USNS United States Naval Ship (USNS) is the prefix designation given to non- commissioned ships that are property of the United States Navy (USN). Definition United States Naval Ships are unarmed auxiliary support vessels owned by the U.S. Navy ...

''Bowditch'' (T-AGS 62) is a . She is the third ship in the class. ''Bowditch'' is a part of a 29 ship Special Mission Ship program and operates in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...

. She is named after mathematician

Nathaniel Bowditch Nathaniel Bowditch (March 26, 1773 – March 16, 1838) was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book '' The New American Practical Navi ...

Incidents

On 24 March 2001, ''Bowditch'' encountered a

PLA Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chines ...

frigate, which came within , while operating in the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour ter ...

near

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

and was forced to leave. ''Bowditch'' later returned with an armed escort. In March 2001, India protested ''Bowditch'' activities after discovering her operating around away from the Nicobar Islands. In October 2001, South Korea protested ''Bowditch'' activities after discovering her operating around off the South Korean coast. On 24 September 2002, ''Bowditch'' was harassed by Chinese patrol boats and aircraft and forced to leave while operating in the Yellow Sea. In May 2003, ''Bowditch'' was bumped by a Chinese fishing vessel and suffered damage. In 2013 ''Bowditch'' was engaged in surveying at

Tacloban Tacloban ( ; ), officially the City of Tacloban ( war, Syudad han Tacloban; fil, Lungsod ng Tacloban), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. The city is autonomous from the province of Leyte, ...

shortly after typhoon Haiyan in advance of the Navy's Operation Damayan in an area known for its shifting hazards to navigation using her multi-beam contour mapping system. An American Littoral Battlespace Sensing (LBS) or similar

underwater glider An underwater glider is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that employs variable-buoyancy propulsion instead of traditional propellers or thrusters. It employs variable buoyancy in a similar way to a profiling float, but unlike a flo ...

deployed by ''Bowditch'' was seized by a Dalang-III class submarine rescue vessel of the

on 15 December 2016, resulting in a formal diplomatic protest.

References

External links

USNS ''Bowditch'' official web site
Pathfinder-class survey ships Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi 1994 ships {{US-mil-ship-stub