U.S. NAVY SAID INCREASING PRESENCE NEAR GULF

  Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger has
  ordered the U.S. Navy to increase its presence near the Gulf in
  an effort to fulfil President Reagan's pledge to keep oil
  flowing to Europe and Japan, The New York Times reported.
      The newspaper quoted Pentagon officials as saying the Navy
  would keep the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk on station in the
  Arabian Sea and the rest of the Indian Ocean until May, three
  months longer than planned.
      The Navy would then have a carrier battle group of six to
  eight warships in the area at all times rather than part of the
  time, as happens now, the paper said.
      The paper said that last month U.S. Intelligence sources
  said they had spotted land-based anti-ship missiles of a
  Chinese design known in the West as the HY-2 near the Strait of
  Hormuz.
      It said their purpose was seen as a signal Iran was ready
  to continue and perhaps step up the Gulf shipping war against
  Iraq.
      U.S. Carriers or battleships would sail out of range of
  those missiles, but within striking distance, the paper quoted
  officials as saying.
      From several hundred miles at sea, carriers could launch
  aircraft bombing runs or missile strikes, and battleships could
  fire long-range missiles, the paper said.
  

