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Show I Navy Planes' Gunpower Has Increased Fivefold CHICAGO. Fire power of navy fighter planes has increased fivefold since 1940 and the anti-aircraft fire power of battleships is 100 times what it was three years ago, Adlai E. Stevenson, assistant secretary of the navy, told members of the Chicago , Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Stevenson said the navy would be 3 times its pre-war strength by the end of next year. In three years, he continued, the navy had been built from 383 fighting fight-ing ships to well above 600, alter all losses, transfers to other countries coun-tries and conversions to non-combat types. From 1,076 vessels of all types the navy has been expanded in that time to more than 14,000 ships. He reported that the navy received re-ceived 1,200 vessels in June, 1943, compared with five in July, 1940, and nearly 2,000 airplanes in June, 1943, compared with 25 in July, 1940. In that time the navy built 2,200,000 tons of ships, added 23,000 airplanes and completed 650 million dollars' worth of shore facilities. "By the end of this year we will have more than 14 first-line aircraft carriers, double the number we had on the date of Pearl Harbor, and you can guess where most of them will be working," Mr. Stevenson said. |