She is designed to perform combat salvage, lifting, towing, off-ship firefighting, manned diving operations, and emergency repairs to stranded or disabled vessels.

In her 21,000 cubic feet (590 m3) salvage holds,[clarification needed] Salvor carries transportable cutting and welding equipment, hydraulic and electric power sources, and de-watering gear.

Additional retraction force can be applied to a stranded vessel through the use of up to six legs of beach gear, consisting of 6,000-pound (2,700 kg) STATO anchors, wire rope, chain, and salvage buoys.

Each drum carries 3,000 feet (910 m) of 2+1⁄4-inch-diameter (57 mm) drawn galvanized, 6X37 right-hand lay, wire-rope towing hawsers, with closed zinc-poured sockets on the bitter end.

[43][44] Other salvage operations undertaken by Salvor include repairing the propeller blades of HMAS Darwin,[12] repairing the hull of BRP Rajah Humabon,[45] recovering a LARC-V amphibious vehicle,[46] recovering and disposing of a 1,000-pound (450 kg) Mark 83 bomb,[46] pumping out oil leaking from the wreck of USS Mississinewa,[24] and exploring the wreck of the USS Lagarto in the Gulf of Thailand.

She spent much of the year in maintenance availability periods, undergoing various training exercises and engineering inspections, and dealing with repairs related to a troublesome design flaw with her port shaft.

[48] Salvor visited Kaunakakai, Molokai in January 1989 before returning to Pearl Harbor to conduct salvage training and diving operations in February and March.

Salvor participated in de-beaching operations when the oil tanker Exxon Houston broke free of her mooring buoy and ran aground near Barbers Point, Hawaii, on 2 March.

[12] Between 13 and 14 May she recovered propeller blades for the Australian guided missile frigate HMAS Darwin, and she provided emergency towing services for the hydrographic survey ship USNS H.H.

She conducted salvage exercises with the Korean and Indonesian navies, and visited the following ports:[13] Salvor departed Yokosuka, Japan on 11 June with ex-Cochrane in tow.

[14] Salvor spent much of the summer in a planned maintenance availability, sea trials, and training in or near Pearl Harbor, with a visit to Kailua Kona, Hawaii for the International Billfish Tournament between 31 July and 4 August.

[15] Salvor conducted salvage operations in the San Diego area from 1 to 20 July, including the recovery of a Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopter from a depth of 4000 feet.

[15] Salvor returned to Pearl Harbor on 16 September, where she would spend the remainder of 1993 except for a dependent cruise to Kauai, Hawaii from 15 to 18 October and diving operations at Wainae from 7 to 10 December.

[16] After another maintenance availability at Pearl Harbor in July and August, Salvor Departed for en route Acapulco, Mexico for a port visit from 1 to 4 September.

After stopping at San Diego, California for fuel on 29 September, Salvor continued to Bremerton, Washington, where she delivered ex-Woodrow Wilson for recycling on 6 October.

She was supporting diving operations for master diver evaluations in the waters off Reef Runway at the Honolulu airport on 6 January 1995, when USS Willamette lost an anchor and 10 shots of chain over the side in a depth of 170 feet.

Salvor recovered the anchor and chain the following day and returned them Pearl Harbor before departing diver training at Molokini crater and a brief visit to Lahaina, Maui on 9 February 1995.

[17] Salvor was underway near Pearl Harbor from 21 to 22 February 1995 in support of a special project code-named Cluster CERES, which was related to a technique for passively locating radar transmitters near land and using them to create accurate maps.

[17] Salvor served as a platform for tests of MDSU One's fly-away mixed gas (FMG) diving system at the beginning of May 1995, and spend the remainder of May 1995 and the first half of June 1995 in or near Pearl Harbor.

[40] On 18 June 1996, Salvor interrupted training operations to conduct the emergent at-sea recovery of a TB-29 towed sonar array from USS Los Angeles.

[40] Following a brief stop alongside USNS Tippecanoe at anchor at Singapore, Salvor arrived at Surabaya, Indonesia for a salvage exercise with the Indonesian Navy from 8 to 12 November 1996.

In late 1997 Salvor conducted various maintenance and training activities at Pearl Harbor, in addition to the salvage and recovery of two Utility Landing Craft 1527 at Ford Island.

[43] From 1 to 4 September Salvor conducted the salvage of USAF F-16C Fighting Falcon that had crashed in the Sea of Japan, near Kangnung Air Base, Republic of Korea.

Salvor began her return voyage to Pearl Harbor on 12 September, but was diverted to Yokosuka, Japan to await the passing of Tropical Storm Stella.

Salvor took on deep drone equipment and was underway for the wreckage survey and recovery of personal items from the sunken Ehime Maru from 17 February to 3 March.

[64] Salvor towed ex-Tarawa from San Diego to Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Middle Loch, Pearl Harbor during June 2011.

[77][78] On 5 December 2014, Salvor, along with USS Anchorage, participated in the recovery of the Orion spacecraft capsule after the splashdown of Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) in the Pacific Ocean.

[79] In early December 2016, Salvor and the embarked Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) ONE, Company 1-8, were supporting Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency operations in Okinawa.

By 15 December, Salvor was on site awaiting orders to begin recovery operations, while MDSU Company 1-8 performed a salvage survey in the tidal zone where the Osprey wreckage lay.

In September 2017, Salvor and embarked MDSU-1 divers recovered the sunken wreckage of a US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey, from a depth of 215 feet (66 m), approximately 18 miles (29 km) from Queensland, Australia.