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USS Defender (MCM-2)
USS Defender (MCM-2) in port Pearl Harbor Hawaii, 2004.
Career (United States)
Name: USS Defender
Laid down: 1 December 1983
Launched: 4 April 1987
Commissioned: 30 September 1989
Decommissioned: 1 October 2014
Homeport: Sasebo, Japan
Status: In reserve in the Pacific Reserve Fleet as of 2019[1]
Badge: USS Defender MCM-2 Crest
General characteristics
Class & type: Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship
Displacement:
  • 1,253 tons (light)
  • 1,367 tons (full load)
Length: 224 ft (68 m)
Beam: 39 ft (12 m)
Draft: 15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion: four Waukasha Motors Co. diesel engines, two controllable reversible pitch propellers, two rudders, two electric light load propulsion motors
Speed: 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph)
Complement: 8 officers, 76 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:
see text
Electronic warfare
& decoys:
see text
Armament: six M2HB .50 cal. machine guns, four M240B 7.62mm machine guns, two Mk 19 grenade launchers

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.

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[]

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

External links[]


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The original article can be found at USS Defender and the edit history here.