount to cancelling or delaying Meese will probably do what the Combina Tion of Haldeman and Ehrlichman could not do slip through the window of bureaucratic vulnerability Long enough to Challenge the Nexo ability of increased beyond he evidently intends to people the new administration with appointees willing to grab Power in order to disperse in the centrifugal Force of a cab inet and Congress will balance the centripetal Force of a White House and the Empire building will Start but for one glorious the monster is being tamed and will not soon be quite As Fero genial de Meese is doing with amiable Ronald reagans and they Are making it look deceptively c times