to replace warships and aircraft built during World War II. Fleet readiness For Wright, the best method to evaluate fleet readiness for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet was the staging and execution of naval exercises like Lantflex I-57. Among the high-level observers for this naval exercise were the President Dwight D. Eisenhower and many other members of the US cabinet. The highlight of Lantflex I-57 was the landing of two A3D Sky Warriors and two F8U Crusaders on board that had been launched from operating in the Pacific, the first carrier-to-carrier transcontinental flight in history. Other Atlantic Fleet exercises included Operation Springboard, the annual winter naval maneuvers in the Caribbean Sea. Units of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and the Royal Canadian Navy participated in Operation Sweep Clear III, a bilateral mine warfare exercise, between July and August 1958. Also, in 1960, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet initiated UNITAS, an annual multilateral series of exercises between the South Atlantic Force (SOLANTFOR) and Latin American navies. As SACLANT, Wright coordinated such NATO naval exercises as Operation Sea Watch, a convoy escort exercise. However, the most significant naval exercise during Admiral Wright's tour of duty was Operation Strikeback, a ten-day exercise involving over 250,000 men, 300 ships, and 1,500 aircraft during September 1957, which was the largest naval exercise staged by NATO up to that time. Under Admiral Wright, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet also took the lead on the field of operational testing and evaluation (OT&E) of systems and tactics, particularly regarding anti-submarine warfare for the United States Navy, with the Operational Development Force (OPDEVFOR), under the command of Rear Admiral William D. Irvin, serving as the lead agency for this effort. Finally, in February 1959, when several transatlantic cables off Newfoundland were cut and the Soviet fishing trawler MV Novorossisk was operating in the vicinity at the time of the break, the radar-picket ASW destroyer was dispatched to enforce the 1884 Convention for the Protection of Submarine Cables. On the August 26, the Hale sent a boarding party to the Novorossisk to investigate and determined that there were no indications of intentions "other than fishing." A diplomatic protest was lodged, but there were no more breaks. Anti-submarine warfare Wright stated in a Time magazine article from 1958 that: "The primary mission of every combat ship in the Atlantic Fleet is antisubmarine. Everything else is secondary." Given his previous exposure to anti-submarine warfare (ASW) doctrine