YOKOHAMA, Japan -- Rear Adm. Rick Seif, commander, Submarine Group (CSG) 7/Task Force (CTF) 74, visited the Victorious-class ocean surveillance ship USNS Effective (T-AGOS 21) in Yokohama, Japan, July 13, 2022.
During his visit, Seif was given a tour of the ship and took the opportunity to address the entire crew, congratulating them on a highly successful time underway in support of theater undersea warfare objectives in the U.S. 7th and 3rd Fleet areas of operations.
“Undersea warfare is a team sport that includes our allies and partners, and many different platforms across multiple domains," said Seif. "As the theater undersea-warfare task force commander for 7th Fleet, I called on Effective to deliver unprecedented, critical support to our operations across the entire theater, and team Effective knocked it out of the park! It's an honor to visit with you today, and to recognize your professionalism, expertise and readiness that are such an important part of the undersea battle force."
During their underway, Effective was a critical component of a high-interest, multi-domain theater undersea warfare operation, providing initial detections, sustained tracking and valuable negative search data, which was then used by the CTF 74 team to inform intelligence assessments and asset allocation.
Effective’s underway featured many notable firsts, including the first Compact Low Frequency Active (CLFA) employment in an operation with multiple U.S. submarines, and the first operational deployment of a surveillance towed-array sensor system (SURTASS) vessel to U.S. 3rd Fleet waters in support of homeland defense.
The Navy’s five tactical auxiliary general ocean surveillance (T-AGOS) ships are operated by Military Sealift Command (MSC) to support the anti-submarine warfare mission of the commanders of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets.
Augmenting the MSC crew aboard Effective was a military detachment (MILDET) from Naval Ocean Processing Facility (NOPF) Whidbey Island, led by SURTASS Mission Commander and MILDET officer in charge (OIC), Chief Warrant Officer 2 Dewayne McCullough.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group of Sailors and civilian mariners,” said McCullough. “No matter what the mission threw at us, the team responded and showed their determination to see the job through to completion. The multi-platform coordination and teamwork performed by these Sailors was unprecedented and the continued support from the Civilian Mariners to keep the ship operational and ready is what made this mission possible.”
Seif thanked the NOPF Sailors for their work while underway and presented them with a Letter of Appreciation.
The Navy’s two classes of surveillance ships, Impeccable and Victorious, use SURTASS equipment to gather undersea acoustic data. The ships also carry electronic equipment to process and transmit that data via satellite to shore stations for evaluation. Effective is the second of the Victorious-class ocean surveillance ships.
Submarine Group 7 directs forward-deployed, combat capable forces across the full spectrum of undersea warfare throughout the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Sea.
For more news from Commander, Submarine Group 7, visit www.csp.navy.mil/csg7/.