Altair (T-AKR 291)
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Altair 1986 unloading equipment onto a floating dock leveler during exercise "Gallant Eagle 86"
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The Altair (T-AKR 291) (ex USNS Altair (T-AKR 291), ex USNS Altair (T-AK 291), ex Sea-Land Finance ) is an American RoRo vehicle transport ship of the Algol class . It belongs to the "Ready Reserve Force" (RRF), which is maintained by the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD). She is one of eight "Fast Sealift Ships" in the so-called "Surge Sealift Fleet" (SSF), which are subordinate to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) when activated , and one of 48 RRF ships in its "Sealift Program Office".
Building history
The ship was on the yard of the Rhine Steel North Sea works in Emden as a container ship American US for the shipping company Sea-Land Service in Port Elizabeth ( New Jersey built) and ran on 1 April 1973 with the name Sea-Land Finance from the stack . It was delivered on August 1, 1973 and was used on the Hong Kong - San Francisco route. The ship's operation was found to be inefficient for the shipping company, and on January 5, 1982, it was sold to the United States Navy , renamed USNS Altair (T-AK-291), and assigned to the Military Sealift Command. On November 1, 1983, the Altair was classified as a "Roll-on / Roll-off Vehicle Cargo Ship" and then rebuilt from July 28, 1984 at the Avondale Shipyard in Westwego , Louisiana , 30 km upstream from New Orleans on the Mississippi . The delivery to the MSC took place on November 13, 1985.
Technical specifications
The ship is 288.4 m long and 32.2 m wide and has a 11.1 m draft . It can accommodate more than 700 military vehicles (tanks, trucks, cars, helicopters, etc.) and is equipped with a helipad . Two cranes amidships have a lifting capacity of 35 tons each , two further cranes on the aft ship have a lifting capacity of 50 tons each. The vehicle decks are connected by ramps to enable quick loading and unloading. When fully loaded , the ship displaces around 56,240 tons. The machinery consists of two Foster Wheeler steam boilers and two MST-19 steam turbines from GE ; the output is 120,000 hp (89.5 MW). The ship has two propellers and has a top speed of 33 knots . The ship is not armed. The crew consists of 43 civilian seamen, 12 technical specialists from the US Navy and (if not activated) 18 other civil servants with restricted operational status.
Mission history
As long as the ship is not activated, its high operating costs mean that it is in a restricted state of action. It can be made ready for use within 96 hours.
During the Second Gulf War in 1990/91, the Altair and its seven sister ships were activated. As early as August 1990, Altair brought parts of the 24th Infantry Division from Savannah (Georgia) to Saudi Arabia to counter the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that began on August 2 . In total, the ship made nine round trips from the USA to the Gulf during this war. The eight Algol- class ships carried approximately 14% of the military cargo carried during and after the war from the United States to the Persian Gulf .
In December 1993 the Altair was activated again to bring equipment and materials to Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope .
In January 2003, all eight Algol- class ships were activated to bring troops of the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps into the Persian Gulf, which then invaded Iraq in March as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom .
On October 1st 2007 the Altair was transferred back to MARAD. On October 1, 2008, she was transferred to the Ready Reserve Force in 5-day status (ROS-5) and lost her USNS classification. She is moored in Marrero (Louisiana) , together with her sister ship Bellatrix , and can be reactivated at any time.
Web links
- http://navysite.de/akr/akr291.htm
- Photo gallery
- Fact Sheet ( Memento from December 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/takr-287.htm
Footnotes
- ↑ The ships of the class are: Algol (T-AKR 287), Altair (T-AKR-291), Antares (T-AKR 294), Capella (T-AKR 293), Bellatrix (T-AKR 288), Denebola ( T-AKR 289), Pollux (T-AKR 290) and Regulus (T-AKR 292).
- ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/sealift-surge.htm
- ↑ The ships of the Ready Reserve Force are owned by the civilian United States Maritime Administration and are maintained and crewed by it, but are subordinate to the Military Sealift Command if they are activated.
- ↑ Fact Sheet ( Memento from December 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ United States Naval Ships (USNS) are unarmed ships and are operated by a civilian crew.