Tracking ship

A tracking ship, also called a missile range instrumentation ships or range ships, is a ship equipped with antennas and electronics to support the launching and tracking of missiles and rockets. Since many missile ranges launch over ocean areas for safety reasons, the range ship extend the range of shore based tracking facilities.

In the United States the initial tracking ships were constructed by the US Army and then US Air Force to support their missile programs. They were generally built on a surplus Liberty ship or Victory ship hull. By 1964 the US Navy took over all the range ships and introduced more.

The Chinese ships were purpose built vessels for their role in the navy and the space program.

The Poincaré was a converted tanker, but the Monge was a purpose built ship.

Inactive

Active

The Soviet and later Russian ships were purpose built vessels for their role.

There are currently only two active Instrumentation Ships in the US Navy inventory: USNS Invincible (T-AGM-24) and USNS Howard O. Lorenzen (T-AGM-25). The latter was delivered in January 2012 to replace USNS Observation Island (T-AGM-23) in 2014. Most of the USN and USAF tracking ships were converted into their role. Some ships were in service with NASA.

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Wikipedia