For nearly three decades, the Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships have sought to identify and kill moored and bottom mines. Developed in the early 1980s, the Avenger-class was designed to clear ...

A noteworthy fact about the Avenger-class minesweepers is that their hulls are constructed of wood—so as to avoid metal hull detection technology in modern naval mines. The United States Navy ...

The U.S. Navy’s Secret Weapon In The Persian Gulf About three decades ago, the U.S. Navy began development of a new mine countermeasures (MCM) force, which included two new classes of ships and ...

Avenger class ships are designed as mine sweepers/hunter-killers capable of finding, classifying and destroying moored and bottom mines. The last three MCM ships were purchased in 1990, bringing the ...

The US Navy has decommissioned USS Devastator (MCM 6), the final Avenger-class mine countermeasure ship, during a ceremony at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on 25th September 2025. This event was ...

Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Chief (MCM-14) travels through waters near the Korean peninsula during the annual Multinational Mine Warfare Exercise (MN MIWEX) on Oct. 19, 2018. THE ...

The US Navy needs a waiver to decommission countermine ships such as the USS Avenger pictured here to field replacement vessels. (US Navy) The US Navy (USN) should soon have the waivers it needs to ...

The U.S. Navy announced Feb. 5 that newer, more capable mine countermeasure ships will forward deploy to Commander, Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan, to become part of the U.S. Navy's Forward Deployed ...

Summary: The U.S. Navy is poised to repurpose its Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) as modern mine countermeasures vessels, a move that could redefine their role within the fleet. The introduction of the ...