Coontz (DLG 9) - Naval Cruise Book

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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.

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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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STEAMING INTO SYDNEY HARBOR S Y D N E Y ' • ' J f ' iM ' 4 THE RAN VISITS CIC A SMALL AUSSIE AT THE 3 '