Agano (阿賀野) was the lead ship of her class of four light cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II.

Six months later Agano transported troops and supplies to New Guinea and she played a role in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in early November where she damaged the destroyer USS Spence.

The turbines were designed to produce a total of 100,000 shaft horsepower (75,000 kW) and give the ships a speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph).

The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 6,300 nautical miles (11,700 km; 7,200 mi) at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

[3] The main armament of the Agano class consisted of six 41st Year Type 15-centimeter (6 in) guns in three twin-gun turrets, two superfiring in front of the superstructure and one aft.

She returned to Kure Naval District in early May for her sea trials and was then assigned to the Combined Fleet preparing to counterattack the American offensive in the Aleutian Islands, but this operation was cancelled after the Allied victory on Attu on 29 May.

[10] The ship, now the flagship of Rear Admiral Morikazu Osugi, departed Truk on 30 October for Rabaul just as the Americans were preparing to invade Bougainville Island on 1 November.

The Japanese ships had been spotted by American aircraft around 21:00 and Task Force 39, which consisted of four light cruisers and eight destroyers, was ordered to intercept them.

[14] The abrupt maneuvers by the Japanese ships, both to evade the American torpedoes and to fire their own, led to one collision and several near misses early in the battle.

Incorrectly believing that he had sunk three of the American cruisers, Omori ordered his ships to cease fire at 03:29 and turned away to disengage four minutes later.

Osugi, who had kept his ships on the disengaged side of the heavy cruisers after the collision, fired a parting shot of eight torpedoes at 03:40, all of which missed.

Agano and her sister Noshiro put to sea on the following day to destroy the American forces near Empress Augusta Bay, but this was cancelled and the ships returned to Rabaul on 7 November.

After emergency repairs were made by the ship's crew, Agano departed Rabaul under her own power the next day, escorted by the destroyer Urakaze.

That evening she departed Truk to get permanent repairs in the Japanese home islands, escorted by the destroyer Oite and submarine chaser CH-28.

On the afternoon of 16 February, about 160 nautical miles (300 km) north of Truk, Agano was attacked by the submarine Skate, which fired four torpedoes.

[17] As Oite was approaching Truk the following morning, the destroyer was sunk by Grumman TBF Avengers of Task Force 58 in the course of Operation Hailstone, and sank within minutes, taking all but twenty of her own crew down with her.