When forces are armed with detailed descriptions of the environmental conditions they could face, operations have a greater chance of being safely and efficiently executed.

FST gathers the needed information via timely, self-contained hydrographic surveys in response to combatant commanders’ requests.

FST members (both civilian and military) can quickly deploy to areas around the world outfitted with equipment to perform surveys from various boats of opportunity.

FST members have also played significant roles in charting areas affected by natural disasters such as the south Asia tsunami of 2004 and hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fleet Survey Team command members are commonly known as the Fightin’ Crawdads in reference to the crawfish featured prominently in the FST logo.