Confrontation at Camel Station

Two superpowers prowl the Indian Ocean "We have the preponderance of power. If it were to start tomorrow, it would be over in a day." So concluded a senior Pentagon official last week, referring to a potential U.S.-Soviet naval clash in the now strategically critical Indian Ocean, where mighty armadas of the two superpowers warily stalk each other. So far, U.S. Navy Task Force 70 clearly rules the Indian Ocean's waves. Though the total number of ships fluctuates as vessels rotate in and out of Camel Station (as American sailors have nicknamed the area), the U.S. has had as many as 27 warships there simultaneously. More crucial than raw figures is the power of the U.S. force. On patrol last week were the super-carriers Nimitz (which recently replaced Kitty Hawk), Midway and Coral Sea, with their full battle groups of guided missile cruisers, destroyers, frigates, oilers and other support vessels. Along with them cruised undisclosed numbers of U.S. submarines. The Navy is keeping its ships at Camel Station at highest readiness status, and there are frequent alerts. Some crews in fully armed planes are able to take off within five minutes. Others on 15-and 30-minute alerts wait in the ready room prepared to dash to their aircraft. On a typical day, each carrier's steam-propelled catapults launch 90 sorties. Some warplanes, such as the Mach 2.4 F-14 Tomcat, make combat runs, dropping practice bombs on targets towed by U.S. ships. Others, like the RF4 Phantom, fly reconnaissance missions. Confronting Task Force 70 is a Soviet flotilla of about ten guided missile cruisers, destroyers and frigates and more than a dozen support ships. At week's end the U.S. Navy was tracking 23 other Soviet ships in the South China Sea, concerned that some or all might be headed for the Indian Ocean. The Soviet ships shadow every U.S. movement. In addition, Soviet IL-38 "May" reconnaissance planes, based in Aden or Ethiopia, regularly drop to within 1,000 ft. of U.S. ships for close peeks, as do "Hormone" helicopters from Soviet vessels.

For its part, the U.S. can identify and track every Soviet ship within 300 miles of a U.S. naval formation. Since each armada is able to intercept the other's radio transmissions, all important messages are scrambled before being sent. But there have been times when the two sides have communicated with each other, usually using signal lights or flag hoists. In one exchange, a Soviet ship signaled: "Where is Kitty Hawk?" Pausing slightly, the frigate Fanning flashed back: "Kitty Hawk is a small town in North Carolina."

Despite the mutual shadowing, there have been no Indian Ocean collisions or even close calls. Says a Pentagon admiral: "We don't try to bump into other guys. You don't prove anything by that except that you're a dumb seaman." Nautical games of chicken in the past have caused a number of crashes. In May 1967, for example, a heavy Krupny-class Soviet destroyer in the Sea of Japan brushed against the U.S. destroyer Walker, punching a six-inch hole in its hull above the water line. More recently, in August 1976, the U.S. frigate Voge was rammed by an almost submerged Soviet Echo II-class submarine cruising the Mediterranean. The Voge's hull was gashed and one crewman was injured; the sub also suffered damage. But in the Indian Ocean, the two navies now seem to be adhering to the terms of a 1972 treaty in which Moscow and Washington vowed to avoid "the risk of collision."

Though they do not play chicken, the armadas are involved in a potentially deadly game, for their ships constitute a formidable high seas confrontation between the superpowers. The commander of the Soviet navy, Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, has declared that "sooner or later the U.S. will have to understand that it no longer has mastery of the seas." But Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Thomas Hayward told TIME that Task Force 70 clearly signals that the U.S. has "adequate force to take the initiative if we feel that it's in our interest to do so. And it can be done now, without any delay."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.