The cruiser's later radar duties extended from tactical air control into theater warning and surveillance. Chicago became the main source of MiG warning information and assumed responsibility for watching the border between North Vietnam and China. The maritime position let the United States maintain a powerful sensor close to the theater without placing it on foreign soil. The larger naval lesson is that a ship can place powerful radar in international waters and observe activity from a mobile, defensible platform.
Notable Point · 17:46-18:12
Radar reach made Chicago a strategic warning platform
Chicago became the primary MiG-warning source and watched the North Vietnam-China border from international waters.