USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR-313)

History
United States
Awarded:	1 January 1996
Builder:	National Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Laid down:	29 June 1998
Launched:	7 August 1999
In service:	18 January 2000
Status:	in service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Watson-class vehicle cargo ship
Displacement:	62,644 Long Tons
Length:	950 Ft
Beam:	106 Ft
Draft:	34 Ft
Propulsion:	2 Gas Turbines
Speed:	24 Knots
Range:	12,000 Nautical Miles
Complement:	30

USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR 313) is one of Military Sealift Command's nineteen Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR)^[1] Ships and is one of the 49 ships in the prepositioning program.^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

References

1. "MSC Ship Inventory - Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off". www.msc.navy.mil. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
2. "Strategic Sealift (PM3)". www.msc.navy.mil. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
3. "USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR 313)". navysite.de. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
4. "Army Black Hawk Was Conducting SOF Demonstration For Japanese When Crash Occurred". USNI News. 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2016-06-29.

• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

Gallery

USNS Red Cloud

External links

• Photo gallery at navsource.org