[Llarry]

The U.S. intelligence collection ship program took into account international law and norms of international behavior. For many years, the Soviet Union and then Russia conducted intelligence collection near U.S. installations and fleet operations. China has done the same in recent years. As long as those ships remain in international waters, the U.S. takes no action. To our disadvantage, we expected the same of Israel and North Korea.

After the late 1960s attacks, lightly-armed AGTRs and AGERs were removed from service. From then on, intelligence collection was conducted by armed combatants with temporary ship installations of collection equipment.

In the 1980s, the U.S. took one more try at a specialized intelligence collection ship. The USS Sphinx (ARL 24) was a World War II tank landing ship (LST) that had been converted to a repair ship for landing craft. In the 1980s, the Sphinx was dusted off and given a SIGINT equipment installation and used for collection of Latin American intelligence. (This was the era of the Nicaraguan Marxist government.) The ship kept its repair designation and was decommissioned in 1989.