Thread by @TrentTelenko

The Bilgepumps podcast crew's Episode 48 spent a lot of time discussing how USS Mustin (DDG-89) was dogging the new Chinese CVBG in the SCS.

This thread connects USS Mustin to some decades old open source intelligence on the USN.
1/
the-bilgepumps.simplecast.com/episodes/bilge…

The OSINT story of the USS Mustin monitoring the PLAN CVBG in the SCS recently reaches back to the 1969 seizure of the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) by the DPRK

2/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Puebl…

In the aftermath of both the 1967 USS Liberty incident and the "Pueblo incident," the USN decided to move the intelligence gathering role from auxiliaries to real warships.

One of the first warships so fitted after that decision was the Spruance class USS Caron (DD-970).
3/

USS Caron's cover as an intelligence ship was blown by William Arkin in the Washington Post plus the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists May 1988 edition.
4/
books.google.com/books?id=7wUAA…

The USS Caron and Aegis cruiser USS Yorktown were both rammed by Soviet warships in Feb 1988.

They were doing a freedom of the seas exercise passage between the US recognized 3-mile limit and the Soviet's claimed 12 mile territorial limit.

5/

Arkin's Washington Post story emphasized the fact both Yorktown and Caron carried nukes and their exercise "endangered the world with a possible nuclear accident."

AKA the usual left of center anti-nuclear cant of the Late Cold War era.

6/

What was really interesting in Arkin's Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists piece was the extensive detail on the USS Caron's operational patterns, as well as it's possession of Tomahawk targeting gear, that was clearly planted via Soviet intelligence.

7/
navyhistory.org/2012/04/outlaw…

The USS Caron's danfs history entry shows that she had both OUTLAW SHARK and CLASSIC OUTBOARD systems.

8/
history.navy.mil/content/histor…

The danfs USS Caron entry states:

"The destroyer’s 1979 cruise book proudly noted that Caron became the only Atlantic Fleet destroyer with both Classic Outboard and Outlaw Shark installed and was the first ship to operate the two systems simultaneously."
9/

As mentioned previously, Outlaw Shark was an ELINT targeting system for antiship missiles. For context, see:

Christopher Ford and David Rosenberg's "The Admirals' Advantage: U.S. Navy Operational Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War"

amazon.com/Admirals-Advan…

10/

USS Caron's other intelligence system, CLASSIC OUTBOARD (Organizational Unit Tactical Baseline Operational Area Radio Detection Countermeasures Exploitation System) AN/SSQ-108(V) was a US Navy shipboard direction finding system.
globalsecurity.org/intell/systems…
11/

William Arkin's two 1988 pieces gave away the operational pattern for all USN intelligence tasked warships.

Black Sea visits, loitering off hot spots, presence during major nav-ex, freedom of the seas passages in contested areas are all the meat & potatoes of intel-DD's.
12/

While USS Caron was given 64 VLS tubes in one of her refits. She was to be decommissioned in 2000.

This is where Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Mustin (DDG-89), launched in 1998, enters the story.
13/

The USN had to replace the USS Caron with a new intelligence DD and replacement intelligence platforms need a working up so there is no gap in coverage.

The timing of the USS Mustin's launch and her recent PLAN CVBG trailing mark her as Caron's replacement as intel-DD.

14/

While USS Mustin is obviously an intel-DD, she is far from the only one.

/End

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