James Treadway
Biddle was a handsome man-o-war. Long, lean and muscular, she was a true greyhound – always ready to race tens of thousands of miles to her next assignment, ready for combat. Her Terrier missile launcher forward, 5-inch gun aft, and 3-inch guns port and starboard, punctuated her offensive capabilities. The multitudes of antennas mounted on almost any available surface were her eyes and ears to a hostile world. Internally, her engineering plant generated 85,000 horsepower which propelled her well beyond her published speed yet provided comfortable living conditions for her crew and electric power for her equipment.
Her primary mission was to provide Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) and Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW) defense for a fast carrier task force. Biddle’s secondary mission was to provide defense against other surface ships, Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), and to conduct Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) in support of amphibious operations. What kind of ship did the Navy get in 1967 for $70,000,000 that could meet mission requirements?
Biddle displaced 6,570 tons (standard) and 7,930 tons (full load) with a length of 547 feet, a beam of 55 feet, and a navigational draft of 28 feet 10 inches. Biddle had approximately the same displacement as a World War II light cruiser, yet could accelerate and maneuver like a destroyer. Four Babcock and Wilcox boilers generated 1,200-psi steam that turned two geared turbines, two shafts, and twin six-bladed screws with 85,000 horsepower. Advertised top speed was 32 knots – but we knew we were much faster. The engineering plant generated 6,800 KW of electrical power and 24,000 gallons of fresh water daily.
Terrier Missile System
Biddle’s main AAW armament was a deck-mounted missile launcher that could load and launch two supersonic Terrier missiles every 30 seconds. Since the missile weighed 1.5 tons, launch and internal handling systems were highly automated and completely mechanized. Missiles were fed on launcher feeder rails through blast doors to the launcher from the strikedown area where technicians had “winged and finned” the birds. A massive hydraulic system assured the load sequence would elapse in less than a second. The strikedown area received missiles from two large, rotating port and starboard rings from the magazine, directly below the strikedown area. The two rings were tangentially connected to a third ring on the ship’s centerline below the top two rings. The mechanism resembled the old style coke machines and was commonly called a ‘coke machine’ for that reason. One problem with the design was that the rings took up an enormous amount of room. It was the best mechanism we had at the time, however. Later, engineers figured out how to launch missiles from an array of vertical tubes at main deck level.
Each ring held 20 missiles for a total capacity of 60 missiles. Most DLGs carried two training missiles known as TSAMs and one Anti-Submarine Rocket (ASROC) trainer, which reduced the capacity to 57 war rounds. After loading two missiles, the launcher could slew to firing position in eight tenths of a second. Once missiles were launched (usually two were fired almost simultaneously at the lead target) the launcher automatically returned to position to load two more. The SPG-55 missile fire control radar pointed to the target with a pencil-thin beam of radio frequency energy, which the missile (minus the booster) would intercept then follow to the target. The missile warhead would detonate just before impact, bringing down the target. The system worked amazingly well – Biddle had scored many direct hits on both low-speed and high-speed targets during target practice. Amazingly, Biddle’s sister ship Sterett splashed a MiG in the Tonkin Gulf at a range of 9,500 yards when the entire missile, including booster that had not separated, made skin-to-skin contact with the MiG. The MiG was inside the minimum range – close enough to have his picture taken with a hand held camera.
During shakedown missile firings, I occasionally walked a few steps to the bridge from my station in CIC to watch a launch. To describe the event as impressive is an understatement. The tremendous roar from the solid propellant booster was deafening in itself. Add to that the fact that the missile quickly exceeded the speed of sound and the blinding flash of light, and the smoke it generated – I would have paid to see it.
The behind-the-scenes technical details of how to get a 3,000-pound missile to travel at Mach 2 then hit an incoming object traveling at near Mach 1 is fascinating reading. Biddle’s Weapons Officer, Lieutenant Commander Fred Howe, explains how it’s done:
The AN/SPG-55B radars were the sensors for the MK76 Missile Fire Control System (MFCS) and were greatly improved versions of their predecessors, the 55As. All of the missiles we carried were either BTs (Beamrider, Tail control) or HTs (Homing, Tail control). These missiles were likewise vast improvements over the earlier BW (Beamrider, Wing control.) missile. Tactically we employed only the BTs as vehicles for the special weapon warhead.
The 55Bs broadcast four separate streams of intelligence: capture, guidance, tracking, rear reference. The broad “capture” beam into which the BT was launched, captured and steered the missile into the “guidance” beam. The “guidance” beam was collimated to a separate “tracking” beam that was locked on to the target. The BT essentially flew up the guidance beam until it came into the proximity of the target. The special weapon version of the BT carried a beacon that permitted the MFCS to calculate the separation between the range of the target and range of the missile (R-Rm). When that difference reached a preset value the warhead was triggered. This process placed the warhead under positive control, not allowing the warhead to detonate absent the signal from the controlling radar.
The principal conventional tactical missile was the HT. The HT was designed to perform a lead-collision intercept, and essentially fired as if you were shooting at a duck and you aimed at where you expected the duck to be at intercept. In addition to the beams described above, the 55B also emitted a rear reference signal coded in order to permit the HT, after launch, to identify the radar it was to guide on. The HT continued to receive this rear reference signal throughout flight as well as the target return signal from the guidance beam and continuously solved the resulting geometry to fly an intercept to the target. When it arrived in the proximity of the target the onboard Target Detecting Device would automatically trigger the warhead. Needless to say the HT had much greater range and altitude capability as it continually corrected for target maneuvers.
The HT also had some surface-to-surface capability as long as the 55B could “see” the target and the sea state was not too high to provide an unambiguous target return.
5-inch/54 and 3-inch/50 Guns
A dual-purpose rapid fire 5-inch/54 aft and two 3-inch/50 Mk 34 guns amidships gave Biddle AAW and NGFS capabilities. Designed during World War II, the 3-inch/50 fired a 13-pound projectile six miles with several fuse options. The 3-inch/50 was optical sighting only. To hit a target, you did it just like shooting squirrels – get the target in your sight, lead a little, squeeze the trigger. Weapons Officer Lieutenant Commander Fred Howe provided more details bout the 3-inch 50: “The 3-inch /50 gun’s primary control was provided by independent DLOS (disturbed line of sight) (lead-computing) gunsights. The accuracy and usefulness of these directors was very dependent on operator experience. At some point we “discovered” an SH1 who had experience and he was able to string together impressive air bursts on a number of sleeves during Shakedown. (We quietly moved him from port to starboard without fanfare.) No one else ever got a single burst that I remember. The secondary control for the 3-inch was provided by the MK68 GFCS (with AN/SPG-53A radar), which was the primary control for the 5-inch gun. The 3-inch projectiles were point detonating (PD), armor piercing (AP) or proximity.”
Biddle’s 5-inch/54 gun was manned by a crew of 14 and had a rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute at the maximum automatic rate. With a muzzle velocity of 2,650 feet/sec, the 70-pound projectile gave the gun a maximum range of 25,900 yards (5-in/54 Mk 42). The SPG-53 radar/director tracked the target and pointed the gun in the right direction. Both the 3-inch/50 and 5-inch/54 were called into action during Biddle’s 1972 MiG engagement and both performed extremely well.
ASW Components
Biddle’s ASW components consisted of the most sophisticated sonar equipment available at the time. The SQS-26 (BX) bow-mounted sonar provided passive and active capabilities and provided target information to a MK-114 semi-automatic underwater fire control system. The bulbous stainless steel sonar dome contained 576 transducer elements in a cylindrical array, eight rings stacked atop one another of 72 elements each. ASW weapons included the long range ASROC that was fired from the forward missile launcher; torpedoes launched from port and starboard triple-tube launchers; and Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH), a radio controlled pilotless helicopter armed with a torpedo. [Eventually, with the retirement of the DASH system, a manned aircraft – the SH-2 Seasprite would be embarked…aviators in the wardroom! (Marfiak)]
Combat Information Center
Combat Information Center, which was located immediately aft of the bridge on the 03 level, was the heart and soul of the ship. The physical layout of CIC was modular, with each module serving a particular function such as air control, sonar, weapons control, electronic warfare, underwater battery control, and surface operations. Most modules were composed of one or more multi-function NTDS display consoles such as Track Supervisor, Weapons, Height/Size, and Flag officer. The elevated and enclosed Flag area and Weapons area, which included the missile launch console, were conveniently located forward in CIC, allowing the captain to step from the bridge to CIC in a few seconds.
CIC was quiet, air conditioned, and dark except for the amber glow of radar sweeps and the illumination provided by countless tiny incandescent lamps and status boards that made information available to the officers and men at their stations. Conversations between console operators and their unseen counterparts were muted, professional, and couched in the appropriate military jargon. When the ship was underway and CIC was manned, equipment maintenance was accomplished without the benefit of adequate lighting, which required an expert knowledge of the equipment being repaired.
The Naval Tactical Data System
If CIC was the heart and soul of the ship, then the NTDS was the brains. NTDS hardware and maintenance responsibilities within the Data System Technician rating, was functionally divided into the Computer, Display, and Communication groups. On Biddle, two Data Systems Chiefs had their hands full attempting to control a dozen or so technicians who actually did the work. Overseeing the entire group was an NTDS Officer who really had his hands full.
David L. Boslaugh, author of When Computers Went to Sea – The Digitization of the United States Navy, stated in an e-mail:
The Belknap Class of guided missile frigates, of which Biddle was the ninth ship of the class, were the first ships to have the Naval Tactical Data System installed during ship construction. Before Belknap, only six other existing ships had received the new digital system – as a backfit. Biddle was also the seventh ship to have a radical new concept in its weapons direction system, through which targets were relayed from sensors to the missile and gun fire control systems. These ships were the first to have the weapons direction function incorporated directly into NTDS, which brought about not only a savings in previously redundant CIC personnel and equipment, but also, and far more importantly, greatly reduced reaction time between sensing a new hostile target and taking it under fire.
Two Univac CP-642A solid-state digital computers were the central components of the Computer Group. The CP-642A descended from the AN/USQ-17 unit computer, which was designed at Univac in the mid-1950s by NTDS program managers and supercomputer guru Seymour Cray. Cray, in turn, had based the design of the pioneering transistorized USQ-17 computer on his experience designing room-filling vacuum-tube super secret code breaking computers, some of the first general purpose computers in the history of computing, for the U.S. Navy’s code breakers.
Even though the USQ-17 boasted numerous technological advances such as direct memory-to-memory high-speed data communications between two computers, a one instruction block data I/O controller, a large number of input-output channels, and a novel external interrupt scheme, it eventually ran out of processing steam (Boslaugh 159, 162, 163). The 642’s memory contained 32,768 30-bit words of ferrite core memory. A 32-bit word length was preferred, but transistors at that time did not have sufficient power to drive the load. The refrigerator-size cabinet contained approximately 3,800 printed circuit cards plugged into a dozen slide-out racks. To “boot” the 642, the first instructions were punched in by hand into front panel registers. This small program read a paper-tape bootstrap program into memory, which allowed the executive routine (today called the operating system) to be loaded from the magnetic tape unit. The Computer group hardware list also included a keyset central, paper tape punch and reader, magnetic tape, teletypes, and a data signal distribution switchboard.
Biddle’s NTDS computer configuration would probably be recognizable to most old plankowner DS’s as late as the NTU installation in 1986. Michael Daugherty describes Hard Charger’s configuration at that time:
We also had the SMP, which was the remote control for the 642B computers. It seems to me that Biddle was upgraded from 642A computers to the B models at some point in time. You could control the master slave configuration, and perform other functions with the SMP. It was located in CIC. I am not sure if it was part of the original configuration. When I reported for duty, we had three 642B computers, two 1218 Computers and the ECMU. The ECMU was the external core memory unit to give the (operating system) more memory resources. The thing never broke. Being a computer tech, I spent a lot of time in front of the 642B computers making voltage adjustments to the memory arrays drawers. Once they were tweaked just right, they ran nicely.
Primary components of the Display group were the Plan Position Indicator (PPI) consoles, height-size consoles and auxiliary readouts in CIC; radar azimuth converters for the SPS-10, SPS-40, SPS-48, and Airborne Early Warning (AEW) radars; radar signal distribution switchboard; central pulse amplifier; symbol generator; and video signal simulator.
The Identification Friend Foe/Selective Identification Feature (IFF/SIF) components, which included the Beacon Video Processor (BVP, defruiters, and Seesaw, were a functional subgroup of the Display group. Hughes Aircraft had developed the BVP to automatically track the IFF beacons of friendly targets in a rich target environment such as the Tonkin Gulf, allowing controllers to concentrate on other tasks such as detecting hostile targets. Defruiters significantly reduced the amount of spurious IFF responses called “FRUIT” that were triggered by IFF/SIF interrogators aboard other ships and aircraft. FRUIT was an acronym for False Replies Uncorrelated In Time, hence the term, “defruiter.”
Amid considerable secrecy, a small, top-secret box named Seesaw was installed in CIC just before departing for the Gulf. Seesaw was a MiG IFF interrogator that we did not want the North Vietnamese military, or anyone else, to know that we had. Biddle used Seesaw to help controllers separate the good guys from the bad guys in the crowded skies over North Vietnam. Unlike “friendly” IFF interrogators that operated continuously, Seesaw was normally turned off, and then manually switched on momentarily as the antenna’s azimuth approached a target. Leaving Seesaw on continuously would have given away our secret and our position. Factory training and spare parts were not available. This was not a problem during the first two deployments, as the device did not fail.
Biddle’s Crew, Ready for Combat
The skill and dedication of the officers and men who served in Biddle for almost 27 years are the reasons why Biddle, without exaggeration, was always ready for the fight. Indeed, the complex mechanical and electrical components described above, when properly installed, maintained, and operated, allowed Biddle to perform her primary and secondary missions. But it was the hundreds of thousands of hours of hard work during yard periods and during each cruise that made Biddle work as designed. Furthermore, the operational structure of the ship and how she operated during peacetime and war was intelligent and flexible yet allowed the ship to immediately respond to any threats at any time. Biddle’s officers, under the captain’s direction, carried out that policy. Lieutenant Commander Fred Howe describes how Biddle’s sailors prepared for combat:
One of the most rewarding events that career members experience is that of sailing into harm’s way with U. S. Navy sailors. Normally a uniformly carefree lot, sailors moving toward expected hostilities take on an entirely new attitude about their responsibilities, both personal and professional.
From the first day out of Norfolk headed for the Pacific, the ship’s principal focus was to prepare itself for whatever threat we were to meet. As a result of the experiences of those who had visited our predecessors on station in the Gulf, we knew that in a departure from the classic battle scenario, the ship would be required to maintain a high degree of readiness around the clock when on station. Trouble would likely come when it was least expected and we have to be prepared to defend our ship from a standing start while cruising (Condition III) without the luxury of falling back on full General Quarters (Condition I) manning. The daily exercise of every Condition III watch was the corporate signal that this was for real.
The response from the crew was immediate. We very quickly discovered that it was almost totally unnecessary to instruct anyone in the purpose of his duties. Planned Maintenance System (PMS) and Daily Systems Operability Tests (DSOT) began early without any coaching or reminders and their stringent requirements were closely scrutinized by every participant. Watchstanders developed their own techniques to assure themselves that they and their mates had explored every useful approach to readiness. We learned to live for long periods with partially set material conditions that buttoned down most hatches and forced traffic through scuttles that could be rapidly closed. Any other time, under any other conditions, such inconvenience would not have been countenanced. Now, everyone understood.
Condition III cruising watches, which, in theory, had always had the responsibility for the full operation of the combat systems suddenly confronted that reality. Junior members were thrust into the position of actually loading and firing their weapons. Suddenly no one could know enough about how his equipment operated and all of the myriad casualty procedures. Suddenly every member of the crew became visibly concerned about his responsibilities to his shipmates and whether he was personally ready. For most of us this was our first experience in preparing for the real thing. For all of us, our shipmates’ reaction to the coming unknown gave us renewed confidence in them and in our ship.
Biddle’s Organizational Structure
Biddle’s organizational structure in 1968 consisted of a commanding officer, an executive officer, and five departments whose names reflected their broad responsibilities: Weapons, Operations, Engineering, Supply, and Navigation. Each department was further divided into divisions, with each division composed of men of one or two ratings that defined their specialty – cook, machinist mate, gunners mate, signalmen, boiler technician, and corpsman are a few of the ratings required to keep a large, complex, and powerful sea going vessel underway for extended periods. The organizational structure changed over the years to reflect changing operational goals and strategies – but not to such a degree that transplanted plankowners and decommission crew members would not feel at home. Ratings have come and gone as well. My Data Systems Technician rating dissolved into two different ratings. Some DSs became Electronic Technicians (ET) and others became Fire Controlmen (FC). But there are still cooks, machinist mates, gunners mates, signalmen, boiler technicians, corpsmen, and other ratings that may never change. For the benefit of the unlearned landlubber, a quick tour of Biddle’s organization as she stood out for her first deployment is given the chapter, “Department Organization Aboard a Guided Missile Cruiser.”
Cold War Cruisers vs. WW II Cruisers
While Cold War cruisers of the Belknap Class represented the state of the art in shipbuilding, weapons, radar, and computers, they were not the only game in town. World War II light and heavy cruisers had been converted to carry Terrier and Talos missiles since 1955 and a few heavy cruisers had both missiles and the NTDS installed. The first World War II heavy cruiser to install Terrier missiles was the Boston (CAG-1), formerly CA-69. Boston’s sister ship Canberra (CAG-2), underwent a similar conversion in 1956. By 1960, the light cruisers Galveston (CLG-3) and sister ships Little Rock (CLG-4) and Oklahoma City (CLG-5) had installed Talos missile launchers aft while retaining 6-inch guns forward. Light cruisers Providence (CLG-6), Springfield (CLG-7), and Topeka (CG-8) were hybrid combatants as well, with Terrier launchers aft and 6-in guns forward. Finally, three heavy cruisers, Albany (CG-10), Chicago (CG-11), and Columbus (CG-12) had their 8-inch guns removed and Talos launchers installed in their place (Boslaugh 59).
The first and only World War II heavy cruisers to receive NTDS were the double-ended cruisers Albany and Chicago (302). David Boslaugh remembers that Columbus was scheduled for NTDS but the installation was cancelled, possibly due to a carrier fire that destroyed much of the carrier’s NTDS equipment. He also recalled that “Chicago became the first to receive production NTDS equipment. At one time, Galveston, Little Rock, and Oklahoma City, all WW II cruisers converted to missile ships, were considered for NTDS, but never got it. No other WW II cruisers got NTDS, although a few WW II carriers got the system. There was some thought of putting NTDS on the Iowa Class battleships when they were taken out of moth balls, but it was never done. We even did studies of replacing the battleship fire control computers with digital computers, but concluded if it aint broke, don’t fix it.”
When asked what WWII cruisers with missiles brought to the game, Boslaugh remarked that “Chicago, Albany, and Columbus ended up without any guns at all. Their 8-inch turrets were removed and they got Talos missile batteries fore and aft with two Tartar missile systems amidships. They were strictly heavily armored fleet air defense ships. What they brought to the game was their large size, which could accommodate the huge magazines required by the Talos missile system. Their big missile load is what drove OPNAV’s desire to install NTDS on the ships.”
During Biddle’s first two Gulf deployments, it was an unusual occurrence if Biddle, Long Beach, or Biddle’s older and heavier (18,000 ton) sister ship Chicago, was not on PIRAZ station. Muscular Chicago, with her unusually tall superstructure, twin Talos launchers fore and aft and twin Tartar launchers port and starboard, was an impressive sight. My most vivid recollection of Chicago was when she relived us one foggy morning at PIRAZ. I had stepped out of CIC on the starboard side near the signal bridge to look in the direction that the SPS-10 surface search radar indicated Chicago was – a few thousand yards off the starboard beam. It was deathly quiet – calm water does not to make a sound on a ship dead in the water. Invisible at first, Chicago gradually became a dark area in the fog, then a shadow of a ship, and finally a ghostly silhouette. Even after she had closed within a few hundred yards, the upper third of her superstructure was still obscured by fog. Chicago eventually closed to a point where her true size was apparent – she seemed to be as large and as powerful as her namesake city. A short time later, after pleasantries and hard data had exchanged, Chicago relieved Biddle of her duties and we slowly slipped south into the fog. I wonder if, as Biddle steamed away, a sailor aboard Chicago thought, “That Biddle sure is a fine looking ship.”
The above scene, in which one magnificent man-o-war quietly relieves another a few miles off the coast of North Vietnam, would be repeated many times by four combat tested cruisers – Biddle, Chicago, Long Beach, and Sterett. All ships had in common their immense fighting power, NTDS, and their MiG kills, yet they pointed in two different directions. Chicago pointed back to World War II, when long range big guns and heavy armor defined state of the art. Nuclear powered Long Beach, an early recipient of NTDS and a revolutionary new steered-array radar, the SPS-32/33, was an ancestor of today’s AEGIS combat system. Belknap Class representatives Biddle and Sterett also pointed to the future, but without a nuclear propulsion system. Nevertheless, the contributions they all made were instrumental in building the AEGIS combat system.
Cold War Cruisers vs. AEGIS Class Cruisers and Destroyers
It is interesting to compare Biddle’s physical attributes with her descendants, the Arleigh Burke destroyers and Ticonderoga cruisers. Displacements are comparable between all three classes. At decommissioning, Biddle displaced 8,800 tons, while modern DDGs displace between 8,315 and 9,200 tons, with the heavier displacement belonging to hulls 79 and above. Ticonderoga cruisers are slightly heavier at 9,600 tons. Biddle’s 55-foot beam exactly matches Ticonderoga cruisers but is somewhat slimmer than Arleigh Burke destroyer’s 59-foot girth. Biddle’s 547-foot length was considerably longer than modern day Burke destroyers at 505 feet for Flights I and II, and 509-1/2 feet for Flight IIA. Ticonderoga cruisers, at 567 feet, are long and tall.
Superstructure differences between Cold War and modern day cruisers and destroyers are significant and obvious. Technical people are quick to observe that rotating radar antennas are gone on modern combatants, having been replaced by the stationary AN/SPY-1 radar. The SPY-1 not only replaced rotating air-search radar antennas, but also the missile fire control directors. Macks, which combined the functions of antenna masts and smoke stacks, are history. Burke destroyers have a very clean single antenna mast protruding from the deckhouse. Stacks, now called funnels, on Burke destroyers are noticeably shorter than Biddle’s macks since the exhaust from their General Electric LM 2500 gas turbine engines is much cleaner than the nasty exhaust generated from burning fuel oil. Stacks resemble jet exhausts, which is exactly what they are. Superstructure components such as the deckhouse are faceted, much like the stealth fighter.
As an interesting side note related to the AEGIS Combat System on Ticonderoga Class cruisers, co-author Tom Marfiak added that “During Operation Iraqi Freedom in the spring of 2003, several scud missiles were fired in the direction of allied forces in Kuwait. Patriot batteries were able to engage them all, I’m told. In 12 of 13 engagements, they were cued onto the launch event by the AEGIS platforms operating in the northern gulf. It was an impressive display of joint capability, and a significant technical accomplishment. We could not accomplish the same degree of integration in 1991.”
Biddle’s antiquated missile launching system was replaced by the much simpler Vertical Launching System (VLS), which further enhanced the new, clean image of new DDGs. [One disadvantage of the VLS that I can think of is that you can’t run a couple of birds out on the rail anymore to “show off’.] The 5-inch 54 Mk 42 gun gave way to the 5-inch 54 Mk 45 lightweight gun and the worn out 3-inch 50 was finally relieved by the far more capable Vulcan Phalanx close-in-weapons system (CIWS).
All of the deck improvements listed above, coupled with what appears to be a concentrated effort to remove small items from the upper decks, resulted in a much cleaner appearance. Not readily noticeable is the fact that AEGIS cruisers and destroyers have an all steel superstructure instead of the aluminum superstructure found in the Belknap Class. The only remaining non-steel components above decks on Burke destroyers are parts of the funnels and antenna mast. Seventy tons of Kevlar in some above deck spaces provide further protection. Apparently, lessons were learned from losing 20 men on HMS Sheffield during the Falklands War, 37 men on USS Stark during the Persian Gulf War, and seven men from the USS Belknap and USS John F. Kennedy collision in 1975. The damage Belknap incurred was truly horrible.
The modest, uncluttered decks of AEGIS ships belie their combat capabilities – they exceed by a magnitude, maybe more, Biddle’s capabilities in 1968. The AEGIS Combat System integrates the state-of-the-art AN/SPY-1 phased-array radar, which has both air search and missile guidance capabilities, with the computer-based command and decision element, and the medium to long range Standard missile. This level of integration was only a dream when Biddle deployed to WESTPAC in 1968. The AEGIS system can automatically detect and track more than 100 targets simultaneously. If warranted, the system can simultaneously concentrate beams of radar energy on emerging targets 250 miles distant on the port side while directing multiple Standard missiles toward their hostile targets 100 miles distant on the starboard side. The Standard missile has demonstrated a Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) capability. Low flyers of any kind stand little chance of penetrating this AEGIS, which means, “shield.” If a hostile aircraft or missile manages to do so, it still must break through 3,000 rounds per minute of 20 mm cannon fire from a Vulcan CIWS and the 5-inch/54. Representing the very last line of defense, the Vulcan’s obscene burping sound alone is enough to deter most attackers.
Biddle is Ready for Combat
By today’s standards, Biddle would be inadequate in a combat environment. Such is progress. But in 1968, as Biddle deployed for the first time, she was a brand new multi-mission ship loaded with the most advanced sea-going combat system in the world. Her crew, from the captain to the lowest seaman, was trained to perform at level that would enable her to perform her mission in a combat environment and return safely. Biddle was ready for combat.
Hard Charger! 