U.S. naval ships transit Taiwan Strait for first time in 2026

Los Angeles, Jan. 20 (CNA) Two U.S. naval vessels transited the Taiwan Strait last Friday and Saturday, marking the first such passage by American naval ships this year, according to a USNI News report.

The transit by the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113) and the Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship USNS Mary Sears (T-AGS 65) was confirmed by the U.S. 7th Fleet in a statement that USNI News cited in its report published on Jan. 17.

The statement said "USS John Finn (DDG 113) and Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Mary Sears (T-AGS 65) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Jan. 16 to 17 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law."

"The ships transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state," indicating that the international community's navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait should not be limited, the statement said.

It was the second time during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term that a U.S. Navy transit of the Taiwan Strait featured a destroyer sailing in tandem with a survey ship.

The first came in February 2025, when the destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the survey ship USNS Bowditch navigated through the waterway separating China and Taiwan.

According to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command website, the survey ship USNS Mary Sears, which took part in the latest transit, is a Pathfinder-class ocean survey vessel whose primary mission is to collect oceanographic, hydrographic and acoustic data.

Public fleet information released by the command noted that data gathered by such survey ships can directly support the Navy's submarine and anti-submarine warfare operations, as well as mine warfare and special operations.

The U.S. Navy website said survey ships are capable of scanning the seafloor, mapping underwater terrain, and collecting undersea acoustic and physical data.

USNI News is the daily news service of the U.S. Naval Institute, an independent, non-profit and non-partisan educational organization.