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General Frank S. Besson class logistics support vessel

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Builders
  
VT Halter Marine, Inc.

Built
  
1987–2006

Planned
  
8

Operators
  
United States Army

In commission
  
1988–present

General Frank S. Besson-class logistics support vessel

Subclasses
  
SSGT Robert T. Kuroda class Bacolod City class

The General Frank S. Besson-class Logistics Support Vessels (LSV) are the largest powered watercraft in the United States Army, and are designed to give the Army a global strategic capability to deliver its vehicles and cargo.

Contents

Design

Named in honor of Gen. Frank S. Besson, Jr., former Chief of Transportation, U.S. Army, these ships have bow and stern ramps and the ability to beach themselves, giving them the ability to discharge 900 short tons of vehicles and cargo over the shore in as little as four feet of water, or 2,000 short tons as an intra-theater line haul roll-on/roll-off cargo ship. The vessel's cargo deck is designed to handle any vehicle in the US Army inventory and can carry up to 15 M1 Abrams main battle tanks or 82 ISO standard containers.

Subclasses

The Robert T. Kuroda is the lead vessel of a new subclass of the Frank S. Besson class called LSV (MOD). The Kuroda, named after Robert T. Kuroda, and its sister ship, the Smalls, named after Robert Smalls, are generally similar to the rest of the class except that the ships are 42 feet (13 m) longer than the other ships of the class. This is due to a more streamlined "visor" bow that hides the front ramp and allows for the vessels to move through rough water easier. While these ships have the same main deck area as the rest of the class—10,500 square feet (980 m2)— however they displace 6,000 short tons (5,400 t), can make 10,000 U.S. gallons (38,000 l) of water a day, have incinerators for burning trash, are taller than the traditional Besson-class LSVs, and have more than twice the horsepower. The ship has a range of more than 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km) and can deploy fully provisioned worldwide at a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h) carrying a standard port-opening package weighing 1,000 short tons (910 t).

The Philippine Navy commissioned two Bacolod City-class logistics support vessels during the early 1990s. These ships were based on a helicopter-capable variant of the General Frank S. Besson, Jr.-class logistics support vessel. MWT-03

Ships

  • USAV General Frank S. Besson, Jr (LSV-1)
  • USAV CW3 Harold C. Clinger (LSV-2)
  • USAV General Brehon B. Somervell (LSV-3)
  • USAV Lt. General William B. Bunker (LSV-4)
  • USAV Major General Charles P. Gross (LSV-5)
  • USAV SP4 James A. Loux (LSV-6)
  • USAV SSGT Robert T. Kuroda (LSV-7)
  • USAV Major General Robert Smalls (LSV-8)
  • References

    General Frank S. Besson-class logistics support vessel Wikipedia


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