Sister Ships USAFS General Vandenberg and General Arnold were Atlantic Missile Range instrumentation ships. Software was developed by UNIVAC personnel at Cape Canaveral. Processing of test data was performed at the Air Force Eastern Test Range. Both ships were used for research of ballistic missile trajectories and accuracy, spectrum characteristics of various types of bodies re-entering earth's atmosphere at C, L and X band frequencies. Also known as the ARIS Ships, they tracked and received telemetry signals. The Sister Ships served in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans collecting signature and trajectory data for analysis during the cold war and supported the Apollo Program.
The USAFS Hoyt S. Vandenberg is now destined to become a reef about seven miles out of the port at Key West, FL.