[Orig to FB]
The UK Independent is breaking-ish a story about these four US Navy minesweepers arriving in Philly on Monday because they were decommissioned (wait for it…) last fall. I used to specialize in editing things about US mil/intel highjinks, but it’s been a while, and I’d forgotten how bad the writing was — and it’s gotten much, much worse. Here’s the tl;dr:
From the 1980s the US built up a new capacity in the field of ships whose hulls were made of wood and fiberglass (less vulnerable to magnetic measures and flexible in the event of a detonation). That culminated in 14 such Avenger-class ships in 1994. I assume the expertise needed to build such ships has been lost.
One ran aground in the Philippines in 2013, and the rest were slowly being decommissioned, leaving just eight in late 2025. The ones shown in this photo are the four that had been permanently stationed in the Mideast until a few months ago. Four remain, all stationed in Japan, and I see it said there are no plans to move them to the MIdeast.
This capacity was supposed to be replaced by Independence-class “Littoral Combat Ships” or (LCSes), which turned out to be a classic Pentagon boondoggle: ridiculously overdesigned, then overpromised and underdelivered after years of delay at twice their original $220M pricetag, and unreliable “af.” One of the major problems they face is…their trimaran design suffers from structural cracking. The Navy planned for 50 but only built 30 before giving up — in large part because half of the ones they built developed hull cracks.
So: (1) The US has four old-school minesweepers, all in Japan and apparently slated to stay there, and (2) and what remains are 28 LCSes — 7 of which were supposed to be decommissioned because they’re too broken to rely on. Only three are outfitted for counter-mine operations, and getting that done too a decade. Those three are flaky, understaffed, dependent on incredibly complex and expensive logistical chains, and…uniquely vulnerable to mines.
“Your tax dollars at work.”
The Independent (UK): Andrew Feinberg, “[Trump pulled mine-sweepers from the Middle East and they’re sitting in Philadelphia as the Iran War rages] (11 Mar 2026)
Militarnyi: Vladyslav Khomenko, “Last Four US Navy Avenger-Class Minesweepers Leave Bahrain for Disposal” (227 Jan 2026)
Slashgear: Jonathan H. Kantor, “Why US Navy Avenger-Class Minesweepers Have Been Pulled From The Middle East” (10 Feb 2026)
Navy Times: Geoff Ziezulewicz, “The littoral combat ship’s latest problem: Class-wide structural defects leading to hull cracks” (May 10 2022)
USMI News: Sam LaGrone, “Navy Won’t Decommission More Littoral Combat Ships, Officials Say” (27 Jan 2026)