The Desert as a Proving Ground

Like Spain more than three decades ago, the Middle East has become a proving ground for some of the newest weaponry and tactics of the major powers. In fact, two weeks of warfare between the Israeli and Arab armies has already taught military planners in both the Kremlin and the Pentagon that a classic offensive weapon developed by the Nazis during the Spanish Civil War--the tank onslaught with close aerial support--may be somewhat outmoded. That combination, used brilliantly by the Israelis in 1967 to win the Six-Day War, has proved to be far less effective this time, largely because of the vulnerability of aircraft and tanks to deadly new missiles.

By far the most decisive new weapon in the Middle East fighting to date is the Soviet SAM6 surface-to-air missile, which had never before been used in combat. The Israelis encountered it on the Sinai front while their aircraft were attempting to knock out the pontoon bridges placed across the Suez Canal by the Egyptians. In the first two days of fighting, 40 Israeli planes were shot down near the canal, most of them by SAM6 batteries. The missile was equally devastating over the Golan Heights, protecting the Syrians from the foil fury of the Israeli air force and exacting a heavy toll of F-4 Phantom and Skyhawkjets.

Code-named Gainful by NATO officials, the SAM6 is a slim (6-in. diameter), 19-ft.-long solid-fuel rocket mounted in a group of three on a tracked vehicle. Thus, unlike the older SAM-2 and SAM3 missiles, which require a permanent base, the new SAM can be moved along with armored forces, providing them with an umbrella of protection that extends from treetop level to an altitude of 35,000 ft. Furthermore, while the Israelis (with U.S. equipment and advice) know how to evade or neutralize the SAM-2 and SAM-3, they so far have no effective countermeasures against the triple-threat SAM-6. Each of the new missiles has in its warhead a radar system that guides the weapon to an enemy aircraft at near supersonic speed.

In addition, the SAM6 is equipped with a heat sensor that can guide it to the aircraft's hot jet exhaust pipe. Finally, in its beam-riding mode, the SAM6 can be directed by its operator, who keeps the aiming dot of an electronic gun sight on the attacking aircraft. That is all it takes to send the missile accurately along a radar beam to the target. To make matters even worse for the enemy, the frequency of the missile's radar systems can be changed quickly, making it difficult to jam or confuse them with electronic countermeasures.

Neither Israel nor the U.S. has anything comparable to the SAM-6. The U.S. radar-guided Hawk missile, used by the Israelis, is effective against low-flying aircraft but vulnerable to jamming.

Other Russian weapons have also contributed greatly to the improved Arab showing. Soviet-built Snapper and Sagger antitank rockets knocked out as much as a third of Israel's 1,900 operational tanks in the first ten days of fighting. These solid-fuel rockets are accurate at distances of a mile or more and are directed by a gunner who merely keeps the target tank in his cross hairs. Electronic signals from the gunner's controls are transmitted through hair-thin wires that uncoil from the missile as it closes in for the kill. But the Israelis are at least on equal footing in their antitank missiles, and have already knocked out more than 1,000 Arab tanks.

These weapons include French-designed, Israeli-modified, wire-guided missiles and simple bazooka-type weapons with a warhead designed by the Israelis to penetrate the thickest armor (16 in.) on Soviet tanks. Using these missiles, the Israelis have decimated Russian T-54 and T-55 tanks and already scored an impressive number of kills on the T-62, the new Soviet main battle tank, which had never before been used in combat.

The Israelis also had available a small number of American-made Mavericks, one of the "smart" bombs first used in Viet Nam. Carried aboard a fighter-bomber, it has a small TV lens and computer in its nose. The pilot can fix the target (usually a tank) in his sights, and lock onto it. The Maverick will then hit the target even if the at tacking plane takes evasive maneuvers or leaves the area. About 200 more Mavericks are being shipped to the Israelis in the current U.S. airlift.

Other advanced Soviet and U.S. weapons are also being sent or already in use in the Middle East.

For the Arabs:

> The SAM7 Strela, a heat-seeking antiaircraft missile fired in clusters of eight to twelve from portable tubes or individually from the shoulder of an infantryman. It was effective against U.S. helicopters in Viet Nam until crews began firing flares to confuse it.

> The SU-20, a swing-wing fighter-bomber being tested as a tank killer in Syria. Several have been caught on the ground and destroyed by the Israelis.

> The A55 Kelt, a 200-mile-range, winged, supersonic rocket that is fired at a ground target from a bomber a safe distance away. In the first week of the war, an Israeli pilot in an F-4 intercepted a Kelt flying toward Tel Aviv and shot it down.

> The Scud, a ground-to-ground guided missile with an 80-mile range. It is this missile--and not the Egyptian-built Al Kahir and Al Zafir rockets mentioned by Sadat in his speech last week--that poses a threat to the Israelis.

For the Israelis:

> The TOW (for tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) antitank missile, a portable weapon that proved extremely effective in Viet Nam.

> The LAW (for light antitank weapon), a hand-held bazooka-type rocket that weighs only 5 Ibs.

> The Walleye, a sophisticated TV-guided, 1,000-lb. glide missile with a range of about 25 miles for use by A-4 Skyhawks against missile and artillery installations. It was employed in Viet Nam against artillery and other installations in mountainside caves.

> The Shrike, an anti-radar bomb that seeks radar signals and then follows them to their origin, destroying the installation. North Vietnamese radar-men learned how to protect against the Shrike by changing frequencies and switching their radars on and off.

> The Standard Arm, an advanced supersonic anti-radar killer that is more difficult to fool.

> The Rockeye, an antitank weapon never before used in combat. Hung from a plane, it contains hundreds of small bombs that are aerodynamically shaped explosive charges. Released over a formation of tanks, they penetrate the thin top armor and disable many vehicles in one shot.

Perhaps the most remarkable technological development in the Middle East war is the use of military satellites. U.S. experts believe that the Russians began specific observation of the Middle East with Cosmos 596, which was launched on Oct. 3, three days before the war began. Since then the Russians have in succession launched five more spy satellites, bringing each back to earth after six days, instead of the usual 13 days, to obtain their film and perhaps electronically gathered data. The reason is apparent: the satellites have orbits that periodically take them over the desert battlegrounds, which are so free of cloud cover and foliage that Israeli tank movements can be easily spotted. With this information from space, the Soviets are apparently making tactical and strategic decisions for the Arabs. But the U.S. also has two spy satellites that happen to pass over the Middle East, including a 14-ton Big Bird* that can either eject film packages over the Pacific or immediately radio its information back to earth. The U.S. is presumably passing on at least some of this information to the Israelis.

* Mysterious signals from space reported last week by Russian astronomers were not, as the Soviets suspected, messages from "an extra terrestrial civilization." They were radar emissions from Big Bird.

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