USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198)

USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198) is a Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler of the United States Navy.

USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198)
History
United States
Name:	USNS Big Horn
Namesake:	The Bighorn River in Wyoming and Montana
Ordered:	20 June 1988
Builder:	Avondale Shipyard, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana
Laid down:	9 October 1989
Launched:	2 February 1991
In service:	21 May 1992-present
Identification:	IMO number: 8812162 MMSI number: 368889000 Callsign: NBIG
Status:	In active Military Sealift Command service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler
Type:	Fleet replenishment oiler
Tonnage:	31,200 deadweight tons
Displacement:	9,500 tons light Full load variously reported as 42,382 tons and 40,700 long tons (41,353 metric tons)
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, controllable-pitch propellers
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Capacity:	178,000 to 180,000 barrels (29,000 m^3) of fuel oil and jet fuel 7,400 square feet dry cargo space; eight 20-foot (6.1 m) refrigerated containers with room for 128 pallets
Complement:	103 (18 civilian officers, 1 U.S. Navy officer, 64 merchant seamen, 20 U.S. Navy enlisted personnel)
Armament:	Peacetime: usually 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

Big Horn, the twelfth ship of the Henry J. Kaiser class, was laid down at Avondale Shipyard, Inc., at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 9 October 1989 and launched on 2 February 1991. She entered non-commissioned U.S. Navy service under the control of the Military Sealift Command with a primarily civilian crew on 21 May 1992. She serves in the United States Atlantic Fleet.

This ship was one of several participating in disaster relief after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The Big Horn brought relief supplies to Haiti. During Operation Unified Response, Big Horn transferred 618 pallets of cargo and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief supplies and over 2,000,000 gallons of fuel. USNS Big Horn got underway from Naval Station Norfolk the day after the earthquake struck, arrived on scene in Haiti on January 17 and worked until being relieved by USNS Leroy Grumman on 11 February.[1] In 2015, she refuelled RFA Gold Rover in the South Atlantic.[2]

References

• 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.

1. http://www.msc.navy.mil/msfsc/news.asp?show=1268332794&edition=032010/
2. http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2015/december/21/151221-rfa-gold-rover-globe-trotting

External links

• NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO-195)
• USNS Big Horn (T-AO 198)
• 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. Retrieved 2009-04-28.