Briscoe (DD 977) - Naval Cruise Book

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USS BRISCOE (I

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(1 IS If UNITAS IS AN ANNUAL TRAINING DEPLOYMENT IN WHICH MARITIME NATIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA OPERATE WITH THE UNITED STATES NAVY EITHER BILATERALLY OR IN MULTINA- TIONAL EXERCISES. THE DEPLOYMENT TRANSITS THE CARIB- BEAN SEA AND AREAS OF THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS, AND REINFORCES THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF THESE VI- TAL SEA LANES OF COMMUNICATIONS. THE IDEA FOR A TRAINING DEPLOYMENT TO SOUTH AMERICA WAS FIRST CONCEIVED IN 1959 AND WAS DEVELOPED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS, ADMI- RAL ARLEIGH A. BURKE. UNITAS HAS BEEN CONDUCTED ANNU- ALLY EVER SINCE. ORIGINALLY, UNITAS WAS ORIENTED TO- WARD ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE. SUCCESSIVE YEARS HAVE ADDED EXERCISES IN ANTI-AIR WARFARE, ANTI-SURFACE WAR- FARE, ELECTRONIC WARFARE, COMMUNICATIONS, SEAMAN- SHIP, AND FREEPLAYS WHICH EMPLOY ALL FACETS OF NAVAL WARFARE. MOST RECENTLY, AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS NAVAL GUNFIRE SUPPORT, HELICOPTER CROSSDECKING, MINE WAR- FARE, AND COAST GUARD OPERATIONS HAVE ALSO BEEN IN- CORPORATED INTO THE DEPLOYMENT. ? - THE OPERATIONAL EXERCISES CONDUCTED UNDER THE AE- GIS OF UNITAS ARE UNIQUE IN THAT NO FORMAL GOVERNMEN- TAL AGREEMENTS GOVERN THEIR EXECUTION. UNITAS IS TRU- LY A NAVY-TO-NAVY OPERATION. THE NAME UNITAS (LATIN FOR UNITY ) IS APTLY CHOSEN , y g FOR THE DEPLOYMENT BECAUSE IT WAS FORMULATED AND IM- ie PLEMENTED WITH AN EMPHASIS ON COOPERATIVE EFFORTS, ,e UNITAS HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN OF MUTUAL BENEFIT TO THE t - RESPECTIVE PARTICIPATING NAVIES. SENIOR SOUTH AMERI- d CAN AND U.S. NAVAL OFFICERS WHO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN £ UNITAS DURING ITS LENGTHY HISTORY CONSISTENTLY EX- TEND STRONG SUPPORT FOR CONTINUING THESE OPERATIONS. so WHILE EXERCISES AT SEA ARE THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF THE £ DEPLOYMENT, INPORT ACTIVITIES SUPPORT UNITAS OBJEC- TIVES AS WELL. THESE ACTIVITIES CENTER ON TRAINING SYM- POSIUMS AS WELL AS HUMANITARIAN AND COMMUNITY RELA- TIONS PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN BY THE U.S. SAILORS WORKING i- ilN CONCERT WITH SOUTH AMERICAN NAVAL PERSONNEL. e A POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE RESULTS FROM THESE CLOSE NAVY-TO-NAVY RELATIONSHIPS. A PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF d THIS YEARS UNITAS IS TO CONTINUE BUILDING UPON THESE £ SOLID TRADITIONS OF HEMISPHERIC NAVAL COOPERATION. al »g r- s- 3 ' E in

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(DD 977) USS BRISCOE was commissioned 3 June 1978 at the Ingalls Ship- building Division of Liton Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She is the fifteenth in a series of thirty-one SPRUANCE class destroyers. BRISCOE bears the name of Ad- miral Robert P. Briscoe, U.S. Navy. He served with distinction during World War I, World War II, and the Korean Conflict. He retired from the Navy in 1959 as a four star Admiral. A versatile, multi-mission plat- form, USS BRISCOE was developed primarily for anti-submarine war- fare. She carries advanced under- water detection, tracking, and tar- geting systems. BRISCOE is also capable of engaging targets on the ocean surface, providing naval gun- fire support to ground forces ashore, and defending against air attack. Since commissioning, BRISCOE has deployed once to the Indian Ocean, once as a member of Stand- ing Naval Forces Atlantic, and three times to the Mediterranean. BRIS- COE participated in Operation Ur- gent Fury in support of Grenada and as part of the United Nation ' s Multi- National Peacekeeping Forces off the coast of Lebanon. BRISCOE has been the test platform for several new systems, including the on-going evaluation of the NATO Sea Spar- row Vertical Launch Missile Sys- tem. 3