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Technically operating under the Navy, but actually a most independent branch of the military, the U.S. Marine Corps is teeming with new ideas. It is the open intention of the Marines to move toward the ability to carry all their fighting men in helicopters. They would be supported by nuclear bombs, rockets and artillery fire so as to create atom-scourged "beachheads" up to 70 miles inland. Having landed, some of the troops would secure supply and communications lines by moving back to the real beaches through "atomic sanitized corridors." Ground Power. The U.S. Army is sure to have a role in the development of the claw. But ground-war planners have had less success than their Air and Navy colleagues in grouping their ideas around a central definition of the Army's responsibility in the wars of tomorrow. Lacking a clear mission, Army planners have been notably unable to convince the budgeteers.
Result: of all the services, the U.S. Army this year received the harshest manpower slashes, and also suffered deep cuts in funds for its precious research and development program.
Nevertheless, present and imminent technological developments offer a fair picture of what the Army may look like.
The first requirement, without which all else becomes moot, is enough airlift to transport quickly at least four strategic divisions and all their fighting tools from U.S. staging areas to any part of the globe. To achieve maximum effectiveness and security once in the arena of war, Army planners have evolved a "cellular" —as opposed to the traditional linear—system of offense. It will permit only 2,000 men in an area occupied by 8,000 to 10,000 in World War II. Such dispersion will impose heavy demands on communications, so the Army is developing what it calls "battlefield surveillance." This consists of sonic and electronic detection gear that will instantly track and report coordinates locating the origin of enemy fire. Recording devices could be planted along unprotected fronts to flash to control centers all unusual noises or movements on the ground and in the air. Some of the devices may detect the presence of enemy patrols and report their direction and approximate size. In control centers —probably electronics-packed trailers—communications men will receive the reports on oscilloscope-type screens.
Surface-to-surface missiles will add new sock to the Army's firepower punch.
Among these is the "Honest John," already in the hands of troops. Mounted on a highly mobile, self-propelled launcher.
Honest John is a freeflight artillery rocket that can carry atomic warheads some 15 miles. Another is the "Corporal."which can be guided by remote control to targets 100 miles away.
The breakthrough into new military ideas was long overdue. In the last decade the U.S. spent $327 billions on defense, but had no military doctrine for anything short of World War III. The age of the double deterrent, of the pistol and the claw, is not a pretty prospect. But it is a prospect—and one around which a rational military policy can be built.