USS Defender

USS Defender (MCM-2) was an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship in the service of the United States Navy. She entered service in September 1989 and was decommissioned in October 2014.

USS Defender (MCM-2) in port Pearl Harbor Hawaii, 2004.
History
United States
NameUSS Defender
Laid down1 December 1983
Launched4 April 1987
Commissioned30 September 1989
Decommissioned1 October 2014
HomeportSasebo, Japan
StatusIn reserve in the Pacific Reserve Fleet as of 2019[1]
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeAvenger-class mine countermeasures ship
Displacement
  • 1,253 tons (light)
  • 1,367 tons (full load)
Length224 ft (68 m)
Beam39 ft (12 m)
Draft15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsionfour Waukasha Motors Co. diesel engines, two controllable reversible pitch propellers, two rudders, two electric light load propulsion motors
Speed13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph)
Complement8 officers, 76 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems		see text
Electronic warfare
& decoys		see text
Armamentsix M2HB .50 cal. machine guns, four M240B 7.62mm machine guns, two Mk 19 grenade launchers

History

It was laid down on 1 December 1983 at Marinette Marine Corp., Marinette, Wisconsin; launched on 4 April 1987; and commissioned on 30 September 1989. As of 1 July 2009, she was active in Mine Countermeasures Squadron Seven, U.S. Pacific Fleet, permanently forward deployed to Sasebo, Japan.

Defender was decommissioned at San Diego on 1 October 2014.[2] As of 2019, she is in reserve as a part of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.[1]

Systems

Auxiliary systems: three Waukesha ship service diesel generator sets, one solar gas turbine generator, one omnithruster bow thruster system.

Electronic systems: one AN/SSN-2 Precise Integrated Navigation System (PINS), one AN/SQQ-32 Mine Hunting Sonar, one AN/SPS-55 Surface Radar, one AN/WSN-7 Gyro compass, Mine Countermeasure Equipment Suite, one AN/SLQ-48 (V) Mine Neutralization System, one AN/SQL-37 (V) 3 Magnetic/Acoustic Influence Minesweeping Gear, Oropesa type 0 size 1 Mechanical Sweep Equipment, MDG 1701 Marconi Magnetometer Degaussing System.

Operations

For a review of current year-to-year operations of USS Defender), including operations after Hurricane Katrina, see:


References
  1. "USS Defender". NavSource. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  2. U.S. Pacific Fleet. "141001-N-VO234-037". Flickr. Retrieved 2 October 2014.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

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