The US Navy named the first Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship, USNS Navajo (T-ATS 6), in a ceremony on 26 August 2023 in Houma, Louisiana.
The future USNS Navajo will be operated by the Military Sealift Command. The vessels will replace the existing Powhatan-class T-ATF fleet ocean tugs and Safeguard-class T-ARS rescue and salvage ships.
The Navajo-class is a new series of towing, salvage and rescue ships (T-ATS) and uses a multi-mission common hull platform that will be deployed to support a range of missions such as towing, rescue, salvage, humanitarian assistance, oil spill response and wide-area search and surveillance operations using unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
