Official silence veils visiting cruiser—is she nuclear?

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 1

Official silence veils visiting cruiser—is she nuclear?

Defence reporter

Widespread rumours that nuclear warheads are aboard the guided-missile cruiser Horne, which berthed at Lyttelton yesterday, have met no official denial.

Speculation that the United States vessel carries nuclear weaponry was rife in the port yesterday. But although neither American nor New Zealand Navy officials would comment, it appears that the rumours were unfounded. Lieutenant - Commander F. T. Williamson, command duty officer aboard the Horne, would make no firm statement last evening. He said, however, that “like

most United States Navy ships, the Horne has nuclear capability.” The military attache at the United States Embassy in Wellington (Captain W. C. Semple), said it was his Government’s policy not to comment on such matters. “We can neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of nuclear weapons aboard anv United States Naval vessel,” he said. “This is standard policy world-wide.”

A spokesman at Defence Headquarters in Wellington would give no definite answer to the suggestion, either. “I’d be prepared to say there was no unusual danger in what she is carrying. But one has to accept the fact that any or all United States ships may be carrying nuclear weapons,” he said. It is believed that the United States Govern-

ment’s policy of silence on the subject is designed to prevent unfriendly elements from being able to discover the full extent and nature of the United States’ nuclear potential. Navy courtesy would prevent New Zealand officials from saying even that a United States vessel was not carrying nuclear weaponry. Evidence against the possibility that the Horne

carries nuclear weaponry is more concrete. The 1977-78 edition of “Jane’s Fighting Ships” — an authority on naval vessels throughout the world — describes the Horne’s armament in detail. No mention is made of nuclear weapons, however. The National Radiation Laboratory will make no test of radiation levels in the port, according to Dr A. McEwan, a laboratory

Captain J. A. Barbour, the Lyttelton harbourmaster, said he had been assured from Defence Headquarters that the Home did not carry nuclear warheads.

“As ■ far as I’m aware there’s nothing like that aboard her. She’s got nowhere to put it, anyway,” he said.

The Horne’s role as a fighting ship is not one that would be likely to entail the use of nuclear weapons.

Commissioned in 1967, she is one of nine Belknapclass cruisers built for the United States Navy. Her armament includes Terrier surface-to-air missiles and anti-submarine rocketassisted torpedoes. She was designed principally to defend “faststrike” forces against air and submarine attack with a single missile launcher on the foredeck and a fiveinch gun mounted aft. The Horne and her companion Belknap-class cruisers are the only conventionally powered cruisers in the United States Navy which have full helicopter capability. Displacing more than 7900 tonnes she is 166 metres long and has a top speed of more than 31 knots. She is one of two United States vessels making a 31,000 km tour of the South Pacific. The other is the U.S.S. Robison, which is now at Auckland.