Cony (DDE 508) - Naval Cruise Book

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ALFA's operations have repeatedly demonstratedtllat H0 equipment of unit can do the job alone. To gain a significant capability for Ielfectlve 8163 surveillance in the near future, every piece of equipment existing and every known technique must be exploited to the utmost. As each new piece Of equipment becomes available it must now be integrated into the weapons system in the same way in which the Task Group itself became an integrated force: first by establishing maximum effectiveness of the equipment by itself, then in combination, and finally through tactical application. ALFA,s more than two years of operation have led to many conclusions about its effectiveness as a highly specialized anti-submarine force. It has become increasingly clear, first of all, that anti-submarine defense is as big a problem as continental air defense and must be approached on as broad a basis. Until both are equally effective, the defense of the United States will not be complete. Then, it has been established that anti-submarine defense must be approached on an area basis. Whether the area is fixed or moving, will not affect the validity of tactics involved. lf surveillance of a fixed area can be successfully accomplished many of the methods developed will be equally applicable to a moving area. It has become apparent, third of all, that the success of an antisubmarine force is not limited to a carrier group alone. The important factor is that it be an effective combination of vehicles whose primary mission is antisub- marine warfare. The vehicles comprising the group must be tailored to forces available, the area of operations, availability of intelligence systems, weather and the overall situation. The group must be operated as an integrated unit to gain the fullest potential of the vehicles and equipment used. Another apparent conclusion is that the antisubmarine group, whether a carrier group, an escort group, or a support group, must be considered as a completely integrated weapons system. At present, ALFA gains this integra- tion through coordination and teamwork, but in the future it will undoubtedly be necessary to integrate through automatic systems to provide precise navi- gation, adequate communications and means of data presentation and analysis. Every unit must know where it is, where every other unit is and the command center must know the location of all units. The commander of the group must have quick, reliable means of gaining needed information and transmitting orders and permitting rapid decisions. ALFA is working towards such auto- matic systems at present, by developing best forms for data to make it adapt- able for automatic transmission and processing, by recommending best con- figurations for command centers and by determining the information required at various command levels for evaluating the situation to direct and control forces. ALFA's short history then, has been an interesting one. The Task Group has accepted the challenge inherent in its very objective. lt has accomplished the difficult tasks of coordinating many working units into a single, thinking 28

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objectives. This required first, that each crew of each vehicle learn the cap- abilities and limitations of all other vehicles, second, it required the provi- sion of the necessary communications devices and techniques between the units, and third, all types had to learn to work together in increasingly greater combinations until all units were employed simultaneously on a single problem. This progressive team development resulted in the formation of a coordinated team with a greater cumulative capability than the sum of the individual capabilities of the units involved. TACTICAL DEVELOPMENT No burglar alarm ever caught a burglar. Thus, no matter how complex and effective future warning systems may become, they will need to be backed up by ready mobile forces capable of contacting, holding and if neces- sary, destroying any submarine not known to be friendly, within the defense perimeter. Determination of how best to utilize these mobile forces was the first objective of Task Group ALFA Tactical Development. The result has been the formulation of doctrine and procedure for area search, for control of forces over a wide area, for necessary communications and coordination on an area basis, and for concentration of all these forces in the contact area. Tactics such as these required that forces be utilized in a new way: the carrier serving as a mobile air base, logistics center and com- mand post of the group, controlling and supplying forces throughout the operating area. At most times, it must remain outside the actual area to avoid interference with investigative forces and for its own safety. The destroyers, except for serving minimum requirements as carrier screening and plane guard elements, must be dispersed where they can be near probable con- tacts, conduct searches and be used for deception. Fixed wing aircraft cover the area visually and by radar. VW aircraft keep track of surface contacts, furnish radar and vital communications links, and guide aircraft to investi- gate contacts. Helicopters are utilized in search and localization of contact. EQUIPMENT IMPROVEMENT No matter how great the improvement resulting from better tactics and coordination, eventually there must be a point beyond which further progress can come only from improved equipment. Task Group ALFA by its nature has been able to make only limited efforts in equipment improvement. It has obtained existing equipment that would give an immediate increase in cap- abilty to any vehicle. It has adapted existing equipment to meet obvious needs, such as placing aircraft communication devices in destroyers. lt has gone to laboratories and manufacturers to determine how to obtain highest perform- ance for installed equipment. This has resulted in obtaining, in many cases, greater than designed performance and better reliability from much of its equipment. Beyond this Task Group ALFA has been able to follow closely research and development programs and has attempted to maintain a com- patible direction of its own tactical development with the direction of equip- ment improvement programs throughout the fleet. 27

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team. It has tested, as a sea-going laboratory, many ideas, impulses and care- fully calculated tactics. Its work has served as a model for the formation of other coordinated weapons systems with the common objective of antisub- marine defense, and its own accomplishments have set the pattern and the standard for the operation of these companion groups. But those in ALFA by no means consider their job accomplished or their history written and ended. Their job becomes increasingly more difficult each day. Each challenge accepted, each defeat conquered, each victory hard-won brings with it new knowledge and new challenge. Each operation brings with it a greater understanding of the immensity of the problem, and too, a more intensive knowledge of how to overcome the problems large areas, tricky oceans and the revolutionary improvements of the nuclear submarine. This book will record a part of that history only. It will show some of the operation of the Task Group from September 1959 until September, 1960. lt could not begin to tell all of the stories or record all of the events. lt will serve instead to indicate some of the scope of the problems that face the Task Group, be it a contact which must be identified, or the recreation which must be planned to keep the men's spirits high for the job they must do during long and trying days at sea. lt is the story of the ALFA Team, her men, that has written the past history of defeats and accomplishments. And it is the men who man her ships and planes who will continue to write the history of this antisubmarine defense group-write it in boredom or hard work, in a plane, from a sub- marine, on the pitching deck of a destroyer, inthe noisy excitement of a launch from a carrier deck. Her men have written her past... abut the real story is written tcftvlciyg . , 29