T-AGOS class renamed Explorer and new vessels named
The design of the new Explorer-class vessels. (Image: US Navy)
The US Navy’s large, fast surveillance vessels have been renamed as a new class.
The US Navy (USN) has announced the name of its new T-AGOS class of ocean surveillance ships, and the names of the first two vessels within the class.
On 10 January 2025, at the US Naval Academy in Maryland, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro named the T-AGOS vessels the Explorer class, with the first two ships called the USNS Don Walsh (T-AGOS 25) and the USNS Victor Vescovo (T-AGOS 26) respectively.
The first of the T-AGOS vessels was procured in 2022, and they were designed to be larger, faster surveillance vessels than anything the navy previously had, Del Toro explained. “These ships are essential to maintaining strategic deterrence and operational awareness in the world’s oceans,” he added.
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In renaming the T-AGOS vessels the Explorer class, Del Toro said the navy was beginning a new tradition, naming vessels after “those who made discoveries under sea, on land, and in the skies above”.
The Explorer class will be operated by the Military Sea Lift Command, and will play a key role in the navy’s anti-submarine warfare operations.
Vessels in the class will also be tasked with collecting underwater acoustic data to support the mission of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) by providing a ship platform capable of anti-submarine acoustic passive and active surveillance.
Ships in the Explorer class will be 110 metres long, with an upper section supported by two struts, reaching down to a set of submerged hulls, similar to those on a submarine.
Those design features will allow the Explorer class to minimise their waterplane area.
The vessels will displace 8,500 tons, and accommodate 68 personnel apiece, and with a top speed of 20 knots will prioritise the stability of their transit.
That high stability will allow them to use the USN’s Surveillance Towed-Array Sensor System (SURTASS) equipment to maximise the effectiveness of their data collection.
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