• Designed to clear mines from vital waterways.
• Includes two new classes of ships and minesweeping helicopters.
• Avenger class ships are designed as mine hunter-killers capable of finding, classifying and destroying moored and bottom mines.
• Avenger class ships use sonar and video systems, cable cutters and a mine detonating device that can be released and detonated by remote control.
  
  
• Avenger class are also capable of conventional sweeping measures.
• The ships are of fiberglass sheathed, wooden hull construction.
• They are the first large mine countermeasures ships built in the United States in nearly 27 years.
  
  
• Osprey class ships are also designed as mine hunter-killers. TheOsprey class has a 15-day endurance and depends on a support ship or shore based facilities for resupply.

General Characteristics, Avenger class

• Power Plant: Four diesels (600 horsepower each), two shafts with controllable pitch propellers
• Length: 224 feet (68.28 meters)
• Speed: 14 knots (16.1 mph, 25.76 kmph)
• Crew: 8 officers, 76 enlisted
• Armament: Mine neutralization system. Two .50 caliber machine guns