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other, capable of firing accurately at a range of 200 miles, it would be readily admitted that no fleet could come within this area. If, in addition, these batteries were so mobile that they could be concentrated at one point to withstand a naval attack, there would be even less doubt.
We now possess the means to organize an Army Air Force which could launch an attack beyond a distance of 200 miles from any point of our coast line, with the heaviest projectiles and most accurate fire known. In the past, no naval commander would have engaged an equal enemy fleet under the protection of coast defenses where their combined fire would have been encountered. To-day, he could not successfully engage an enemy fleet is an area where he would be subjected to a combined attack of the opposing fleet and the Air Force, thus the Army Air Force is available for either operations in the interior of the country or our foreign possessions or for use in seacoast defense.
Naval land based air forces, however, are tied to their operating bases since they are not provided with land transport. Consequently, with the exception of the fact that they have a greater range of operation, they are comparatively as immobile as our fixed coast defenses. A naval land based air force merely duplicates functions which can be carried out more efficiently by the Army Air Force and any naval land based aircraft provided is a duplication of Army aircraft which should be supplied for all operations from land bases.

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