USNS United States Naval Ship (USNS) is the prefix designation given to non- commissioned ships that are property of the United States Navy (USN). Definition United States Naval Ships are unarmed auxiliary support vessels owned by the U.S. Navy ...

''Arctic'' (T-AOE-8), formerly USS ''Arctic'' (AOE-8), is the third ship in the ''Supply'' class of

fast combat support ship The fast combat support ship (US Navy hull classification symbol: AOE) is the United States Navy's largest combat logistics ship, designed as an oiler, ammunition and supply ship. All fast combat support ships currently in service are operated ...

s and is the fifth supply ship to carry the name of the region surrounding the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. ''Arctic'' was built by

National Steel and Shipbuilding Company National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is an American shipbuilding company with three shipyards located in San Diego, Norfolk and Mayport. It is a division of General Dynamics. The San Diego shipyard specializes ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

. Since decommissioning on 14 June 2002, ''Arctic'' has been operated by the Military Sealift Command, homeported in Earle, New Jersey. As a U.S. Naval Ship, ''Arctic'' is mostly civilian crewed and no longer carries the weapons systems she previously (as USS ''Arctic'') was equipped with. One of these systems was the

Phalanx CIWS The Phalanx CIWS (often spoken as "sea-wiz") is a gun-based close-in weapon system to defend military watercraft automatically against incoming threats such as aircraft, missiles, and small boats. It was designed and manufactured by the Gen ...

. ''Arctic'' has the speed to keep up with the carrier strike groups. She rapidly replenishes Navy task forces and can carry more than of oil; 2,150 tons of ammunition; 500 tons of dry stores; and 250 tons of refrigerated stores. She receives petroleum products, ammunition, and stores from shuttle ships and redistributes these items simultaneously to carrier strike group ships. This reduces the vulnerability of serviced ships by reducing alongside time. Like other fast combat support ships, she is part of MSC's

Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force The Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force is a division of the US Navy. The 42 ships of the Military Sealift Command's Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force are the supply lines to U.S. Navy ships at sea. These ships provide virtually everything that Navy ships need ...

. USNS ''Arctics cargo capacities: *Diesel Fuel Marine (DFM): *JP-5 fuel: *Bottled gas: 800 bottles *Ordnance stowage: 1,800 tons *Chill and freeze stowage: 400 tons *Water: USNS ''Arctics refueling rigs can pump fuel at a rate of per minute.

US Army helicopter crash

On October 22, 2009 a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

UH-60 Black Hawk The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System ( ...

helicopter from the 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment crashed into the ship during a joint training exercise involving fast roping about off

Fort Story Joint Expeditionary Base-Fort Story, commonly called simply Fort Story is a sub-installation of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story, which is operated by the United States Navy. Located in the independent city of Virginia Beach, Vi ...

, Virginia. The crash killed a soldier, Staff Sergeant James R. Stright, 29, and injured eight other service members.

Sources

External links

Official MSC ship website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arctic (T-AOE-8) Supply-class fast combat support ships 1993 ships