Weapons of the Future

Finding Congress in so sympathetic a mood towards defense needs, the Navy's Admiral Forrest Sherman went before the House Armed Services Committee to unwrap some of the Navy's ambitious dreams for the future. He was not begging money for next year's budget: he had in mind a $335 million construction program for the 1952 budget.

"The Time Has Come." High on Admiral Sherman's priority list was the weapon the Navy had been thinking about ever since the first A-bomb exploded at Alamogordo: a nuclear-powered submarine. Research and development of atomic power plants had been under way under the Atomic Energy Commission since 1947. Sherman thought that there was no reason to wait any longer on the scientists. He figured that the ship could be in operation within three years after Congress provided funds. Said Sherman: "We will never know until we have tried it. I think the time has come to build the ship."

Skimming carefully over the details of the Navy's projected new arsenal, the Chief of Naval Operations also proposed:

P: Construction of three experimental submarines at a cost of $50 million. One would be a target and research sub, designed to test the high-speed hull needed for atomic power. The other two would be a 250-ton baby submarine and a 2,200-tonner carrying its own oxygen supply for a "closed cycle" power plant, eliminating the need for surface breathing.

P: Conversion of eleven fleet submarines by installing "snorkel" breathers, of three more to "killer" subs, of another to mine-laying duty.

P: Conversion of one cruiser to a guided-missile launcher.

P: Modernization of one Essex-class carrier to handle heavier and faster planes.

In all, Sherman planned to modernize 29 vessels, construct in new ones--mostly small auxiliary craft such as minesweepers, lighters and amphibious tanks.

Changing Concept. That same night, the Army also gave the nation a glimpse of some new weapons. Speaking in guarded phrases during a radio interview, Army Chief of Staff Joe Collins let it be known that his antiaircraft artillerymen had already developed a new AA rocket which could knock down bombers flying at 60,000 feet--well above the present bomber ceiling--and were working on another guided missile which promised to be even more accurate at even higher altitudes. General Collins also thought that he would soon have a new weapon of "radical design" which might "change the whole concept of tank warfare."

Much of this was still drawing-board talk, but Defense Secretary Louis Johnson, as usual, was unquenchably optimistic. Said he: "New weapons may mean the difference between victory and defeat in war, and we have every reason to believe that the United States is retaining its supremacy in this field."

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