\ -33- \ Meanwhile it should be noted that the figure of 5,000 bombs cited above is, as will shortly be demonstrated, by no means an impossible or extreme figure for any great power which has been producing atomic bombs over a period of ten or fifteen years, from naval warfare, The commander of a battleship will not consider the money cost of his 16-inch shells (perhaps 43,000 each at the gun's breech) when engaging an enemy battleship. He will not hesitate, at least not for financial reasons, to open fire at extreme range, even if he can count on only one hit in thirty rounds. The only consideration which could give him pause would be the fear of exhausting his armor—piercing ammunition before he has sunk or dis- abled the enemy ship. The cost of each shell, to be sure, is much smaller than the cost of one atomic bomb, but the amount of damage each hit accomplishes is also smaller-—disproportionately smaller by a wide margin. In calculations of acceptable wastage, the money cost of a weapon is usually far overshadowed by considerations of availability; but in. so far as it does enter into those calculations, it must be weighed against the amount of damage done the enemy with each hit. A million dollar bomb which can do a billion dollars worth of damage--and that is a conservative figure--is a very cheap issile indeed. In fact, one of the most fr@ightening things about the bomb is that it makes the destruction of enemy cities an immeasurably cheaper process than it was before, cheaper not alone in terms of missiles but also in terms of the air forces necessary to do the job, Provided the nation using them has enough such bombs available, it can afford a large number of misses for each hit obtained, To return to General Arnoldts observation, we know from the experience of the recent war that very inferior air forces can penetrate to enemy targets if they are willing to make the necessary sacrifices, The Japanese aircraft which . raided Pearl Harbor were considerably fewer in number than the American planes 4