The third USS Ardent (MCM-12) is an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship in the United States Navy. She was built by Peterson Shipbuilders, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Ardent is homeported at Bahrain and is part of the U.S. 5th Fleet. Ardent was featured in a front-page article in the 31 July 2006 edition of DefenceNews that pointed out that Ardent and USS Dextrous (MCM-13) were suffering from equipment failures that made them unable to perform their role.