lab@qubix.UUCP (Larry Bickford) (12/17/83)
Time to rouse the hornets...
(Reprinted without permission from San Jose Mercury News, 12/15/83, 10D)
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JANE'S WARNS OF SOVIETS' BIG, FAST MILITARY PLANES
LONDON(UPI) - Disarmament negotiators have overlooked the Soviet
Union's ability to ferry missiles on the world's biggest plane, an
authoritative reference books said Thursday.
The new edition of "Jane's All the World's Aircraft" also warned
that "Soviet fighters continue to roll off the assembly lines at the
rate of THREE A DAY [emphasis added-Ed.], far surpassing NATO
production." And new Soviet planes are quality products, it said.
Jane's published details and a drawing of the Soviet Union
Antonov An-400, "the largest airplane flying anywhere in the world."
"What does not seem to have occurred to statesman discussing
missiles at East-West arms limitation talks is that an aircraft of this
size can ... eaily ferry mobile strategic missile systems like the
SS-20," said editor John W.R. Taylor in the book's foreword.
"There is little point in withdrawing such weapons from forward
launch sites when they can be replaced speedily in East Germany or
deployed to a conveniently located Grenada-type island."
The new Jane's said the An-400 Condor has a wingspan of 243.5
feet and is 231.75 feet long, about 5% bigger than the U.S. C-5A Galaxy.
Describing three new supersonic fighters "with which the Soviet
air forces will re-equip in the next five years," it said the new MiG-31
Foxhound fighter is "a major advance over the MiG-25 Foxbat," currently
the hottest fighter in the Soviet air force.
The new Tupolev supersonic strategic heavy bomber, dubbed
Blackjack, is "much larger and faster than the (U.S.) Strategic Air
Command's forthcoming B-1B," it said.
Taylor stressed "the great danger" of Western neglect of
conventional air power "in order to expand and update a missile force
that is already excessive.
"Six new types of fighter and attack aircraft introduced into
Warsaw Pact air forces in central Europe since 1970 have such increased
payload-range capacity that more bombs could be dropped on London today
than could be put on Frankfurt in 1970," he said.
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Editorial comment - why did the Forgery stash this in the middle of the
fourth section? Isn't there a "public right to know" that a foreign
power is building up attack machinery in a hurry? And why not a headline
like "Soviets building warplanes bigger and faster than U.S." or "Soviet
planes can launch SS-20's from the air"?
Or would that spoil the image being shoved on the naive?
The igloo of Larry Bickford, {amd70,ittvax}!qubix!lab
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