European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 29, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday March 29,1986imiiitini Richard Halloran Kha Daty s military not a Force to be reckoned with although it comes As no Surprise that Libya s forces Are no match for the . 6th Fleet military analysts say its air naval and air defense forces Are also inferior to those of Many Middle Eastern nations. Some military officers pointed to the ineffectiveness of soviet built air defense mis Siles against . Navy fighter aircraft. When you Sec that they re 0 for 12 against us they can t be very Good an officer said when the number of missiles fired by the libyans was thought to have been a dozen. A Middle Eastern specialist noted that Israel which is generally considered to have the Best intelligence service in the Region devotes relatively Little attention to Libya because the libyans Are not considered Tobe a threat. In sum a military officer said Are the libyans a Force to be reckoned with  Libya a nation of 3.5 million people has armed forces totalling 73,000 people mostly in an army of 58,000 that is not much involved in the clashes with the United states. The libyan air Force has 8,500 air men and the Navy 6,500 sailors. Illiteracy is a critical weakness in learn ing to operate modern weapons according to a specialist. In addition Industry is rudimentary and does not produce Young people with technical skills. Libyan forces As with much of libyan society Are heavily dependent on foreign advisers. From 1,200 to 1,800 soviet Mili tary advisers Are said to be on duty in Libya along with East German syrian pakistani palestinian and North korean military and technical advisers. The libyan air Force is said to be particularly dependent on foreign pilots for training. But libyan pilots Are said to be Only moderately effective military analysts said As they Are generally not highly rated. In arms and equipment a military officer said the libyans have More hard Ware than they can  most of the libyan aircraft missiles Small warships and tanks come from the soviet Union although the libyans have acquired some from France. The libyan air Force has 535 combat aircraft including 143 Mig-23 fighter interceptors. The Mig-23 has been the Back James Reston Bone of soviet air defense forces. The Mig-21, of which the libyans Are reported to have 55, is an older interceptor. And another interceptor the Mig-25, is 25years old in design. The largest concentration of Jet aircraft in tended to attack targets on the ground Are the soviet built Su-20s and Su-22s, which Are stripped Down Export models of older soviet attack aircraft. Two of those Jet fighters were shot Down Over the Gulf of Sidra by american n avy fliers in f-14s in August 1981. The libyans Are also reported to have seven soviet built Tu-22 bombers which Are Able to Fly at supersonic speeds in Short bursts but carry Only bombs and Are not equipped for missiles. A few of the planes Are still flown in the soviet air Force. According to the International Institute of strategic studies in London the libyans began installing Sa-5 Long Range air defens missiles at three Sites late last year. Pentagon officials said Only one site that near the town of Sirte had become operation Al. That was the installation that american officials say has been struck twice by missiles in the last two Days. The other two missile Sites Are near Benghazi and Tripoli a spokesman for the Institute said. Each site was believed to have six mis Siles in addition to the radar and control Center to make the missiles operational. Libyan soldiers were reported to have received More than a year s training in the soviet Union. It was not known if soviet advisers Are at the Sites in Libya. Weapons specialists said the a 5, although having a Speed three and a half times the Speed of sound and Able to reach 85,000 feet was designed to shoot at bomb ers and could not Man Euver quickly enough to hit a Jet fighter flown by a skilled Pilot. The larger portion of libyan missiles Are Sa-2s, which first became operational in the soviet Union in 1959 and which were used extensively to defend North Vietnam in the Vietnam War. At sea the main libyan Force is made up of attack patrol Craft that displace less than 400 tons each but Are Able to make 40 knots and to fire anti ship missiles at ranges up to nearly 40 Miles. They have been the primary targets for american attacks. Each of Libya s 10 Combattente class Craft acquired from France has a Crew of 27 sailors and the 12 Osa class vessels obtained from the soviet Union have complements of 30 sailors. Three Susa class vessels from Britain Are operated by 20 sailors and 14 Sar ships built in Turkey have Crews of 23. The military analysts had few Good words for libyan seamanship pointing out the desert heritage of most libyans and confirming reports that they tended to get seasick when under Way. According to Jane s fighting ships Libya has six soviet built submarines of the foxtrot class which Are older diesel vessels Able to make 16 knots submerged. They carry 22 torpedoes each and have Crews of 78. By contrast the United states has three aircraft carriers off Libya displacing 80,000 to 90,000 tons each several cruisers of 8,000 to 9,000 tons and a Fleet of 25 other combatants. The carriers carry about 275warplanes. Although the Navy docs not discuss sub Marine movements each Carrier is usually screened by two to four nuclear powered submarines. Each is armed with More than 20 advanced torpedoes. New York times news service playing chicken7 with Libya can be risky business s ii Lii int f in. D no on n Psi.  it s Odd that the Reagan administration chose the Christian holy week to risk a holy War with col. Moa mar khad Afy and his zealots in Libya but the missiles Are flying. This craziness probably won t go on very Long. They re playing Chicken the Chil Dren s game we used to play Back in the Alley with the big Guy putting chips on his shoulder and daring the Little Guys to Knock them off. But it s More serious now. The administration is trying to get rid of two scoundrels in Tripoli and Managua who Are undoubtedly a problem but of a very different kind than were the dictators of the Philippines and Haiti. But president Reagan is not making his purpose Clear. He is pretending that if Only he could get $100 million out of Congress for the opponents of the sandinista in Nicaragua All would be Well in Centra America. And he is pretending that he has a Bat the Fleet strolling through the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya merely to de fend the right of passage through the International seas. This raises a recurring question Here Why can t we get a Plain and honest answer out of this administration about whatsit s trying to do nobody believes that the president has three aircraft carriers off the coast of Libya to assure Freedom of the sea. His Navy commands the oceans and can go anywhere it likes. He s just trying to topple a couple of governments and Stop libyan sponsored terrorism by military action. The question is whether this strategy will work and the honest answer Here in a divided Congress is that it won t. On the contrary the chances Are that khad Afy and his obedient terrorists unable to match the Power of . Naval and air Power will now increase their attacks on the vulnerable . Embassies abroad and even on the fragile electronic installations within the great cities of America. At the same time he was daring Kheda by in the Mediterranean the president or somebody else sent . Naval vessels into the Black sea close enough to Monitor soviet communications and exploded a nuclear underground device just when Mik Hail Gorbachev was calling for a moratorium on All nuclear testing. So there s a question Here about what May be the result of this Rise in tension Between the two major nuclear Powers. The chances Are that As the tension rises Congress will put aside its doubts and support the president. It will probably give him military Aid for Nicaragua next month which May have been what he had in mind by raising the Ante with Moscow. The russians have been very quiet about All this leaving aside the usual Gar Bage from pravda and Izvestia. They provided the libyan missiles and May have lost some of their own technicians when the missile site was hit but they havea t made much of a Point of it. Also there s a minor Flap Here Over whether the president had the right with put consulting Congress to order the Navy into a confrontation with Libya. Tip o n Eill the democratic speaker of the House supported the president As he usually does whenever the president gets in a tight spot overseas. But Dante Fascell the demo cratic chairman of the House foreign affairs committee insisted that the deploy ment of american naval forces in a dangerous position constituted from the outset a situation where imminent involve ment in hostilities was a distinct possibility which he said was a violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, since the president did not notify Congress of his intention in Advance. Nevertheless the president condemned for talking a lot and doing very Little about the communist menace decided to make an Issue both of Nicaragua and Libya and so far Public opinion is wit him. How his Gamble comes out will Proba Bly not be determined by arguments in the press or on the floor of Congress but by events on the ground in Nicaragua and on the sea off Libya. This nobody can predict. As the president has said khad Afy is a Flaky character who might do anything and since he presides Over a congregation of religious believers who regard death As a Reward there s no telling what his defeat will mean in the coming months. Like the Ayat Cisiah Khomeini in Iran failure has gone to his head and the Outlook is not for less terrorism in the future but More. This is the Chance of holy War the president took on holy week. Maybe he was right in concentrating As usual on the headlines but holy smokes maybe he Strong. New York times news service