 The purchase of the destroyers signalled a shift in reliance for equipment from Britain to the United States that was contrary to prevailing Australian defence policy at the time , particularly in what historian Jeffrey Grey described as " the most British of the Australian services , the RAN " , and provoked pressure from the Royal Navy and UK shipbuilders , which had lobbied for purchase of their County @-@ class destroyer . Burrell later declared that the superiority of the US weapons system was a key factor in his preference for the Adams design over the County class . On a mission overseas to discuss trends and acquisitions in January 1960 , he was rebuffed by Britain 's Chief of the Defence Staff , Admiral of the Fleet Lord Louis Mountbatten , who mistakenly thought him responsible for the imminent dissolution of the RAN 's Fleet Air Arm , but warmly welcomed by the US Chief of Naval Operations , Admiral Arleigh Burke . As it happened , Burrell would gain credit for maintaining the integrity of the FAA , and its fixed @-@ wing component remained viable until the early 1980s . He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen 's Birthday Honours , gazetted on 3 June 1960 . In June 1961 , he met with his opposite numbers in the Army and Air Force at a Chiefs of Staff Committee conference to discuss the necessity of Australia acquiring nuclear weapons ; the chiefs agreed that the probability such a capability would be required was remote but that it should remain an option under certain circumstances , a position the defence forces maintained during the ensuing decade . 
