Scout was laid down on 8 June 1987 at Peterson Builders in
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Launched on 20 May 1989, she was commissioned on 15 December 1990. The
Avenger-class ships were designed to have very low
acoustic and
magnetic signatures to avoid detonating mines. While most modern warships have steel hulls, the
Avengers have wooden hulls with an external coating of fiberglass. They are equipped with sophisticated minehunting and classification
sonar as well as remotely operated mine neutralization and disposal systems. On 25 June 1992,
Scout was the first ship to arrive at the newly established
Naval Station Ingleside, center of the Navy's Mine Warfare operations. While on a five-month deployment in the
Mediterranean during 1999,
Scout assisted in the evacuation of ethnic
Albanians from war-torn
Kosovo.
Scout deployed to the Mediterranean in early 2003 for a five-month tour in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom, returning on 13 June. On 1 April 2005,
Scout and her
sister ship departed Naval Station Ingleside for a five-month deployment on the West Coast of the US, operating out of
Naval Station San Diego. On 24 August, the Armed Forces
Base Realignment and Closure Committee recommended closing Naval Station Ingleside and moving Navy Mine Warfare operations to Naval Station San Diego. The recommendation was signed into law on 9 November 2005, and planning for the base's closure has begun. Navy Mine Warfare operations are to be relocated to Naval Station San Diego. On 18 February 2007
Scout arrived in
Manama, Bahrain, where she remains forward deployed with the
United States 5th Fleet.
Scout was transported from Naval Station Ingleside aboard the
semi-submersible heavy-lift ship Condock III, chartered by
Military Sealift Command.
Scout participated in a mine countermeasures exercise with British forces in August 2007, where air, surface, and subsurface countermeasures were employed in the central
Persian Gulf to locate, identify, and destroy planted dummy mines. From 26 February to 6 March 2008
Scout participated in another mine countermeasures exercise in the northern
Persian Gulf with British and
Kuwaiti forces. During the exercise,
Scout exchanged two sailors with the
Royal Navy ship
Blyth to foster interoperability between coalition forces engaged in mine warfare. A decommissioning ceremony was held for
Scout at
Naval Base San Diego on 19 August 2020, and was officially decommissioned on 26th of the same month. ==Awards==