A highly visible instrument of US foreign policy, the 60th played an important role in maintaining the balance of power in the world during the 1980s. Supporting US naval forces in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Arabia (sic), the wing flew frequent missions to Diego Garcia and other installations in the region. When underwater mines, suspected to have been placed by Iran, threatened the Red Sea shipping lanes in 1984, the 60th airlifted minesweeping helicopters from Naval Air Station Norfolk, VA, to Rota, Spain, where the Navy assembled and carried them into action via surface vessel. In 1987, a similar situation in the Persian Gulf resulted in the deployment of the same helicopter minesweepers.