DEHAVEN Special Operations off TsingtaO (DESOTO) Patrols

DEHAVEN Special Operations off TsingtaO (DESOTO) patrols were patrols conducted by U.S. Navy destroyers equipped with a mobile “van” of signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment used for intelligence collection in hostile waters.


The USS De Haven (DD 727) is the namesake for these patrols. The USS DE HAVEN conducted the first patrol off the coast of China in April 1962, and in December the USS AGERHOLM (DD 826) conducted the first SIGINT patrol to target North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin.

These patrols were initially a response to the Chinese Communists’ unexpected re-definition of their territorial waters to include all waters shoreward from lines drawn tangentially to, and between, twelve mile circles drawn around their offshore islands. Such a declaration represented a huge expansion of their claims. This inhibited the lawful navigation of international waters and increased the likelihood and frequency of formal diplomatic “serious warnings” issued by Beijing when any Seventh Fleet ship navigated through these areas. This became a situation to which Commander Seventh Fleet felt compelled to respond.