Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
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Soviet Air Forces.¹² Early in 1956, concern about a possible Soviet advantage in long-range bombers grew as Air Force Chief of Staff Twining informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Soviet Union already had more Bisons than the United States had B-52s and that the Soviets would be able to “maintain this advantage for some time if they keep on the production curve we are now predicting.”¹³ By May 1956, reporting on the growing Soviet air strength was no longer confined to aviation journals; *U.S. News and World Report*, for example, featured articles headlined “Can Soviets Take the Air Lead?” and “Is U.S. Really Losing in the Air?”¹⁴
Alongside fear of possible Soviet superiority in long-range bombers came a new potential threat: Soviet progress in guided missile research. Trevor Gardner, Air Force Assistant Secretary for Research and Development, warned in September 1955 that “the most complex and baffling technological mystery today is not the Russian capability in aircraft and nuclear weapons but rather what the Soviet progress has been in the field of guided missiles.”¹⁵ On 30 January 1956, *Time* magazine made the guided missile its cover story. The article began by describing a hypothetical crisis set in 1962 in which the United States suffered a humiliating defeat because it had lagged behind the Soviet Union in guided missile development.¹⁶ Just two weeks after this story appeared, the Soviets successfully tested a missile with a range of 900 miles, and President Eisenhower admitted at a press conference that the Soviet Union might be ahead of the United States in some areas of the missile field. Administration critic Senator Stuart Symington then claimed, “The facts are that our missile development may be ahead in the short-range area, but their missile development is ahead in the area that counts by far the most—the
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¹² Robert Hotz, “Russian Jet Airpower Gains Fast on US,” *Aviation Week*, 23 May 1955, pp. 12-15; “Aviation Week Story Spurs Debate on US, Red Airpower Positions,” *Aviation Week*, 30 May 1955, pp. 13-14.
¹³ Claude Witze, “Russians Outpacing US in Air Quality, Twining Warns Congress,” *Aviation Week*, 27 February 1956, pp. 26-28; Robert Hotz, “Russian Air Force Now Gaining in Quality,” *Aviation Week*, 12 March 1956, p. 286.
¹⁴ “Can Soviets Take the Air Lead? What LeMay, Wilson, Ike Say,” *US News and World Report*, 11 May 1956, pp. 108-114; “Is U.S. Really Losing in the Air?” *US News and World Report*, 18 May 1956, pp. 25-27.
¹⁵ William Coughlin, “Gardner Defends Greater R&D Spending,” *Aviation Week*, 26 September 1955, p. 14.
¹⁶ “Missiles Away,” *Time*, 30 January 1956, pp. 52-55.
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25