Admirable-class minesweeper

USS Admirable (AM-136) underway, ca. 1944.
Class overview
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Planned	147
Completed	123
Cancelled	24
Preserved	1
General characteristics
Displacement	625 tons
Length	184 ft 6 in (56.24 m)
Beam	33 ft (10 m)
Draft	10 ft (3.0 m)
Speed	15 knots (27.8 km/h)
Complement	104 officers and men
Armament	1 × 3"/50 caliber gun 4 × Bofors 40 mm gun 6 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 4 × depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge racks 2 × minesweeping paravanes

Soviet Navy Rear Admiral Boris Dmitrievich Popov, commander of the 5th Independent Brigade of Soviet Navy Ships at Cold Bay, Territory of Alaska, speaks aboard an unidentified Admirable-class minesweeper at Cold Bay on 21 or 22 May 1945 during the ceremony transferring the ship from the United States Navy to the Soviet Navy in the secret Project Hula training-and-transfer program.

The Admirable class was the largest and one of the most successful classes of minesweepers the United States Navy ordered during World War II. Typically, the minesweeper detected and removed naval mines before the rest of the fleet arrived, thereby ensuring safe passage for the larger ships. They were also charged with anti-submarine warfare (ASW) duties with rear-mounted depth charge racks and a forward-firing Hedgehog antisubmarine mortar. Their job was essential to the safety and success of U.S. naval operations during World War II and the Korean War. These minesweepers were also employed as patrol vessel and convoy ecorts.

As a part of Project Hula – a secret 1945 program that transferred 149 U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan – the U.S. Navy transferred 24 Admirable-class minesweepers to the Soviet Navy between May and August 1945. At least some of them saw action in the Soviet offensive against Japanese forces in Northeast Asia in August 1945. The Soviet Union never returned them to the United States.

After World War II, the United States transferred Admirable-class minesweepers to the Republic of China Navy, the Republic of China's Chinese Maritime Customs Service, the Republic of Korea Navy, the Republic of Vietnam Navy, and the Dominican, Mexican, Myanmar, and Philippine navies.

USS Hazard survives as a museum ship on dry land in Omaha, Nebraska. USS Inaugural was a museum ship on the Mississippi River in St. Louis, until she sank during the Great Flood of 1993. USS Scuffle was scuttled of the coast of Cozumel, Mexico in 1999. It is now a popular site for scuba diving.

See also

• List of Admirable class minesweepers