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UpdatedJune 1,2021
Navy TAGOS(X) Ocean Surveillance Shipbuilding Program:
Background and Issues for Congress

Introduction
The Navy wants to procure in FY2022 the first of a planned
new class of seven TAGOS(X) ocean surveillance ships.
The Navy's proposed FY2022 budget requests $434.4
million for the procurement of the first TAGOS(X). The
is sue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify
the Navy's funding requests and acquisition strategy for the
program.
TAGOS Ships in the Navy
TAGOS ships (Figure 1 and Figure 2) support Navy
antisubmarine warfare (ASW) operations. As stated in the
Navy's FY2021 budget submis sion, TAGOS ships use the
Surveillance Towed-Array Sensor System(SURTASS) to
gather undersea acoustic data. They also carry electronic
equipment to process and transmit that data via satellite to
shore stations for evaluation. Figure 3 shows a simplified
diagramof a TAGOS(X) ship with its SURTASS arrays
trailing below and behind the ship.
In the designation TAGOS (also written as T-AGOS), the T
means they are operated by the Military Sealift Command
(MSC); the A means they are auxiliary (i.e., support) ships;
the G means theyhave a generalormiscellaneous mission;
and the OS means the missionis ocean surveillance. In the
programdesignationTAGOS(X), the X means that the new
TAGOS ship's precise designhas not yetbeendetermined.

service in 2000. As of the end of FY2020, all five were
homeported at Yokohama, Japan.
The five in-service TAGOS ships are Small Waterplane
Area Twin Hull (SWATH) ships. In a SWATH ship, the
upperpart of the ship sits on top of two struts that extend
down to a pair of submerged hulls that looklike submarine
hulls (Figure 2). The struts have a narrow cross section at
the waterline (i.e., they have a small waterplane area). The
SWATH designhas certain limitations, but has features
(including very good stability in high seas) that are useful
for SURTASS operations.
Figure 2. USNS Effective (TAGOS-2 I) in Dry Dock
~. i   >      &

Figure 1. USNS Impeccable (TAGOS-23)

Source: U.S. Navy photograph 070913-N-2638R-004 posted at
Wikimedia Commons, accessed May 25,2021.
Figure 3. TAGOS(X) Ship with SURTASS Arrays

Source: U.S. Navy photograph accompanyingOcean Surveillance
Ships, Military Sealift Command, accessed May 25,2021.
Current TAGOS Ships
The Navy currently operates five aging TAGOS ships-
four Victorious (TACOS-19) class ships (TACOS 19
through 22) that entered service between 1991 and 1993,
and one Impeccable (TACOS-23) class ship that entered

Source: Detailfrom briefing slide entitled TAGOS(X) Concept of
Operations (CONOPS), slide 13 in Industry Day briefingfor
TAGOS(X) program,June26,2019,accessed May26,2021,at
GovTribe.com.

https://crs reports.congress.gov

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