Navy accepts delivery of newest cargo vessel

Navy accepts delivery of newest cargo vessel The U.S. Navy has accepted delivery of the latest Lewis-and-Clark class of dry cargo/ammunition vessels from General Dynamic’s San Diego-based National Steel and Shipbuilding Co.
   The USNS Robert E. Peary, named for the famed American explorer of the Artic, is the fifth of the T-AKE program’s supply vessels being built by NASSCO under $2.8 billion in government contracts.
   'Starting with the delivery of USNS Lewis and Clark in June 2006, NASSCO has delivered five ships into service with the Navy's Military Sealift Command,' said Frederick J. Harris, president of General Dynamics NASSCO.
   Construction on the nearly 700-foot-long Peary began in July 2006. The T-AKE program vessels feature commercial-maritime technologies such as integrated electric-drive propulsion systems to minimize operating costs during the projected 40-year service life of the vessels. Capable of carrying more than 10,000 tons of cargo, the primary mission of the T-AKE program’s Lewis-and-Clark class vessels is to deliver food, ammunition, fuel and other provisions from shore stations to combat ships at sea.
   The T-AKE vessels will replace some of MSC’s aging, single-mission ships such as Kilauea-class ammunition ships and Mars- and Sirius-class combat stores ships that are nearing the end of their service lives.
   The Peary will perform a short “shakedown cruise” at the end of July, before departing for her homeport in Norfolk, Va. to await deployment with a normal compliment of 124 civil service mariners and 11 Navy sailors.
   Rear Adm. Robert E. Peary, recognized by Congress in 1911 as the “attainer” of the North Pole, claimed to be the first person to reach the geographic top of the world during his 1909 Arctic expedition.