Combat stores ships near end of the road

[unhappycamper]

A shipboard ceremony was held Dec. 18 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to mark the end of service for the USNS San Jose.


Combat stores ships near end of the road
By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 29, 2009 18:39:25 EST

The last of 10 combat stores ships once operated by the Navy and the Military Sealift Command is all but gone.

A shipboard ceremony was held Dec. 18 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to mark the end of service for the USNS San Jose (T-AFS 7), one of seven Mars-class ships that entered service between 1963 and 1970. The Mars class was unusual at the time in being designed from the keel up as a Navy ship; most of the service’s earlier logistics ships were adapted from commercial designs.

The AFS concept reduced the number of logistics ships needed to support Navy warships at sea, and was able to provide spare parts, food and fuel via underway replenishment. The ships also were designed from the outset to carry and support helicopters to expand their replenishment capabilities.

All seven Mars-class ships were built at National Steel and Shipbuilding (NASSCO) in San Diego, and were designed as Navy-operated ships. In conjunction with a service drawdown, most of the ships were transferred to the Military Sealift Command in the 1990s for operation by civilian mariners.

During the Reagan-era naval buildup of the early 1980s, three more AFS ships were obtained, but from an unusual source — the United Kingdom. The three Sirius-class ships were built in the 1960s for the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary, an organization similar to MSC that supported the British Royal Navy. The ships were popular in U.S. service — renowned for, among other things, having the most comfortable “heads,” or restrooms, in MSC — and served long careers under the U.S. flag.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/12/DN_navy_shipclass_122909/