Technical research ship

Technical research ships were used by the United States Navy during the 1960s to gather intelligence by monitoring, recording and analyzing wireless electronic communications of nations in various parts of the world.

[3] This Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communications system used a special gyroscope-stabilized 16-foot (4.9 m) parabolic antenna, which can be seen aft of the main superstructure in the accompanying photographs of Belmont and Liberty.

Radio signals were transmitted toward the Moon, where they would bounce back toward the Earth and be received by a large 84-foot (26 m) parabolic antenna at a Naval Communications Station in Cheltenham, Maryland (near Washington, D.C.) or Wahiawa, Hawaii.

[3] The former Liberty ships' top speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) limited the first three AGTRs to missions of slow steaming on station with a minimum of transits.

[3] Victory ships' sustained speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) enabled Belmont to shadow Mediterranean Sea operations of the Soviet helicopter carrier Moskva in 1969.

In contrast to the high freeboard of the AGTR Liberty and Victory hulls, the AGER decks were low and vulnerable to boarding from small craft.