Overview
The Acme class comprises four completed low-magnetic ocean minesweepers, MSO-508 through MSO-511, retained as four ships with service identities separated from construction identifiers.
Developed for United States Navy, Acme class belongs to the Mine warfare vessels family and is associated with Cold War. Its documented designations include Ocean minesweeper, while its intended roles include Ocean minesweeping and Mine hunting.
Development and construction
Acme followed the larger Agile/Aggressive program while retaining the wooden, low-magnetic mine-warfare design philosophy. Official sources vary slightly on dimensions; the archive preserves a normalized class configuration with ship-specific chronology where available.
The documented program for Acme class lists 4 planned, 4 ordered, 4 laid down, 4 completed, and 0 cancelled, with design work beginning in 1954, construction beginning in 1954, and construction ending in 1958. These figures define the scale and chronology currently supported by the class sources.
Design characteristics and intended role
The surviving classification data associates Acme class with Wood hull, Non-magnetic construction, Diesel propulsion, and Minehunting sonar. Read together with the recorded roles of Ocean minesweeping and Mine hunting, these attributes show the operational problem the design was intended to address without implying specifications that the sources do not establish.
The class record identifies United States Navy as the principal design or service authority. Where individual ships changed navy, name, or pennant, those later identities are retained on the ship pages rather than treated as separate vessels.
Service history and class roster
The four ships served the United States Navy through the Cold War. This source review records the ships and core U.S. service identities; images remain deferred.
The class roster currently links 4 ships. Named members include USS Acme, USS Adroit, USS Advance, and USS Affray. The linked ships are associated with United States Navy.
Historical significance
Acme is the short successor step between the large Agile/Aggressive production family and the later Ability design.
Acme class is most useful when read as both a design and a group of individual careers. The class page establishes the shared technical and operational context; the linked ship pages preserve differences in construction, service identity, deployment, transfer, preservation, and fate where those details are documented.
Ships in this class
Showing 4 recorded class members.
Sources and further reading
- Acme II (MSO-508) ↗Naval History and Heritage Command · accessed 2026-09-19
- Advance VI (MSO-510) ↗Naval History and Heritage Command · accessed 2026-09-19
- Affray (MSO-511) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-19
- Adroit (MSO-509) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-19
- NavSource Mine Sweeper Photo Archive — AM / MSF / MSO / BAM Index ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-19
- Minesweepers MSO MSC MSI MHC MCM Post-War — ShipbuildingHistory ↗ShipbuildingHistory.com · accessed 2026-09-19