USNS Stalwart

USNS Stalwart (T AGOS 1) was a Modified Tactical Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance Ship and the lead ship of her class. Stalwart was laid down on 3 November 1982 by the Tacoma Boat Building Company. She was launched on 11 July 1983 and entered service with the United States Military Sealift Command on 12 April 1984. The ship served as an anti submarine surveillance ship during the Cold War, then as an anti drug smuggling vessel as part of the United States' War on Drugs. Stalwart left military service on 15 November 2002, and was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 December 2002. She was donated to the State University of New York Maritime College (SUNY Maritime), and was renamed SUNY Maritime. She was sold in 2011 to Stabbert Maritime and sent to Norfolk Shipyards for restoration and renamed R/V Ocean Stalwart.

Stalwart was laid down on 3 November 1982 by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, in Tacoma, Washington. She was launched on 11 July 1983, and entered service with the United States Military Sealift Command on 12 April 1984. Stalwart and her sister ships were designed to collect underwater acoustical data in support of Cold War anti submarine warfare operations in the 1980s. The main equipment used for this role was the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS), a collection of acoustic sensors that process and transmit data by satellite to shore bases for in depth analysis. SURTASS was a neutrally buoyant, 8575 feet (2614 m) array deployed on a 6000 feet (1829 m) tow cable, capable of operating between in depth.

Stalwart spent the first part of her career on patrol for Soviet Navy submarines. In 1993, Stalwart and two sister ships, USNS Indomitable and USNS Capable, were converted to serve in the War on Drugs under Joint Interagency Task Force – East. The SURTASS sensors were replaced by an AN/SPS 49 long range air search radar and Link 11 system, to aid in location of drug smugglers. Initial thoughts of upgrading the vessel to an operational training vessel, or to use the vessel solely as a mobile security asset were not practical for the college, despite some efforts in procuring funding for these purposes. Instead the vessel had been used to a limited extent in her current condition and by various external groups, all with the college’s support. Although initially on her transfer to the Maritime College, some work was done on main engines and ship’s systems, there had been no later attempts at restoring the vessel and the college sought options of disposing of the vessel, for either scrap value or other purposes.

On 3 February 2011, the USNS Stalwart left the SUNY Maritime pier by tugboat to be brought to Norfolk Shipyards to be restored at an estimated $14 million to Stabbert Maritime. Vessel is now R/V Ocean Stalwart. Refit entailed reinstatement of ABS class, complete redesign of interior layout with special emphases on increased laboratory space, renewed all systems, installation of DP1 dynamic positioning system and full ocean depth multibeam capability for deep sea ocean research operations.