As part of the response to a theoretical Soviet attack against NATO on all fronts, Operation Strikeback would test the capabilities of Allied naval forces (
Blue Fleet) by tasking them to destroy the enemy navy (
Orange Fleet) and its huge submarine fleet, protect transatlantic shipping, and undertake sustained carrier-based air strikes against the enemy positions. Beginning on 3 September 1957, American and Canadian naval forces got underway to join British, French, Dutch, and Norwegian naval forces in eastern Atlantic and northern European waters under the overall command of
Vice Admiral Robert B. Pirie,
United States Navy, Commander,
United States Second Fleet, acting as NATO's Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic. While en route, the U.S.-Canadian naval forces executed
Operation Seaspray, a bilateral naval exercise to protect Blue Fleet's vitally-important underway replenishment group (URG) from enemy submarine attacks. The nuclear submarine and the conventional submarine completed operations in the Arctic and joined 34 other U.S. and allied submarines temporarily assigned to the Orange Fleet.
USS Mount McKinley was based in
Portsmouth Naval Base as the command communications base for the Orange forces controlling Comsuborangelant/Comphiborangelant for the duration of the Exercise. Operation Strikeback itself began on 19 September 1957, involving over 200 warships, 650 aircraft, and 65,000 personnel. To provide a more realistic simulation of protecting transatlantic shipping, over 200 merchant marine vessels, including the
ocean liners and , also participated as duly-flagged target ships for the exercise. Operating above the
Arctic Circle in the
Norwegian Sea, the Blue Fleet, which included the new aircraft carriers and , launched carried-based air strikes against enemy positions in
Norway.
Time magazine provided the following contemporary coverage of Operation Strikeback: Following the conclusion of Operation Strikeback, U.S. naval forces conducted
Operation Pipedown, involving the protection of its underway replenishment group while en route back the United States. SACLANT
Admiral Jerauld Wright,
United States Navy, described Operation Strikeback as being "remarkably successful" while also noting "[that] there is considerable scarcity of both naval and air forces in the eastern Atlantic." Wright's Eastern Atlantic allied commander,
Vice Admiral Sir John Eccles,
RN, also noted: Particularly significant was the performance of
nuclear-powered submarines with the U.S. Navy's first two such vessels, the and , participating in Operation Strikeback. According to naval analyst-historian
Norman Friedman,
Nautilus "presented a greater threat than all 21 snorkel submarines combined" during Operation Strikeback, making 16 successful attacks against various naval formations while maintaining effective on-station tactical and high-speed pursuit capabilities.
Nautilus cruised 3,384 nautical miles (6,267 km) with an average speed of 14.4 knots (26.7 km/h). In addition to the
Nautilus, the
Seawolf departed
New London on 3 September for Operation Strikeback. Before she surfaced off
Newport, Rhode Island, on 25 September,
Seawolf had remained submerged for 16 days, cruising a total of 6,331 miles (10,189 km). Recognizing the need to meet this
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) challenge, the following actions were taken: • Task Force Alfa was created by the U.S. Navy to develop improved ASW tactics and technology by integrating carrier-based ASW aircraft, land-based patrol aircraft, refitted destroyers, and hunter-killer submarines. •
NATO Undersea Research Centre was established by SACLANT on 2 May 1959 in
La Spezia, Italy, to serve as a clearinghouse for NATO's anti-submarine efforts. Operation Strikeback was the final deployment for the
battleships and until their re-activation in the 1980s by the
Reagan Administration. Finally, on the technical level, Operation Strikeback saw the first use of
single sideband (SSB) voice communications for tactical operations by the
United States Navy, and was the first
Royal Navy carrier to use a
magnetic loop communication system. In addition to Operation Strikeback, which concentrated on its eastern Atlantic/northern European flank, NATO also conducted two other major military exercises in September 1957, Operation Counter Punch involving
Allied Forces Central Europe on the European mainland and
Operation Deep Water involving NATO's southern flank in the Mediterranean Sea. ==Naval forces==