Libya Reorganizing Military Forces, Seeking East Bloc Aid

Libya has been quietly restructuring its military since the U.S. air strike last April 15 and has appealed for increased military aid from Eastern Bloc nations, sources here said Friday.

The bombing, which Libyan officials said heavily damaged Tripoli and Benghazi and killed 39 people, apparently took Libya by surprise despite a reported warning by Maltese air controllers 45 minutes before the attack.

Diplomats here said an Eastern European analysis of Libya’s response concluded that its air force pilots didn’t react swiftly enough and its air defense system was poorly coordinated.

Military advisers from Syria, which like Libya has Soviet-made SAM-5 missiles, helped in the air defense, according to U.S. officials and sources in Tripoli.

The United States, which said it staged the April raids in retaliation for Libyan terrorism against Americans, has warned that further evidence of Libyan support for international terrorism could result in another attack. U.S. officials recently said they have evidence Libya is planning terror attacks against America.

The result has been a drive to reorganize the Libyan military and get more military aid.

Diplomatic sources in Tripoli, who spoke on the condition of not being identified, said that Libyan air force pilots are receiving renewed training with Yugoslav help. Yugoslavia, though a Communist nation, pursues a nonaligned policy.

The sources also said that in July, the armed forces command post was transferred deep into the Libyan desert to Hun, 250 miles south of Tripoli.

Six to eight weeks ago, Libya received two Soviet frigates of the Nanushka class to replace a frigate sunk by U.S. aircraft in a skirmish in the Gulf of Sidra a month before the American air attack, said authoritative sources. Sources said a senior Soviet naval adviser to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi was killed when the Libyan ship was sunk.

According to the sources, Soviet military advisers did not take part in Libyan counterstrike efforts when the U.S. air raid came three weeks later.

Although Libya has purchased billions of dollars in Soviet arms in the past, a sharp drop in oil revenues, from $22 billion in 1980 to less than $5 billion expected this year, is cutting into its military spending, sources said. Libya reportedly bartered oil for Soviet arms in several recent deals.

Plans to buy tanks and military training aircraft from Yugoslavia have been scaled back and a project to construct a new naval base at Al Khom, about 75 miles east of Tripoli, has been put on hold, diplomatic sources said.