U.S. MILITARY'S PERFORMANCE IS PRAISED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310004-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: October 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310004-0
'V ARTICLE PPE RED
ON PAGE ~g
NEW YORK TIMES
12 October 1985
U.S. Military's Performance Is Praised
By BILL LELLER
Spdv M no NW Yet TIn M
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11- Pentagon
officials said today that the aerial
operation that thwarted the escape of
tour hijackers over the Mediterranean
was a firm rebuttal to critics of recent
military budgets and ? rlaniza Seo-
'-What this demo rates,"
of the Navy John F. Lehman t
"is despite the chea
try to portray the military as not being
able to tie their shoelaces, we have the
highest quality we've ever had.
reporters on the incident, said today
that the incident proved the value of the
money spent on new equipment and
combat readiness during the
years.
..We really do have readiness, in
spite of what people have been saying
on the Hill about spending a lot of
money and not getting anything for it
said the official. who asked not to be
identified.
View In Congress
..several- aircraft using the commer-
cial airline routes across the Mediter-
ranean. The Navy Planes, their running
lights out and radios silenced, trailed
the Egyptian airliner until it was
refused- landing rights in Tunis and
Athens.
Plans ordered to Slefly
Then four F-14s flanked the Egyptian
plane and a Hawkeye ordered it to land
at an Italian-American naval air fa-
cility in Sicily.
At the Pentagon, the interception
quickly was taken up as an argument in
defense of President R 's military
buildup, and against t en mounting
campaign to change the way the mili-
tary TTheisseni? Pentagon official, citing
the numbers of F-14's and E-2C's pur-
chased by the Reagan Administration,
asserted that "we have a greater ca-
pacity to do this now on a day-today,
basis than we did four, five, six years
ago. official said the operation also
proved the importance of having more
aircraft carriers to carry air power to
remote parts of the world.
The Navy has come under attack for
its costly plan to expand the number of
aircraft carriers from 13 to 15. Critics
say that proposal is too expensive.
Members of congress cautioned
against making so much of the inci-
dent, but they agreed that the intercep-
tion was a well-executed operation that
and,
showed especiallYy,a high guali ntelii-.
genre.
..They carried off a very well
planned, very well executed, extraordi-
narily difficult mission," said Senator
Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, a
member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee. "It feels damn good to be
able to respond to a terrorist attack on
innocent American civilians."
In the operation, F-14 Tomcat fight-
ers, E-2C Hawkeye communications
planes, and K-A8 tankers took off from
the aircraft carrier Saratoga as it
steamed south of Greece, flew 180
miles, and circled for hours in the flight
path of the chartered Egyptian Boeing
737, refueling repeatedly.
Pentagon officials said the Hawk-
eyes picked the Egyptian plane from
controversy Over Ashtrays
The F-14 and the E-2C have not been
targets of criticism or budget cuts in
recent years, except earlier this year
when it was disclosed the Navy was
being charged $950 apiece for spare
ashtrays for the communications
plane.
Mr. Lehman, in several interviews
today, said the exercise over the Medi-
terranean also disproved the idea that
the Pentagon is too riddled with fac-
tions to operate smoothly.
The belief has gained a number of in-
fluential adherents, including the
Chairman of the Senate Armed Serv-
ices Committee, Senator Barry Gold-
water, Republican of Arizona, and the
committee's senior Democrat, Senator
Sam Nunn of Georgia, who have been
pushito streamline the role of the',
Joint %0 o1 Staff, the Pentagon and
Congress in grooming and running the
military.
"Contrary to the parlor-room Per-
shings around this town,. We have a
fully integrated multiservim unified
command structure to operate these
people," Mr. Lehmmn told.Cable News
Network this morning.
The House Armed Services Commit-
tee Chairman, Representative Les
Aspin, recently De~ t of Wisconsin, who has
a series of hearings
questioning whether the Reagan Ad-
ministration's military buildup was
worth the cost, disputed Mr. Lehman in
an interview.
'Very Wag Execabd'
"The operation was terrific," he
said. "It was very appropriate and
very well executed. But it doesn't an-
swer the questions of how good our
military is overall, what have we got
for our trillion dollars, and how do we
stack up against the Soviet union com-
pared to where we were in 1990.
"It's very dangerous to draw enor-
mous conclusions from single opera-
tions,,' he added. Referring to the
failed 1979 military effort to rescue
American hostages in Iran, he said,
"Because Desert One didn't work did-
n't
Lary preparedness
doesn't demonstrate that everything is
in good shape."
officials were particularly pleased
with the performance of American in-
telligence networks, which have been
widely criticized for failing to foresee
crises in the Middle East or to trace
terrorists.
"Our intelligence services worked
some " said Senator Patrick J. Leahv,
em'ocrat o ermont. vice
man of the to me ce om-
pmitteeev were so m sure
we'lleara rt is at L " 1
to read cable messages exchanged dur-
ing the operation. He at LbILEEELM
confi med AdminiatraLOII accounts
that American intelli_aence services.
without help from allied services were'
the time th left the hijacked Italian
airliner was int
'grts from E an Government orn_
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310004-0