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266 SPACE, SPY SHIPS AND SCANDALS
was how to avoid becoming another Pueblo. 25 In December 1968,
British naval officers explained the division of labour: 'Some
strategic Comint gathering is undertaken for GCHQ, but they
carry out the tasking and evaluate the results.' The Navy itself
was more interested in elint, and helped to run a cell at
Cheltenham which analysed radars that fed into a
Comprehensive Comparative Radar Library. Thereafter, shipborne
analysis computers drew on this library of taped intelligence
to identify particular Soviet ships.26 In the late 1960s
attention was shifting to an exciting new task: the tracking of
the first Soviet submarines capable of carrying ballistic missiles,
Moscow's equivalent of Polaris. They first entered service in
1967, and there were normally four parked off the coast of the
United States at anyone time.
Britain's submarine operations were increasingly carried out
in cooperation with her Commonwealth allies, who queued up
to buy the new 'a' class submarine, and enjoyed the thrill of
replicating her special missions. Australia acquired its first 'a'
boats in 1967, and senior British officers and technicians transferred
to the Royal Australian Navy with them. The Australian
sigint target was the burgeoning Soviet naval power in the
Pacific. The 'mystery boats' were always crowded, carrying their
standard crew of sixty-two together with up to a dozen civilian
sigint specialists. Australia'S specialism was the 'underwater
look', a perilous manoeuvre that permitted very close reconnaissance
of the propellers, propulsion sounds, sonar fit and
electronic signature of the enemy ship. Admiral Peter Clarke,
who served first in the Royal Navy and then in the Royal
Australian Navy, recalls that the ideal position was just outside
a harbour, where ships slowed to five knots. The submarine
would close on its quarry at depth, and then gradually rise just
ahead of the ship. Skilled captains would position their periscope
about six feet below the vessel. Special lights and cameras would
then scan the underside, while hydrophones and receivers
recorded its emissions. A good captain might make two passes.
'But it was a very full-on thing,' adds Clarke. 'You were driving