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Technical research ship

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USS Liberty (AGTR-5)

Technical research ships were used by the U.S. Navy during the 1960s to gather intelligence by monitoring the electronic communications of nations in various parts of the world. At the time these ships were active, the mission of the ships was covert and discussion of the true mission was prohibited ("classified information"). The mission of the ships was publicly given as conducting research into atmospheric and communications phenomena. However, the true mission was more or less an open secret and the ships were commonly referred to as "spy ships".

These ships carried a crew of U.S. Navy personnel whose specialty was intercepting electronic communications and gathering intelligence from those communications (see SIGINT, COMINT, ELINT). In the 1960s those personnel had a U.S. Navy rating of Communications Technician, or CT.

In order to transmit intelligence information that had been gathered back to United States for further processing and analysis, these ships had a special system named Technical Research Ship Special Communications, or TRSSCOM (pronounced tress-com). The system used a special gyro-stabilized 16-foot dish antenna, which can be seen aft of the main superstructure in the accompanying photographs of the Belmont and Liberty. Radio signals were transmitted toward the moon, where the signals would bounce back toward the Earth and be received by a large 64-foot dish at the Naval Communications Station in Washington, D.C. Communications could occur only when the moon was visible simultaneously at the ship's location and in Washington. The gyro stabilization of the antenna kept the antenna pointed at the moon while the ship rolled and pitched on the surface of the ocean.

These ships were classified as naval auxiliaries with a hull designation of AGTR, which stands for Auxiliary, General, Technical Research. Five of these ships were built with hull numbers of 1–5. The first three ships of this type (Oxford, Georgetown, and Jamestown) were converted from World War II-era Liberty ships. The last two ships (Belmont and Liberty) were converted from Victory ships. All of the technical research ships were decommissioned and stricken by 1970.

The best-known of these ships were the USS Liberty and the USS Pueblo, which was attacked and severely damaged by Israeli aircraft and ships in the Mediterranean on June 8, 1967, resulting in the deaths of 34 Americans. See USS Liberty incident.

For specifications of these ships, see Liberty ship and Victory ship.

Ships of the AGTR type

(dates of commissioning–decommissioning)
USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

There were also three similar but smaller ships of a different type but with a similar mission. Those ships were "environmental research" ships, of type AGER. The best-known of those ships was the USS Pueblo (AGER-2), which was attacked and captured by North Korea on January 23, 1968.

Ships of the AGER type

USNS Pvt Jose F Valdez (T-AG 169)

Three of the technical research ships were operated as USNS ships. This meant that a civilian crew operated the ship and a Navy detachment conducted the research operations.

Ships of the AG type

See also

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