USNS Waters (T-AGS 45) is a United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 vessel tasked with supporting submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 navigation-system testing and providing ballistic missile

Ballistic missile

A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...

 flight test

Flight test

Flight test is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops and gathers data during flight of an aircraft and then analyzes the data to evaluate the flight characteristics of the aircraft and validate its design, including safety aspects...

 support services. In 2011, it was homeported in Port Canaveral, Florida.

Features

Waters is operated by Military Sealift Command

Military Sealift Command

The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's...

 to provide an operating platform and services for unique U.S. military and federal government missions. Special missions ships work for several different U.S. Navy customers, including Naval Sea Systems Command

Naval Sea Systems Command

The Naval Sea Systems Command is the largest of the U.S. Navy's five "systems commands," or materiel organizations...

, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command and the Oceanographer of the Navy.

Background

Waters was originally an oceanographic survey ship, built by the Avondale Shipyard

Avondale Shipyard

Avondale Shipyard was an independent shipbuilding company, acquired by Litton Industries, in turn acquired by Northrop Grumman Corporation. Now, along with the former Ingalls Shipbuilding, the yard is part of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. The yard is located on the West Bank of the Mississippi...

 and delivered to the US Navy in 1993. Under the sponsorship of the Strategic Systems Program Office, Waters was converted in 1998 by Deteyns Shipyard to support submarine navigation system testing and ballistic missile flight test support services. Waters began operating in the fall of 1999, replacing USNS Vanguard (T-AG 194), a submarine navigation system test platform ship, deactivated in 1998; and USNS Range Sentinel (T-AGM 22)

USS Sherburne (APA-205)

USS Sherburne was a of the United States Navy, built and used during World War II. She was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship design type. Sherburne was named for Sherburne County, Minnesota...

, a flight test navigation support ship deactivated in 1997.

External links

• Photo gallery at NavSource.org