Awarded 1 January 1996 In service 18 January 2000 Displacement 62,644 Long Tons Launched 7 August 1999 Draft 10 m Range 22.224 million m | Laid down 29 June 1998 Status in service Construction started 29 June 1998 Length 290 m Beam 32 m | |
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Class and type Watson-class vehicle cargo ship Builder National Steel and Shipbuilding Company | ||
USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR 313) is one of Military Sealift Command's nineteen Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) Ships and is one of the 49 ships in the prepositioning program. She is a Watson-class vehicle cargo ship named for Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud, Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient, after whom Camp Red Cloud in Korea is also named.
Laid down on 29 June 1998 and launched on 7 August 1999, Red Cloud was put into service on 18 January 2000.
In 2003 Red Cloud was deployed to transport U.S. Army vehicles to Kuwait to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
On the 12 August 2015, an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed on the deck of the Red Cloud when demonstrating capabilities to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. The Red Cloud was operating approximately eight miles east of Ukibaru Island. Of the seventeen service members onboard the helicopter, only seven suffered non-life threatening injuries.