Auxiliaries Part 5

The American campaign against Japan was fought in the vast reaches of the Pacific, and enabled largely by the efforts of auxiliary ships. The ability to refuel at sea gave the USN great reach, and a wide variety of ships were developed to allow deserted islands to become forward bases for the fleet. In the closing months of the war, improved techniques for underway replenishment allowed ships to stay in forward areas much longer, greatly reduced reliance on these bases and the need for their ships. But while many of the auxiliary types that were in service then have died out, others have been developed to take their place, and play vital roles on the oceans of the world today.

Salvage ship USNS¹ Salvor

Some types have survived more or less unchanged. The USN still has a pair of submarine tenders based in Guam to provide support to the undersea vessels of the 5th and 7th Fleets. Two hospital ships, Mercy and Comfort, were converted from oil tankers in the 80s and today serve primarily to project soft power by bringing medical aid to those in need. Each has a 1,000 bed hospital, 12 operating theaters, and a staff capable of performing any medical procedure short of organ transplantation. Fleet tugs still tow ships, as well as backing up the salvage ships in their mission of recovering objects from the sea bottom, supporting divers, and operating underwater vehicles.

A Soviet AGI in the Gulf of Tonkin

Perhaps the biggest factor in the development of new types of auxiliary ships has been the rise of electronics. One of the most prolific is the type generally known as the AGI, a ship stuffed with equipment designed to gather electronic intelligence. The Soviets deployed large numbers of these vessels, usually converted fishing trawlers, to shadow NATO warships, and make sure they had the latest electronic signatures in the event that the Cold War turned hot. These AGIs became infamous for getting in the way and generally making a nuisance of themselves. The US converted several freighters to a similar role, although these vessels were intended to function as mobile listening posts for the NSA, instead of gathering specifically naval intelligence. One, the Liberty was accidentally attacked by Israeli forces during the 1967 Six-Day War,² while another, Pueblo, was captured by the North Koreans the following year. This appears to have dampened US interest in vessels of this type, although warships often have the equipment to carry out similar missions.

Soviet tracking ship Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin

Not every vessel that bristles with strange antennas is an AGI. During the 1950s, both the US and the USSR discovered that missile tests and satellites often needed ground stations to receive telemetry in locations where building them on land was difficult or impossible. The result was the tracking ship, which often doubled as a secondary mission control in the era before it was easy to dial up a satellite and relay everything back to the main control center. Eventually, improved satellites and a reduced pace of missile testing consigned most of the tracking ships to the scrapyard, but a few remain in service. These are usually also equipped to monitor the missile tests of potential enemies, tracking them with incredibly precise radar and recording their telemetry for analysis.

Point Loma

The Cold War drove many other types of specialized auxiliary. To extend radar coverage away from land, the US converted many former cargo ships to radar pickets, which served for a decade before improved radar rendered them obsolete. To provide the president with a floating command post, immune from nuclear attack, a few ships were converted into floating communications relays. To move cargo to bases in the Arctic, the specialized cargo ship Point Barrow was built with extra insulation and a hull strengthened to deal with ice. Later, she was renamed Point Loma and used to haul components of the Saturn V rocket from California to Florida, and in support of deep-submergence programs.

Cable ship USNS Zeus

Point Loma was not the only vessel deployed to support undersea warfare during the Cold War. Submarines, previously confined to the waters near the surface, now needed to understand the deep ocean. New oceanographic and surveying ships were built, to study everything from the shape of the deep ocean floor to the long-range behavior of sound in the open sea. These required labs, cranes to handle sensor packages and remotely-operated (underwater) vehicles (ROVs). Eventually, this knowledge was used to create networks of seabed sensors, such as the US SOSUS system. Supporting these required specialized vessels with equipment to handle cables over the bow and stern.

SURTASS ship Impeccable

Even these vessels could not plant sensors in really deep water, and the USN developed a specialized towed array known as SURTASS which could fill in the gaps. The first tow ships for these arrays were modified tugs, but the need for operations in rough seas meant that later vessels used a Small-waterplane-area twin hull (SWATH) form. This involves a pair of submerged hulls connected to the deck above by narrow stalks, which minimizes the effects of waves on the ship.

Pigeon carrying a DSRV, the stern of which can be seen just forward of the helipad

Twin hulls were also used for the USN's specialist submarine rescue ships of the Pigeon class. This gave them great stability and ample deck space for diving and rescue operations on a reasonable tonnage, as well as the ability to operate the DSRV in the space between their hulls.³ The Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle was designed in the wake of the loss of the submarine Thresher to be able to dive to 5,000 ft, dock with any submarine in the world, and take off 24 stranded crewmen at a time. To get there, the DSRV could be carried by a submarine rescue ship or piggybacked on another submarine. If needed, it could be transported by a C-5 Galaxy anywhere in the world on short notice.

NR-1 on the surface

A few other specialized submarines were built. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, father of the nuclear navy, built a nuclear-powered minisubmarine, NR-1, essentially on his own. NR-1 was never commissioned, and was the only submarine ever permanently fitted with wheels, but it gave excellent service to both public oceanography and the secret war fought underneath the waves. The experimental USS Albacore prototyped modern submarine hulls, while the USS Dolphin tested many systems that were later fitted to operational submarines.

Norton Sound at sea with the Aegis deckhouse and a twin-arm launcher aft

Dolphin was only one of many trials ships that were built to smooth the transition of new equipment from lab to the fleet. In some cases an operational ship is converted briefly as a testbed, such as when Hull served as the testbed for the Major Caliber Lightweight Gun. In others, ships are permanently converted to support trials. Prominent examples include the former battleship Mississippi, which later fired the first shipboard examples of the Terrier SAM; Girdle Ness, which conducted initial trials for the British Sea Slug; Norton Sound, the first ship to take Aegis to sea; and the US Navy's Self Defense Test Ship, which is equipped with the next generation of point-defense systems. The current ship to fill that role, the former destroyer Paul F. Foster, has tested everything from laser weapons to biofuels.

Submarine tender Frank Cable with attack submarine Hawaii alongside

This isn't an exhaustive list of all of the auxiliary types to have seen service since the end of WWII by any means. Even leaving aside the types developed earlier, the variety of auxiliary ships is practically endless. Everything from training ships to heavy icebreakers to crane ships to torpedo retrievers has seen service in different navies. While the list above is somewhat US-centric, this is primarily because as the USN's support fleet is the largest and most diverse. Other navies make extensive use of auxiliaries, too. China in particular has had a very active program in recent years, although little information has reached the west on most types. But no matter how many or few, whether they carry oil, ammunition, or strange electronics, auxiliaries remain as vital to naval power today as at any point over the past century.