Henry J. Kaiser class oiler

USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198)
Class overview
Name:	Henry J. Kaiser
Builders:	Avondale Shipyard, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana (14 ships) Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania (2 ships) Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Tampa, Florida (2 ships; neither completed)
Preceded by:	Cimarron class
Built:	August 1984-May 1996
In service:	December 1986-present
Building:	0
Planned:	18
Completed:	16
Cancelled:	2 (both laid up incomplete)
Active:	15 US, 1 Chile as of 1 March 2011
Laid up:	2 as of 1 March 2011 (incomplete ships)
Lost:	0
Retired:	0
General characteristics
Class and type:	Henry J. Kaiser class fleet replenishment oiler
Tonnage:	31,200 deadweight tons
Displacement:	All ships: 9,500 tons light Patuxent, Laramie, and Rappahannock: 42,000 long tons (42,674 metric tons) full load All other ships: Variously reported as 40,700 long tons (41,353 metric tons) and as 42,382 tons full load
Length:	677 ft (206 m)
Beam:	97 ft 5 in (29.69 m)
Draft:	35 ft (11 m) maximum
Installed power:	16,000 hp (11.9 MW) per shaft 34,442 hp (25.7 MW) total sustained
Propulsion:	Two medium-speed Colt-Pielstick PC4-2/2 10V-570 diesel engines, two shafts, cp propellers
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h)
Capacity:	Patuxent, Laramie, and Rappahannock: 159,000 barrels (25,300 m3) of fuel oil and jet fuel Other ships:178,000 to 180,000 barrels (28,300 to 29,000 m3) of fuel oil and jet fuel All ships: 7,400 square feet (690 m2) of dry cargo space; eight 20-foot (6.1 m) refrigerated containers with room for 128 pallets
Complement:	66 to 89 civilian personnel and 7 to 24 U.S. Navy personnel
Armament:	Peacetime: none Wartime: probably 2 x 20 mm Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried:	None
Aviation facilities:	Helicopter landing platform
Notes:	Five refueling stations Two dry cargo transfer rigs

The Henry J. Kaiser class is an American class of eighteen fleet replenishment oilers which began construction in August 1984. The class comprises fifteen oilers which are operated by Military Sealift Command to provide underway replenishment of fuel to United States Navy combat ships and jet fuel for aircraft aboard aircraft carriers at sea; one ship operated by the United States from 1987 to 1986, sold to Chile in 2009, an commissioned into the Chilean Navy in 2010; and two ships scrapped in 2011 while still incomplete.

Technical Overview

There are stations on both sides of each ship for underway replenishment of fuel and stores. The ships in this class have a small capacity to carry and transfer fresh and frozen foods as well as other materials, and have two dry cargo transfer rigs.

Patuxent, Laramie, and Rappahannock differ from the other 15 ships in having double hulls to meet the requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Hull separation is 6 feet (1.83 m) at the sides and 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) on the bottom.

Construction Program

The first ship, Henry J. Kaiser, was laid down on 22 August 1984, and construction continued until delivery of the final unit, Laramie, on 7 May 1996. Four shipyards were involved in the construction. Of the 16 completed ships, two -- John Ericsson and Kanawha -- were contracted to Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Chester, Pennsylvania, for construction, and Avondale Shipyard, Inc., of New Orleans, Louisiana, built the other 14.

Two ships of the class, Benjamin Isherwood and Henry Eckford, were cancelled prior to completion. Originally, their construction was contracted with the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which defaulted on the contract in 1989. Later work was performed under a new contract by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company of Tampa, Florida, a division of the American Ship Building Company. Disputes over corrective construction and materials costs between the U.S. Navy and Tampa Shipbuilding resulted in termination of the build contracts for these two vessels in 1993, with Henry Eckford 84 percent and Benjamin Isherwood 95.3 percent complete. The Navy determined that they no longer were needed as oilers, and a study of their potential conversion into ammunition ships concluded that such a conversion was cost-prohibitive, and they were placed in long-term storage in an incomplete condition. They were struck from the Navy List in 1997 and departed Virginia’s “James River Reserve Fleet” in July 2011 for Brownsville, Texas, where they were recycled.

Naming

The class is named for its lead unit, USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO-187), which in turn is named for the American industrialist and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser (1882–1967). The first nine ships were named for American shipbuilders, inventors, naval architects, and aeronautical engineers who played important roles in the history of the U.S. Navy, in some cases being the first U.S. Navy ships to be named for the men. The tenth through eighteenth ships were named after American rivers, which is a more traditional naming convention for U.S. Navy oilers.

Operations

In U.S. Navy service, the ships serve in a non-commissioned status in the Military Sealift Command, with primarily civilian crews. After joining the fleet, the 16 completed ships all saw active service between 1986 and 1996, when Andrew J. Higgins became the first uit of the class to be laid up. Since then, some of the others have also spent periods out of service in reserve or in a limited operational status.

Foreign transfer

Andrew J. Higgins never re-entered U.S. service after being laid up in 1996. She was sold to Chile in 2009 and was commissioned into the Chilean Navy in 2010 as Almirate Montt.

Ships

Photo	Ship	Hull No.	Status	NVR Page
	Henry J. Kaiser	T-AO-187	Active—Southern California Duty Oiler	AO187
	Joshua Humphreys	T-AO-188	Inactivated 1996, returned to service 2005	AO188
	John Lenthall	T-AO-189	Active	AO189
	Andrew J. Higgins	T-AO-190	Inactivated May 1996. Sold to the Chilean Navy May 2009. Towed to Atlantic Marine Alabama shipyard, Mobile, Alabama, September 2009 for three-month refit. Commissioned in Chilean Navy on 10 February 2010 and renamed Almirante Montt.[1]	AO190
	Benjamin Isherwood	T-AO-191	Cancelled when 95.3% complete, transferred to the Maritime Administration, laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet, scrapped in 2011	AO191
	Henry Eckford	T-AO-192	Cancelled when 84% complete, transferred to the Maritime Administration, laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet, scrapped in 2011	AO192
	Walter S. Diehl	T-AO-193	Active	AO193
	John Ericsson	T-AO-194	Active	AO194
	Leroy Grumman	T-AO-195	Active	AO195
	Kanawha	T-AO-196	Active	AO196
	Pecos	T-AO-197	Active	AO197
	Big Horn	T-AO-198	Active	AO198
	Tippecanoe	T-AO-199	Active	AO199
	Guadalupe	T-AO-200	Active	AO200
	Patuxent	T-AO-201	Active	AO201
	Yukon	T-AO-202	Active	AO202
	Laramie	T-AO-203	Active	AO203
	Rappahannock	T-AO-204	Active	AO204

References

• Wildenberg, Thomas (1996). Gray Steel and Black Oil: Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U.S. Navy, 1912-1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/GSBO/index.html. Retrieved 2009-04-28.