USNS Victorious

USNS Victorious (T-AGOS-19) is a Victorious-class ocean surveillance ship which was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1991 and assigned to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) Special Missions Program.

Victorious was crewed by 19 civilian mariners under the control of the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and staffed with five sponsors[clarification needed].

She is of a small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) design, similar to a catamaran, which provides a stable platform for towing the ship's SURTASS sonar arrays.

While operating in international waters, roughly 120 miles off the coast of mainland China in the Yellow Sea, a Chinese Bureau of Fisheries Patrol vessel used a high-intensity spotlight to illuminate the entire length of Victorious several times.

The following day, a Chinese Y-12 maritime surveillance aircraft conducted 12 fly-bys of Victorious at an altitude of about 400 feet (120 m) and a range of 500 yards.