I am getting hyped for the release of "Seapower" here in a couple days and came across this article while looking for interesting scenario ideas. Just a typical article from a different world.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Ships from the United States, pritain, Iran, Pakistan and turkey, including the 60,000ton American carrier Constellation, are participating in the largest naval exercise ever held in the Indian Ocean.
The exercise, Midlink 74, is sponsored by the Central Treaty Organization, known popularly as CENTO. Britain, Iran, Pakiitan and Turkey are full members, and the United States is a member of its military, economic and countersubversion committees.
The Constellation heads an eight‐ship American force that includes the command ship La Salle, two guided missile destroyers, two destroyer escorts, a fast support ship and a nuclear‐powered submarine.
According to qualified military sources, the exercise in the Arabian Se0.’ arm of the Indian Ocean, between India and the Arabian peninsula, is designed:. to demonstrate the alliance'ik naval strength in the approaches to the Persian Gulf and the world's richest oil reserves. Soviet air and sea activity, has recently increased in the area.
Said to ‘Be for Training
A communique issued at alliance’ headquarters in Ankara, Turkey, described Midlink 74, which will end Nov. 30, as training exercise in joint operations. It was described officially as the largest ever held in the Indian Ocean.
In addition to the American squadron, the alliance force includes a British nuclear‐powered submarine, probably of the Valiant class. Destroyers and frigates of the modernized Iranian Navy and destroyers of Pakistan and Turkey are also taking part in the operation.
The exercise, according to well‐placed sources, is expected to balance a growing Soviet presence in the area symbolized by the recent’ deployment in the Arabian Sea of the Leningrad, a cruiser‐helicopter carrier, and by the establishment of Russian naval and air facilities at Aden in Southern Yemen, on the island of Socotra, also part of Southern Yemen, at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden and at Berbera, Somaliland.
American and British naval sources considered the operation particularly important to Iran. Her position as the primary naval power in the Persian Gulf area has been challenged by frequent visits by Soviet squadrons to Umm Qasr, the Iraqi port at the head of the gulf.
The Iraqi Navy has fewer than 20 vessels. Her relations with Iran have deteriorated. A Soviet‐Iraqi treaty of April, 1972, provides that the Soviet Navy can use Umm. Qasr at will and that, in return, Moscow will help strengthen the Iraqi navy.
Assistance has taken the form, according to western intelligence analysts, of the supply of Komar and Osa‐class missile patrol boats. Their presence, the source said, measurably reduces Iranian freedom of action in the narrow waters of the Persian Gulf. India Expresses ‘Concern’ Special to The New York Times NEW DELHI, Nov. 20—Defense Minister Swaran Singh told Parliament today of India's “deep concern” about a joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean by the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. He said that Pakistan was host to the exercises which he said were the “biggest ever” held under the Central Treaty Organization. “I hope Pakistan would realize it is not in its own interest to embark on an adventurist course in regards to India,” Mr. Singh warned. He did not speak harshly about the United States. In answer to a question of a Communist member on how the Government viewed these exercises because they closely followd a goodwill visit to India by Secretary of State Kissinger. Mr. Singh said: “It's because these actions of the United States we want to improve our relatitis with that comity.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/21/arch ... naval.html
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Ships from the United States, pritain, Iran, Pakistan and turkey, including the 60,000ton American carrier Constellation, are participating in the largest naval exercise ever held in the Indian Ocean.
The exercise, Midlink 74, is sponsored by the Central Treaty Organization, known popularly as CENTO. Britain, Iran, Pakiitan and Turkey are full members, and the United States is a member of its military, economic and countersubversion committees.
The Constellation heads an eight‐ship American force that includes the command ship La Salle, two guided missile destroyers, two destroyer escorts, a fast support ship and a nuclear‐powered submarine.
According to qualified military sources, the exercise in the Arabian Se0.’ arm of the Indian Ocean, between India and the Arabian peninsula, is designed:. to demonstrate the alliance'ik naval strength in the approaches to the Persian Gulf and the world's richest oil reserves. Soviet air and sea activity, has recently increased in the area.
Said to ‘Be for Training
A communique issued at alliance’ headquarters in Ankara, Turkey, described Midlink 74, which will end Nov. 30, as training exercise in joint operations. It was described officially as the largest ever held in the Indian Ocean.
In addition to the American squadron, the alliance force includes a British nuclear‐powered submarine, probably of the Valiant class. Destroyers and frigates of the modernized Iranian Navy and destroyers of Pakistan and Turkey are also taking part in the operation.
The exercise, according to well‐placed sources, is expected to balance a growing Soviet presence in the area symbolized by the recent’ deployment in the Arabian Sea of the Leningrad, a cruiser‐helicopter carrier, and by the establishment of Russian naval and air facilities at Aden in Southern Yemen, on the island of Socotra, also part of Southern Yemen, at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden and at Berbera, Somaliland.
American and British naval sources considered the operation particularly important to Iran. Her position as the primary naval power in the Persian Gulf area has been challenged by frequent visits by Soviet squadrons to Umm Qasr, the Iraqi port at the head of the gulf.
The Iraqi Navy has fewer than 20 vessels. Her relations with Iran have deteriorated. A Soviet‐Iraqi treaty of April, 1972, provides that the Soviet Navy can use Umm. Qasr at will and that, in return, Moscow will help strengthen the Iraqi navy.
Assistance has taken the form, according to western intelligence analysts, of the supply of Komar and Osa‐class missile patrol boats. Their presence, the source said, measurably reduces Iranian freedom of action in the narrow waters of the Persian Gulf. India Expresses ‘Concern’ Special to The New York Times NEW DELHI, Nov. 20—Defense Minister Swaran Singh told Parliament today of India's “deep concern” about a joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean by the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. He said that Pakistan was host to the exercises which he said were the “biggest ever” held under the Central Treaty Organization. “I hope Pakistan would realize it is not in its own interest to embark on an adventurist course in regards to India,” Mr. Singh warned. He did not speak harshly about the United States. In answer to a question of a Communist member on how the Government viewed these exercises because they closely followd a goodwill visit to India by Secretary of State Kissinger. Mr. Singh said: “It's because these actions of the United States we want to improve our relatitis with that comity.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/21/arch ... naval.html
statistics: Posted by sprucansailor — 2:23 AM - Today — Replies 1 — Views 45