European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 31, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday March 31, 19b7 the stars and stripes Pago 9 cold Winter Means Arctic exercise 4 nato nations test Norway defense events. Norway not fair nato countries arc conducting Maneu vers this week in Northern nor Way within the Arctic Circle to lest the Alliance s ability to defend its Northern flank in the event of a soviet attack. The exercise called cold Winter involves 14,000 troops from the United states Norway Britain and the Netherlands. While the brilts and dutch forces came by ship he "1,000 american military men hew across the at Manlic Tasi week to demonstrate nato s ability to reinforce Norway s defense. This is almost a third of i fit1 forces thai would be dispatched in a real crisis. The americans were mostly from regular and re serve Marine air and ground units trained Tor Arctic warfare. An air Torre Reserve detachment of a to aircraft also look part. More than 120 aircraft from the four nato nations were involved in the exercise. Much of the equipment and supplies to support the americans is already in Norway. The Marine reinforcement is part of our maritime strategy . Marine Brit Gen. Mall How p. Caulfield said. Hold ing North Norway is essential if we arc to prevent Sovi i timbers and submarines from interfering with the reinforcement of the plan according to the general is to get Arctic rained and equipped forces into Northern Norway be fore hostilities begin to discourage a soviet invasion and to Stop one if it lakes place. There Are four airfields in the sparsely populated and bitterly cold a Trot of Northern Norway that must be held he said. In addition to Etc pcs. West of Narvik i hey arc Andy. and Bodo according to Caulfield aircraft flying from these Fields Are needed to Stop a soviet Advance from Northern Russia across the Fin Mark Region of Norway and also to prevent a russian amphibious attack Between Tromson and Nar Vik on the norwegian coast. As inc land Battle for Norway goes on. Nato naval forces will move into Northern Waters to join inc Battle with aircraft carriers and submarines the Gen eral said. The carriers will operate Oul of the deep Fords in the area where they will be hard to select by the russians and harder to hit. It will be a total nato a Model for travelling in High style at High Speed a i Holbic Japan National railway unveils a new Model of its experimental manned linear car "mul002" left Shulii at inc railway s test Center in Miyazaki Southern Japan saturday. The Jar plans to test the cur Al 260 Mph. But the Model was designed far luxurious runs Pori Atton an Well a for Fust travel. The Carp cred Cabin right feature 44 seats backed with liquid Crystal to screens. Views from the outside of the car can be projected on the screens or videotapes May by played. Dod weapons programs in trouble study says Washington api several of he defense department s largest and most important new weapons programs re substantial development or Cost overrun problems raising doubts about Pentagon deployment schedules a new report concludes. The report prepared by he general accounting office focuses on 20 major acquisition programs that arc near ing key deadlines for approval of either full scale development or actual production. La singles out a number of those pro Grams As in need of further scrutiny be cause of development problems most notably the army s Lux helicopter and Aquila drone projects the Navy s new allackj4ubmarinc combat system and the air Force s Omraam missile and world wide military command and control system. Those and other programs reviewed by the Gao have come under fire in the past for Overly ambitious research sched Ules and unsound Cost estimates. The new report however was requested by son. Sam a Tenn d-ga., the recently in stalled chairman of the Senate armed services committee and could Well in fluence his committee s review of inc Pentagon s fiscal 1988 budget request. A copy of the Gao report was re leased saturday by inc project on Mili tary procurement a private self styled defense watchdog group based in Washington. The report is marked draft apparently because the Gao is awaiting inc defense department s response to its findings. Scott Maxwell a spokesman for Nunn said the senator had not yet received the Gao report but expected to hear its findings april 2, when Gao auditors have been summoned to appear before Nunn s committee. The Gao is the investigative Arm of Congress. Spokeswoman Patricia Moran said the Agency would not discuss the draft it Pon before the hearing. The 107-Page report kinds that virtually All of the weapons have suffered schedule slips ranging from four to 51 months. The most severe slippage is attributed to the Aquila an unmanned remotely piloted surveillance drone for inc army. The Aquila program Drew Sharp criticism from the Gao which noted the army began the drone s development in i97j. Noting that inc service is currently scheduled to make a production decision in july the Gao warned throughout full scale development the Aquila has experienced technical problems which together with funding shortages have More than tripled Cost and delayed Fielding by nearly sever years. Some Progress has been made in resolving the problems but the army and Dod May have difficulty in As Sessing production readiness because measurable performance thresholds have not been moreover the army May be nearing a production decision for a drone that can Only be used during Daylight hours he congressional Agency said because an Effort o develop a Forward looking infrared sensor that would allow the drone s use at nigh i is in the Gao also warned the army was experiencing serious problems in devel Oping a new generation of Light helicopters a program dubbed the Lex for Light helicopter Experiment. The Lux s original goals have proven too optimistic the Gao wrote. Compared to the original goals the cur rent projected weigh Anil costs Are higher the performance expectations Are Juwer. And he feasibility of a single seat Lex has no been turning to the Navy the Gao warned that efforts o develop an advanced sonar and combat control system for the next generation attack submarine had bogged Down in computer software prob lems. We believe that implementing the program As scheduled is a High risk be cause of the Large Quantity and Cost for new software required and the potential for program slippage the Gao said. As for the air Force he report said that the service could not meet its initial deployment Date of 1989 for equipping Jet fir Kors Wilh the new Omraam dog fighting missile without using an interim design missile that docs not fully meet performance the auditors also said they had doubts about the air Force s ability to meet a s7 billion Cap on spending for 24.335 mis Siles. The new world wide military com Mand and control system a system of computers linked by an International communications network for use by All the services is about 14 months behind schedule because of to Ting delays and funding reduction the Gao reported
