USNS ''Victorious'' (T-AGOS-19) is a
''Victorious''-class ocean surveillance ship
''Stalwart''-class auxiliary general ocean surveillance ships ( T-AGOS) were a class of United States Naval Ship (USNS) auxiliary support Ocean Surveillance Ships commissioned between April 1984 and January 1990. Their original purpose was to c ...
which was acquired by the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
in 1991 and assigned to the
Military Sealift Command (MSC) Special Missions Program.
Built in Morgan City, Louisiana
''Victorious'' was built by McDermott Shipyards,
Morgan City, Louisiana. She was laid down on 12 April 1988 and launched on 3 May 1988 and was delivered to the U.S. Navy on 13 August 1991.
Special program
''Victorious'' was crewed by 19 civilian mariners under the control of the
Military Sealift Command (MSC) and staffed with five sponsors.
She is of a
small waterplane area twin hull
A small waterplane area twin hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a catamaran design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is located ...
(SWATH) design, similar to a
catamaran, which provides a stable platform for towing the ship's
SURTASS sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...
arrays.
Incidents with China
On March 4, 2009, ''Victorious'' was involved in one of a string of incidents between US research ships and
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
ships. While operating in international waters, roughly 120 miles off the coast of mainland China 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 ...
, a Chinese Bureau of Fisheries Patrol vessel used a high-intensity spotlight to illuminate the entire length of ''Victorious'' several times. The following day, a Chinese
Y-12 maritime surveillance aircraft conducted 12 fly-bys of ''Victorious'' at an altitude of about and a range of 500 yards.
In May 2009, ''Victorious'' was again harassed by Chinese ships, this time 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 ...
. The Chinese vessels repeatedly approached ''Victorious'' at as close as 30 yards in heavy fog, at one point stopping in its path, forcing ''Victorious'' to stop to avoid a collision.
See also
*
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
*
USNS ''Impeccable'' (T-AGOS-23)
Notes
References
*
NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - T-AGOS-19 Victorious
1988 ships
Ships built in Morgan City, Louisiana
Small waterplane area twin hull vessels
Victorious-class ocean surveillance ships
Military catamarans
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