in Callao. Two days later she weighed anchor to return to the Panama Canal Zone. Belmont retransited the canal on 21 January 1966 and moored in Norfolk on the 28th, where she remained for almost seven weeks for upkeep and shipyard availability. On 16 March 1966, the ship embarked upon another deployment to the western coast of South America. She transited the Panama Canal on 28 and 29 March 1966 and, for the next eight weeks, cruised along the coasts of Peru and Chile. Belmont returned to the Panama Canal Zone for a five-day visit between 23 and 28 May 1966. On the latter day, she departed Panama and embarked upon five weeks of operations in order to spy on French atomic tests in French Polynesia (12 June 1966). The ship arrived back in the Panama Canal Zone on 13 July 1966, transited the canal the next day, and reentered Norfolk on 20 July. After seven weeks of upkeep in her homeport, Belmont stood out to sea on 7 September 1966, bound for her third assignment in the Pacific coastal waters of South America. She transited the Panama Canal again on 19 September 1966, and two days later shaped a course for her zone of operations. At the conclusion of that assignment, the ship returned to the Canal Zone on 4 November 1966. She proceeded through the canal on 8 November 1966 and then set course for Norfolk. Belmont reentered her homeport on 14 November 1966, and spent the remainder of the year in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard installing communication gear. The spy ship spent the first month of 1967 completing the installation of her new communications equipment and testing it. On 1 February 1967, Belmont loosed her mooring lines to begin an extended cruise to the Southern Hemisphere, one that included a circumnavigation of the South American continent. Hydrographic and communications research highlighted the five-month voyage as did visits to sundry South American ports. Belmont completed her circuit of the South American continent on 3 June 1967 when she transited the Panama Canal and laid in a course for Norfolk. The technical research ship pulled into her homeport on 9 June 1967 and commenced a repair period. Her hull and various items of equipment received repairs over the next two months. On 14 August 1967, she stood out of the Chesapeake Bay bound for the Indian Ocean. The ship