European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 24, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Ships vanishing at sea High tech tomfoolery by Norman Black associated press avy aircraft carriers despite their incredible size Are becoming adept at a form of magic utilizing weather Speed advanced logistical planning and High tech tomfoolery several earners in recent months have managed to vanish from antagonist s eyes into the vastness of the oceans reappearing Only at the moment of attack. Last april dogged by air planes rented by american television networks and by soviet intelligence vessels the carriers Coral sea and America dropped front sight Olf the coast of Sicily. Less than 24 hours Lamar their planes bombed targets in Libya. And gust Over a month ago a much lengthier Case of a missing Carrier occurred during an exercise named Rimpau so. The Ranger ail Hough the target of an intense search that included satellite reconnaissance escaped detection Lor two weeks while sailing across the Pacific. The performance was considered All the More remarkable by an australian Admiral who monitored the exercise because he earner s planes were flying sorties throughout the period staging mock attacks against surface ships submarines arid land targets. Rear adm. . A Tox of the Royal australian Navy disclosed recently the Orange forces in Rimpau could not locate the Ranger from the time it departed Southern California exercise areas until it steamed into Pearl Harbor 14 Days reports of such exploits Delight Navy brass who must answer critics who think carriers Are sitting ducks in an age of nuclear powered submarines and cruise missiles american Are practising hard at what the Navy cads Man Euver strategy if the enemy can t find you you have Surprise. And with Surprise you can win. Navy spokesmen decline to discuss the War lighting tactics. But several officers interviewed recently who asked not to be identified say the idea of a Stealthy Carrier is not so farfetched consider the Coral sea and America accomplished their eats through a variety of tricks but the most important were masking and the details of masking Are classified but essentially it involves making another ship a destroyer Lor example look and sound like a Carrier and a Carrier look like something else. The process normally begins when a Carrier is under radar surveillance but beyond visual sight. The Decoy ship maintains the Carrier s previous course while the Carrier speeds away. We can make the soviets believe another ship is the Carrier says one official. The radar image broadcasting Pilot Lalk and the radio sounds of night operations the lighting at night it looks like a Duck and sounds like a Duck so it must be a Duck. So they follow the Duck and make a the Carrier meantime can employ lighting at night that makes it look like a Tanker. Also employed by he Coral sea and America and the key to the Ranger s disappearing act was econ this is the equivalent of a submarine rigging for silence or a Convoy travelling under blackout conditions. Econ is a Navy acronym for emission control. Emission in this ruse refers to the electronic signals that Are radiated by such equipment As radars sonar and radio. When a earner goes to econ ii literally shuts Down much of its electronic gear to avoid detection. Navy officials say a Carrier can operate for Long periods in econ because we go mute but not Deal or the procedure worst by utilizing e2-c Hawkeye radar planes flying Al some distance from the Carrier. Everything the Hawkeye sees is relayed electronically to the Carrier and ils escorts providing a picture of Aerial activity As Well As Surace forces. While transmitting the Hawkeye is far from the Carrier which gets the plane s signals passively without any transmission of ils own. The Hawkeye also takes on the role of air traffic controller Tor the Carrier s planes. Replenishment oilers meantime Are Lold Well in Advance to make their own Way to a specific position in the Ocean. Again radio silence is maintained. Aviation ladies. Even i radar can t pick up a Carrier sailing beyond the horizon the ship s location can be betrayed by Jet aircraft scrambling into the air. The Navy s answer is called offset to be simplistic the planes Don t climb says one officer. They catapult Oil and literally hit the deck. Ii planes Are suddenly popping up 100 Miles irom the ship you have no idea where they came Speed publicly the Navy says its carriers Are capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots privately officers acknowledge the floating cities can approach 40 knots. We can literally outrun the soviet Lattle tales intelligence ships says one. And in heavy weather of any kind there s no contest. The Carrier can outrun its own weather and satellites. Anyone who s been caught in the rain alter the Weatherman forecast sunny skies has his own thoughts on meteorology. But Here have been solid gains made within that science in recent years although May heavy weather can Hurt flight operations these Guys know How to follow weather patterns and use rain Storts and above All Cloud cover says one official the carriers can receive weather data via satellite passively without portraying and we know tha Orbital parameters of soviet reconnaissance satellites As Well As our adds another. If there s a recon Bird coming by and you can Duck into some weather you Duck into the whether or if you know there s a Blind spot in coverage you Sei once you succeed in slipping away summarizes one Olf Icar the Odds shift in your favor. Most people Don t have any Conception of How big the oceans Are. You can to lonely in you planning for survival in a nuclear War by Fred Hiatt Washington Posti n the Pennsylvania farmlands a Lew Miles from Gettysburg America s bloodiest Battlefield a Gray Tower rises above a quiet cow pasture a slander link in the Reagan administration s preparations id fight a nuclear War. The Tower and scores of identical struck urls across the continent Are intended to transmit messages to missile silos bomber bases and submarine ports in the event of a nuclear attack. But the ground wave emergency network or Gwen As the network is called is designed to do More to survive a nuclear attack Aid . Leaders during a prolonged nuclear War and marshal whatever forces remain for the next conflict. The project Cost of tha communications system is �600 million according to a a Force officials a relatively Small investment by defense department standards. But the system is part of a Complex $40 billion plan drawn by the administration and approved by Congress for a military infrastructure that can survive a protracted nuclear War. Page 16 the stars and stripes most senior officials stopped talking publicly about lighting a nuclear War Early in the Reagan administration after defense Secretary Casper w. Weinberger provoked a storm of criticism by calling for a . Strategy to prevail in a nuclear conflict. Critics quickly insisted that nuclear weapons were so terrible that no one could win a War in which they were used and president Reagan began saying that such a War can never be won and must never be the change in rhetoric did not reflect a change in programs. Behind the scenes often in secret the military has spent nearly �20 billion for a command control communications and intelligence network what the Pentagon Calls a cubed much of which is intended to survive a protracted nuclear War into the Post attack in other words said William m. Arkin a nuclear weapons expert who is a critic of the program it win get the United states ready for world War the a cubed network in turn its into a larger administration program that includes civil defense plans to protect local officials in a nuclear War end weapons such As the stealth bomber and the sram-2 Short Range nuclear missile designed Lor a flexible War sunday. August 24.1966 fighting strategy. Scientists Al the defense nuclear Agency meanwhile Are studying How to train our troops to better understand the Impact of enemy nuclear firepower and thereby better prepare them to Cope with operations on the nuclear Battlefield according to congressional testimony. According to interviews testimony and unclassified documents Many pieces of a purportedly enduring and surviving a cube l network Are being constructed the Mil Star satellite which will Cost $10 billion to $20 billion and will be according to Donald c. Latham tha head of the Pentagon s a cubed program the first communications satellite Able to support a multiple Exchange Campaign in which adversaries would fire nuclear weapons in salvos. A satellite based no Tea detection system that could report which targets had been destroyed and which needed to be hit again. Ii would be capable of Long term operation in an enhanced nuclear according to air Force testimony to Congress. A Fleet of what Weinberger has described As covertly deployed 18-Whoel trucks from which generals could fun the War in the Days and weeks alter airborne command posts had been destroyed or unable to land. These he has said would be designed to operate beyond the initial stages of a nuclear other systems being developed or studied include rapidly ill arable balloons thai could be sent aloft trailing radio antennas if communications towers Ware destroyed communications satellites that could be sncrh0"1 sub Rines a the existing ones no longer functioned command posts built deep underground aboard Small merchant ships or on Railroad cars and a
