USNS Pathfinder (T-AGS 60) is a United States Navy oceanographic survey ship, and the lead vessel of her class.

This data has many uses, but a primary focus is characterizing the ocean environment in order to improve the U.S. Navy's undersea warfare capabilities.

The z-drives and bow thruster can be linked in a dynamic positioning system to keep the ship on-station while working.

[5] The ship is owned by the United States Navy, and managed by the Military Sealift Command, on behalf of the Naval Oceanographic Office.

[12]At the request of the Estonian government, in May 2008, Pathfinder searched the Baltic Sea for the wreck of an airliner shot down in 1940.

[14][15] In 2010 she hosted tests of littoral battlespace-sensing gliders, small autonomous undersea drones that survey the water column.

The Nicaraguan government protested that her activities in its exclusive economic zone violated the Law of the Sea Convention.

The United States responded that military surveys were allowed under international law as a function of freedom of navigation.

[17] As part of the U.S. Southern Command's outreach efforts, in 2014 Pathfinder cooperated with governments in the western Caribbean to gather hydrographic and bathymetric data.