The fourth USS ''Scout'' (MCM-8) is an of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Service history

''Scout'' was laid down on 8 June 1987 at Peterson Builders in

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin Sturgeon Bay is a city in Door County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 9,646 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located at the bay of Sturgeon Bay for which it is named, it is the most populous city o ...

. Launched on 20 May 1989, she was commissioned on 15 December 1990. The ''Avenger''-class ships were designed to have very low acoustic and magnetic signatures to avoid detonating mines. While most modern warships have steel hulls, the ''Avengers'' have wooden hulls with an external coating of fiberglass. They are equipped with sophisticated minehunting and classification

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 o ...

as well as remotely operated mine neutralization and disposal systems. On 25 June 1992, ''Scout'' was the first ship to arrive at the newly established Naval Station Ingleside, center of the Navy's Mine Warfare operations.NS Ingleside
/ref> While on a five-month deployment in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

during 1999, ''Scout'' assisted in the evacuation of ethnic

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

from war-torn

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

. ''Scout'' deployed to the Mediterranean in early 2003 for a five-month tour in support of

Operation Iraqi Freedom The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States-led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist governm ...

, returning on 13 June. On 1 April 2005, ''Scout'' and her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

departed Naval Station Ingleside for a five-month deployment on the West Coast of the US, operating out of Naval Station San Diego. On 24 August, the Armed Forces

Base Realignment and Closure Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) was a process by a Federal government of the United States, United States federal government commission to increase the efficiency of the United States Department of Defense by coordinating the realignment and ...

Committee recommended closing Naval Station Ingleside and moving Navy Mine Warfare operations to Naval Station San Diego. The recommendation was signed into law on 9 November 2005, and planning for the base's closure has begun. Navy Mine Warfare operations are to be relocated to Naval Station San Diego. In September 2005, ''Scout'' and several of her sister ships participated in relief efforts in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

following

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

. The mine countermeasure ships spent weeks surveying waterways around the Louisiana coast and offshore

oil platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...

s, using their high-tech sonar systems to locate sunken debris that could pose a hazard to navigation. On 18 February 2007 ''Scout'' arrived in Manama, Bahrain, where she remains forward deployed with the United States 5th Fleet. ''Scout'' was transported from Naval Station Ingleside aboard the semi-submersible heavy-lift ship ''Condock III'', chartered by

Military Sealift Command The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all U ...

. ''Scout'' participated in a mine countermeasures exercise with British forces in August 2007, where air, surface, and subsurface countermeasures were employed in the central

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

to locate, identify, and destroy planted dummy mines. From 26 February to 6 March 2008 ''Scout'' participated in another mine countermeasures exercise in the northern

with British and

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

i forces. During the exercise, ''Scout'' exchanged two sailors with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

ship ''Blyth'' to foster interoperability between coalition forces engaged in mine warfare. ''Scout'' holds a decommissioning ceremony at

Naval Base San Diego Naval Base San Diego is a United States Navy base in San Diego, California. It is the world's second largest surface ship naval base. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the United States Pacific Fleet, consisting of over 50 ships ...

on 19 August 2020 and was officially decommissioned on 26th of the same month.

Awards

In May 2004, ''Scout'' was the Atlantic Fleet winner of the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for overall readiness. Boxer Earns Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award
/ref>

References

United States Navy Fact File: Mine Countermeasures Ships (MCM)
*

External links

Official USS Scout (MCM-8) website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scout (MCM-8) Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships Minehunters of the United States 1989 ships Ships built by Peterson Builders