National Affairs: WHAT RED AIRPOWER?

How strong is Soviet Russia’s Air Force? Last week, the man in the best position to judge, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Nathan Farragut Twining, was winging home after an inspection of Red airpower such as no Western airman has ever made. Reported TIME’S Washington Bureau Chief James Shepley, who covered Twining’s mission to Moscow:

THE most important single result of the Twining mission is a solid conclusion: the U.S. has been overrating Soviet airpower. As the eight-day tour of the American airmen ends, some fairly clear judgments take shape. They are judgments made of many things−statements of Soviet leaders, formal briefings, snatches of conversation, and in some cases real opportunities for a first-hand professional look at Russian craft. While U.S. airmen naturally saw only a fraction of the Red Air Force, they came away convinced that after years of close-mouthed suspicion, the Russians made a real effort to show more than they had ever shown before. Key observations :

Aerodynamics. The Russians are at least three years behind the U.S., possibly more. The latest Soviet jet fighters are probably no more than transonic, cannot match such U.S. “century” supersonic jets as North American’s F-100, McDonnell’s F-101, Convair’s F-102, all of which can top 1,000 m.p.h. in level flight. The modern tricks of “coke-bottle” area-rule fuse lage design (TIME, Feb. 20), enabling U.S. fighters to slip easily through the sonic barrier, seem to have escaped Russian designers; so has the straight, knife-sharp wing that helps Lockheed’s dartlike F-104 to speeds approaching 1,400 m.p.h. At Tushino, the newest MIG-21 jet fighter flew on thick, bulky wings requiring extreme sweepback, a configuration notoriously weak in the speed ranges of supersonic flight.

Aircraft Maintenance. Red standards are incredibly primitive, would stun U.S. Air Force officers who are accustomed to U.S. standards. Visiting the Kubinka fighter base near Moscow, Twining saw a barren field with rows of MIG-19s lined up wingtip to wingtip−no dispersal, no hangars. All maintenance was outside, exposed to weather. When one U.S. officer asked Soviet Air Force Chief of Staff Sergei Rudenko how his men worked on their planes in winter, the Red marshal grinned: “We like cold weather.” But what must Rudenko’s aircraft-in-service rate be on a wintry day?

Aircraft Production. From available scraps of evidence, the Russians have nothing comparable to such modern semi-automated operations as Boeing’s Seattle 6-52 plant or Pratt & Whitney’s Hartford engine plant. While the Russians may produce modern warplanes in quantity, they must do it the hard way. They accomplish the things on which they put highest priority only by letting other details slide.

The Power Plants. The Russians show considerable imagination in engine design. The four big turboprop engines powering the swept-wing Bear bomber-tanker for Russia’s strategic air command appear to excel anything that the U.S. has achieved in that neglected field. And the turbo-jets on the new Bison bomber and MIG-21 fighter are estimated at 16.500 Ibs. of thrust (roughly equal to the best U.S. production engines).

“R. & D.” The Russians show an intense interest in research and development. Unlike the U.S. Air Force, which scrambles for every development dollar, Soviet research and development is limited only by the resources of the Soviet Union. Said one U.S. airman: “They simply lay down their requirements, and the Kremlin approves.”

Despite the conviction that U.S. intelligence has consistently overrated Russian airpower, Twining does not feel complacent. Russian achievements in engines, the Red Air Force’s ability to work in spite of limited facilities, cannot be ignored. At one point, Twining sat down for a two-hour talk with Soviet Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov, whose importance in the current picture can hardly be overrated. Twining came away convinced that Zhukov was sincere when he insisted that Russia has no thought of attacking the U.S., was wryly amused when Zhukov said that the U.S. overrates Russian power− perhaps, smiled Zhukov, to justify bigger and bigger military budgets.