SUPERB ULTRA RARE MODEL KIT-ALL COMPLETE-ALL BAG SEALED PARTS GOOD
Soviet AGI trawlers
As the United States Navy began deploying ballistic missile
submarines in 1960, the Soviet Union attempted to obtain more information about
the capabilities of the UGM-27 Polaris missile and the locations of the
submarines capable of launching them. While the Soviet Navy requested more
sophisticated ships, they were allocated trawlers (called tra-ou-lery) from the
fishing fleet equipped with more sophisticated sensors and communication
equipment. Very capable crews were assigned to these trawlers of unremarkable
appearance. They were assigned to patrol stations off United States naval bases
to photograph and report arrival and departure of United States warships and
auxiliaries. Other trawlers of similar appearance would patrol weapons firing
ranges used by the United States Navy to observe practice firings of modern
weapons and record the acoustic and/or electromagnetic signature of the sonar,
search radar, fire-control radar, guidance, and/or command electronics of each
weapons system.[10] The United States Navy officially designated these trawlers
as Auxiliary, General Intelligence or AGI, and they were informally known as
"tattletales".[11]
An AGI might be assigned to a single patrol station for as
long as six months. These ships were not fast enough to keep up with most
warships, but they sometimes congregated around aircraft carriers conducting
air operations of the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean or United
States Seventh Fleet in the western Pacific Ocean, or in suspected patrol areas
of ballistic missile submarines. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Joint
Chiefs of Staff authorized a counter AGI program for United States destroyers
to come alongside the AGIs to push against them, foul their screws with steel
nets, and focus high power electromagnetic transmitters to burn out the
amplifying circuitry of their electronic sensors. The AGI crews then revealed
their ship-handling skills using superior maneuverability to evade the
destroyers' intentions. This jousting in international waters continued until
signing of the U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement in 1972.[10]
In 1972, as the U.S. and U.K. partners started operating
radar station Cobra Mist, it garnered attention from many Soviet spy
trawlers.[12] A year later, the radar station was shut down due to
interference. The source of the interference was never confirmed and some
theories still hold Soviet countermeasures responsible. [12]