budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) (05/19/89)
From: budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) Increasing firepower in the anti-air category characterized the Pacific Fleet all through WWII. This climaxed in wartime with the early cruise missile -- the kamikaze and the battle of Okinawa. All this has been pointed out by several posters -- pretty accurately. After the war, the trend continued. The Navy initiated two development programs that persist to today. The first was the anti-air missile -- greater standoff range and improved accuracy over gunnery. Thus was born Talos, followed by Tartar, Terrier and today, Standard. All same pedigree. Second was task-force-wide battle management. Given x ships under attack by y aircraft, a fairly leak-proof defense <could> be erected providing sufficient firepower was properly distributed across all the targets. With manual targeting decisions and voice radio, the kamikaze saturated the defenses. Link 11 and Naval Tactical Data System date their initial operational capability to the mid-50s (and we're still saddled with a lot of archaic architecture as a result). Another historical trail is that LantFleet remains to this day an ASW Navy and PacFleet an AAW one -- a WWII legacy that persists. Rex Buddenberg -------