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General cargo
Operated by United States Navy
Photo: DOD photo # 990807-N-1144C-001. · Public domain · file
Largest in this registry
#6,414
of 84,014 with a recorded tonnage
Largest general cargo
#4
of 5,539 of this type with a recorded tonnage
Largest in its fleet
#5
of 177 in this fleet with a recorded tonnage
In brief
USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR 313) is one of Military Sealift Command's nineteen Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) Ships and is one of the 49 ships in the prepositioning program. 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.
In 2003 Red Cloud was deployed to transport U.S. Army vehicles to Kuwait to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
On 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 on board the helicopter, seven suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The Navy announced it would transfer the USNS Red Cloud on 30 September 2026 to the US Maritime Administration.
Vessel particulars
Every value is as recorded in the source. Blanks are values the source does not hold — none is estimated from a sister ship or a class average.
Identification
Construction
Measurements
In context
Every figure in this section is a count, a rank or a percentile over vessels actually held in this registry — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.
At 72,737 gross tons, USNS Red Cloud is the 6,414th largest of the 84,014 vessels in this registry that report a tonnage. The median across that set is 5,994 GT, so this hull is about 12 times the typical vessel on record here. The largest measures 499,167 GT.
Among the 6,242 general cargos held here, it ranks 4th by tonnage — larger than 100% of that group. Their median tonnage is 2,963 GT, and the largest tenth begin at 10,970 GT. The flag most often flown by this group is Panama (565 ships). The yard that appears most often against it is Cestné a Stavebné Mechanizmy Tisovec, with 137 hulls on record.
United States is the country of registry for 2,278 vessels in this directory, of which USNS Red Cloud is the 28th largest by tonnage. The most common class under that flag is vessels this registry holds no type classification for (977 ships), and the median vessel measures 1,706 GT. Browse every ship flagged United States.
Narrowing to both dimensions at once, this registry holds 121 general cargos flying the United States flag, of which 2 are larger by tonnage.
USNS Red Cloud was built in 2000, making it 26 years old. It is one of 1,296 hulls in this registry delivered that year, a cohort whose median tonnage is 8,737 GT; within it this ship is the 117th largest. Across the whole of the 2000s the registry holds 18,605 vessels, median 9,957 GT. The median build year across the entire registry is 1995.
The registry attributes 48 vessels to NASSCO, with a median tonnage of 43,758 GT, delivered between 1960 and 2021. See the rest of that yard’s output.
At 289.6 m overall, USNS Red Cloud is 188.6 m longer than the 101.0 m median for general cargos on record, with a beam of 106.0 m and a draft of 34.0 m.
IMO numbers are issued in broadly chronological blocks. Within 500 either side of 9145449 this registry holds 54 other vessels, whose median build year is 1997 and which range from 1996 to 2004. That places this hull’s registration in the same part of the series, consistent with its recorded build year of 2000.
Its IMO number, 9145449, carries its own check digit. The first six digits are weighted seven down to two and summed — 9×7 + 1×6 + 4×5 + 5×4 + 4×3 + 4×2 = 129 — and the last digit of that total, 9, must equal the seventh digit, 9. It does, so this number is well formed.
Nearest by tonnage among general cargos
| Ship | Built | Gross tonnage |
|---|---|---|
| Giant Step | 1985 | 98,587 |
| USNS Watson | 1998 | 77,848 |
| USNS Soderman | 2002 | 72,977 |
| USNS Red Cloud (this ship) | 2000 | 72,737 |
| USNS Sisler | 1998 | 72,718 |
| Morning Lady | 2010 | 70,853 |
| USNS Bob Hope |
Record
Events recorded against this vessel in the source, with the dates the source gives. An event with no date is listed last rather than assigned one.
Class
| Ship | IMO | Flag | Built | Gross tonnage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USNS Sisler | 9117038 | United States | 1998 | 72,718 |
| USNS Watson | 9112727 | United States | 1998 | 77,848 |
| USNS Dahl | 9117040 | United States | 1999 | 73,204 |
| USNS Charlton | 9231664 | United States | 2000 | 72,737 |
| USNS Pomeroy | 9232242 | United States | 2001 | 72,737 |
| USNS Watkins | 9232230 | United States | 2001 | 72,737 |
| USNS Soderman | 9232254 | United States | 2002 | 72,977 |
Same fleet
Provenance
Vessel recordWikidata, released under CC0, keyed on this ship’s IMO number.
Written summaryQuoted from USNS Red Cloud on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.
PhotographBy DOD photo # 990807-N-1144C-001., reused under Public domain.
| 1998 |
| 69,365 |