Navy's Behemoth 'Drives Like a Sports Car'.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: USNS Fisher cargo ship

Roll-on, roll-off vessel delivers massive amounts of cargo with a lean crew

Within Baltimore's Inner Harbor--across from famed Fort McHenry--sprawls one of the latest weapons in the U.S. Navy's battle to speed up deployment of U.S. forces to global hot spots.

The USNS Fisher (T-AKR 301), completed in 1999 at a cost of $250 million by Litton Avondale Industries, of New Orleans, is one of the biggest, fastest cargo ships in the world.

Known as a large, medium-speed, roll-on, roll-off ship (LMSR) of the Bob Hope class of strategic sealift vessels, the Fisher is 950 feet long--nearly the length of an aircraft carrier. Its huge, seven-deck interior has a cargo-carrying capacity of eight football fields, enough space to accommodate an entire battalion of Abrams tanks or air-assault helicopters. Despite her bulk, the Fisher can cruise at 24 knots and can hit much higher speeds, when necessary, according to the ship's officers.

The vessel is operated by the Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC), which is part of the joint service U.S. Transportation Command. The MSC provides ocean transportation for the equipment, fuel, supplies and ammunition needed by U.S. forces around the world at a cost of approximately $2 billion per year.

"During a war, more than 95 percent of the equipment and supplies needed to sustain U.S. military forces overseas is carried by sea," the MSC's commander, Vice Adm. Gordon S. Holder, told National Defense. Holder made his comments during an interview in his state-of-the-art headquarters in a restored portion of the historic Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.

Currently, Holder said, the Air Force--using C-17, C-S or C-130 transports--can fly relatively small numbers of lightly armed combat troops into battle within days, but protracted warfare requires massive amounts of heavy weapons and supplies that can only be delivered from the United States by ship.

During the 1999 NATO campaign against Yugoslavia, for example, the MSC moved more than 1.15 million square feet of cargo, or 267,000 tons of supplies into the theater.

To perform this mission, the MSC operates a total of about 110 ships worldwide in a day-to-day basis, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Shawn M. Cali explained. If needed, the command has access to more than 100 additional ships, all kept in reduced operating status at ports along U.S. coasts, ready to be activated in a national emergency. About 90 of these--the Ready Reserve Force--are owned and operated by the Transportation...