Coontz (DLG 9) - Naval Cruise Book

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WE ' Rb 1 t : AT LAST ■ k t ■■V - A CUDDLY KOALA BEAR MELBOURNE BY A I R A TRUE AUSTRALIAN ' BUSH ' AFTERNOON AT THE RACES

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' • »»»»»»»»» A [blr l is ready to go when . . . ' Big Charlie ' spots a bogy From PETER POLOMKA aboard the U.S. Navy guided- missile frigate Coontz. 0OGY-ALPHA is a ' bird ' (missile) target. said a voice as we watched in an eerie wonderland of red, yellow, blue, green and white lights. In semi-darkness stood a U.S. Naval officer watching a small point of light move near the cen- tre of the clock face of an electronic con- sole. De,=.lgiiate Bogy-Alpha. he said. Instantly a prob- ing radar scanned the sky from the ships superstruc- ture. Unseen It sought Bogy- Alpha an enemv aiicralt simulated bv the trick of an electronic tratninR de- vice We were aboard BiE CharHe ' — crack £35 mil- lion missile friitatP I ' SS Coonlz — watching in the weapons control room as she went into action off the south •ca ' it o3 l of Australia. We were scelnE the hands-off. push-button- missilt potential the Aus- tralian fleet wili encom- pass with the delivery of two £20 Million Charles F Adams destroyers on order iiuin the US Good choice We couldn ' t have made a belter choice, said Lt.- Com. Dick Bust. Director of Tactics and Staff Re- quiremenLs. R.A N , Can- berra. And I don ' t see anv mnjor problems in manning the ships with Australian crews ' USS Coontz IS a big sis- ter to the Adams Class we are buvin? but incorpor- ates sihiilar advanced Ruid- ed missile eqiiinment Had Bogy-Alpha been a real enemv aircraft or a •skunk lenemv shipi. BiE Charlie could have flown a bird to kill from at least 10 miles away. The bird IS a 3noo-Ib Terrier missile capable of 2 ' - times the speed of sound and. if neces-sarv. carrvinc a nuclear war- head With a corkscrew flip the rartar wo-ilri have snatched the Terrier In flight and juidert ' t straight to the target Had a Eoblin (enemy submarine) been luikUii; in the waters. Big Charlie could have sent either a torpedo or depth charge at least four miles across the sea to home in throuEh the water for a kill Either Terrier or torpedo could be speeding on their way within seconds of sightinE on tiie radar scope in the frigate ' s com- bat information centre. Guided missile men never see their quarry — other than as an image on an electronic detector — an l rton ' t want to. The US. frigate Coontz and, below, missiles she carries. Its eyes . The electronic wonder- land of the combat centre is the eyes and ears of the ship. Crews sit in comfort plotting the p th of planes in flight more than 200 miles away. Information flows in from three sets of radar, sonar detectors and other sources. As manv as 10 pairs of eves mav watch the ap- proach of an aircraft such as Bogy-Alpha, designa- ted unlriencilv Once as- Eiened to weapons control it IS bent on destruction But its the captain ' s task to assess whether to open f re and order the re- lease of the missile battery. A TV panel and inter- com phones provide him with information from combat centre as he stands on the bridge Once he ives the command, wea- pons control takes charge destroying eacli most threatening enemy In turn Commander H H, iHam ' Ries. in charge of the Coontz. has reason to be proud of his ship ' s per- formance. Recenllv she won a cove- ted efficiency trophy in the Seventh Pacific Fleet, to which shes attached, for two maximum possibi scores in missile tests. Practice is a problem with missile destroyers Each mis ' ile costs upwards of $60,000 r £27.000) — each submarine rocket about S 10.000. The Coontz is allowed to fire eight Terriers each vear. RAN GANNETS FLY BY A GANNET AIRCRAFT FROM HMS MELBOURNE RAN OFFICERS ON TH E BRIDGE CUTTING CAKE GIVEN BY riMS MELBOURNE

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OUR SHIPS AHEAD A U.S.S. COONTZ POINTS TO THE FUTURE S U.S.S. C-oonlz, first guided missile warship to he h ' oii in Austruha • teamed past W ilsonV Promontory in hlissfully calm water , lljr hosun s pipe sounded shrilly over the shipV amplifying system. Then came the xirgpnt message Cetierai quarters. All hantls man your battle stationg, Within three niin- ute , all hut 30 of Cooiitz ' s crew of 3i 0 had scnrried to posi- tions beneath deoks, ready to cope with a simulated enejny air- craft approaching at 550 miles an hour across the eastern tip of Victoria, The call to battle stations is one of the few examples of com- paratively old - fash- ioned drama left aboard this two-year- old destroyer - leader, one of the crack war- ships of the American Seventh Fleet. The rest Is mostly push- button warfare, with Its own drama of a new and often eerie kind. These sailors, many of them electronic techni- cians, should never sec their enemy — other than as an iniagc on an elec- tronic detector. They sit in comfort In dimly-lit control rooms, watcrung 14 radar screens, considering whether a speck on a screen at a distance of up to 200 miles Is a friendly plane or an enemy one tor maybe Just an Innocent neutral! , deciding whether to throw a s ltch which will send a Terner missile, with or without a nuclear war- head, speeding along an elec- tronic beam to reach and destroy its target In a mat- ter of seconds. COONTZ is similar to, though slightly lar- ger than, the two Charles F. Adams-type destroyers which the Australian Government has ordered from the United States. These two destroyers, costing a total of £40 million, are expected here in 1965. Already, six R.A.N, offi- cers, anxious to study the skills and methods which will be needed when Austra- lia takes delivery of the new ships, have sailed in Coontz while she has been In Aus- tralian waters. The three on the Mel- bourne-Sydney section of the trip — Commander A. L. Milroy ( director of mech- eiiical training), Lieut, - Commander P. Qoldnck ( Investigating personnel problems , and Lieut-Com- mander R. S. Rust (Inter- ested in radar and combat information equipment i — stood in the comoat Infor- mation centre when the or- der. Man your battle sta- tions, was given. Standing in the decision area, as it is called, the ship ' s executive oCQcer, Lieut -Commander W. R. Hartman. weighed the evi- dence and decided thai tlie plane was an enemy — un- recognised by secret code, by visual observation from fnendlv aircraft in the area, nor by intelligence reports. the weapons assignment con- sole and a panel headed. Count-down procedure, pulled a switch to send the missile on its way. • FOR another thing, Coontz has a quota of eight practice firings a year. The quota is limited to eight be- By MICHAEL MACGEORGE who has been at sea with U.S.S. Coontz U.S.S. COONTZ. The Asroc, or antl-sDb- marine rocket, system went into action — but the exercise could not be completed because of a minor mechajiical fault. The Asroc system, Identi- cal to those which will be on the Australian ships, ftres a ballistic missile which drops a homing torpedo or depth charge in the sea near the target. I ASKED Commander Ries If he ever had any fears that the automatic system which fires the missiles might be put Into action through an electronic, or human, fault. I do not, he said. For a missile to be fired In er- ror would require a major ' mIsfAke to be made by three ! senior otHcers. I Commander Ries said Coontz carried equipment unto the third generation — the equipment itself, in- struments to check the equipment, and Instruments to check the instruments which check the equipment. More than half the men aboard C ' Oontz are tech- nicians, many with post- traduate training. They Include noi only elec- tromcji and weapons experts, but engineers, electricians, machinists, communications experta. metalsmltlis and plumbers. As well as insLrumenta of war, the equipment includes an ice cream machine, pro- jectors for movies in all three messes each night, with a matinee on Sundays; air-conditioning, and foam- rubber mattresses. JN manning Us two Charles F. Adams- , type destroyers, the ! R.A.N, will face its only | real training problems | in the missile section, j which is still virtually i unknown territory to I many of Its officers. The RAN. destroyers i will be equipped with Tartar ! guided missiles — a short- I range missile compared with the medium-range Terrier. I It is already obvious that a large percentage of the Australian crews will have to train in America for many months before taking de- livery. LVen after the ships are In commission, it is likely that they will go to Pearl Harbor at least once a year for exercises with American ships. Training and operating methods of the Austra- lian, American and Bri- tish navies have already been considerably stan- dardised — often along American lines — as a re- sult of membership of SEATO and other pacts. But It is Inevitable that the R.A.N, will move even closer to American practices as a result of Its decision lor Charlea F. Adams, Lieut. -Commander Hart- man passed on to the wea- pons control room his de- cision that the speck on the radar was a threat to the ship and should be fired at. The weapons control men then went to work with radar and electronic computers. In a matter of seconds. they had fixed a track beam on the aircraft, a guidance beam to keep the Terrier missile on course, and a capture beam to give the missile a smooth ' ride all the way to the doomed aircraft. Then a chief petty officer, sitting quietly in front or cause these Terrier missiles cost about £20,000 each — and even the American Go- vernment has to think twice about spending £20,000. My profession, sa ' s Lieut. -Commander Phllhps, the man in charge of the weapons, is the manage- ment of violence — but I am a peace-loving man at heart. After the simulated enemy plane had been disposed of. a simulated enemy subma- rine was detected Ijlng In wait three miles to star- board. COONTZ ' S command- ing officer. Com- mander H. H. Ries, be- lieves that ships like his mean that old-style naval battles between oppo sing warships al- most certainly will not be seen again. ' ' We are designed pri- marily to deal with aircraft and submarines. he says. Our detectors and guided missiles enable us to seek out and destroy hostile air- craft long before they can get within strtlting range of the ship. We rely on the principle , that aircraft cannot carry i anj hing like similar equip- ; ment, simply because It would be too heavy. Of course, our Tast range of automaUc and electronic equipment means we are not as- ' rug- ged as older warships. Battle damage could put a lot of our intricate gear I out of action. Our entire superstructure is made of aluminium instead of steel. But our strength Is In the range and power of our i equipment. We Just should not be int.