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.