The fast combat support ship is the United States Navy's largest combat logistics ship, designed as an oiler, ammunition and supply ship. All fast combat support ships currently in service are operated by Military Sealift Command. They can carry more than 177,000 barrels of oil, 2,150 tons of ammunition, 500 tons of dry stores and 250 tons of refrigerated stores. It receives petroleum products, ammunition and stores from various shuttle ships and redistributes these items when needed to ships in the carrier battle group. This greatly reduces the number of service ships needed to travel with carrier battle groups.
Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US military services as well as for other government agencies. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's ocean transport needs. The MSTS was renamed the Military Sealift Command in 1970.
The Durance class is a series of multi-product replenishment oilers, originally designed and built for service in the French Navy. Besides the five ships built for the French Navy, a sixth was built for the Royal Australian Navy, while the lead ship of the class currently serves with the Argentine Navy. Two ships of a similar but smaller design are in service with the Royal Saudi Navy as the Boraida-class replenishment oilers.
A replenishment oiler or replenishment tanker is a naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks and dry cargo holds which can supply both fuel and dry stores during underway replenishment (UNREP) at sea. Many countries have used replenishment oilers.
Replenishment at sea (RAS) or underway replenishment (UNREP) is a method of transferring fuel, munitions, and stores from one ship to another while under way. First developed in the early 20th century it was used extensively by the United States Navy as a logistics support technique in the Pacific theatre of World War II, permitting U.S. carrier task forces to remain at sea indefinitely.
USS Conecuh (AOR-110) was a fleet replenishment tanker, originally built by F. Schichau, Danzig, in 1938 as a combination oiler and supply vessel or "Troßschiff" for the Kriegsmarine and christened as Dithmarschen. Taken over by British authorities at Bremerhaven when World War II ended, Dithmarschen was allocated to the United States Navy on 15 January 1946 by the Inter-Allied Reparations Commission.
The People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force is a branch of the People's Liberation Army Navy in China. It consists of all surface warships in operational service with the PLAN. It operates 661 ships. The ships are organized into three fleets: the North Sea Fleet, the East Sea Fleet, and the South Sea Fleet. The People's Liberation Army Navy is turning away from its traditional focus on coastal and littoral warfare and instead prioritising the development of blue water capabilities. This has led to a significant reduction in fleet numbers as the PLAN has replaced a larger number of smaller ships with a smaller number of larger and more capable ships, including destroyers, frigates, corvettes, amphibious warfare ships and large auxiliary ships.
The Type 908 replenishment ship is a class of multi-product replenishment oilers commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy and the Royal Thai Navy. The first Type 908 replenishment ship, Qinghaihu, was originally laid down for the Soviet Navy as a Komandarn Fedko-class merchant tanker, but construction was halted due to insufficient funds. The ship was then purchased by China as an incomplete vessel in 1993 from post-Soviet Ukraine. The ship has a near sister ship (INS Jyoti) operating with the Indian Navy. After significant refit, the ship was consecutively renamed Qinghaihu (885), formerly ex Nancang and ex-Vladimir Peregudov. Another similar ship was built and sold to Thailand and currently in service with the Royal Thai Navy as HTMS Similan (871).
A Service Squadron (ServRon) was a U.S. Navy squadron that supported fleet combat units. Service Squadrons were used by the United States Navy from their inception in 1943 to as late as the early 1980s. At the time of their inception during the Second World War they allowed the US Navy to operate across the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean for extended periods of time. Service Squadrons created temporary forward bases to allow the naval squadrons to spend less time in transit and more time in the area of combat. Ulithi, a small volcanic atoll in the central Pacific, is an example of a site converted for use as a forward base of supply. Service Squadrons essentially created a major naval base near the area of operation. With the naval base at Ulithi to refit, repair and resupply, many ships were able to deploy and operate in the western Pacific for a year or more without returning to a major port facility. Among the vessels operating in service squadrons were tankers, oilers, refrigerator ships, ammunition ships, supply ships, floating docks and repair ships. They provided diesel, ordnance, aviation fuel, food stuffs and all other supplies. Equally important at places like Ulithi were the portable piers and floating dry docks which allowed many ships damaged by enemy action or Pacific storms to undergo repair without having to travel the thousands of miles back to a major US naval base. Ulithi was as far forward from the US naval base at San Francisco as the San Francisco base was from London, England. To have a fully functional major port in the middle of the Pacific was a significant aid to U.S. Navy operations.
Ammunition is the material fired, scattered, dropped or detonated from any weapon. Ammunition is both expendable weapons and the component parts of other weapons that create the effect on a target. Nearly all mechanical weapons require some form of ammunition to operate.
The Type 905 auxiliary oiler replenishment is a class of auxiliary oiler replenishment (AOR) vessels used by the People's Liberation Army Navy and Pakistan Navy to resupply ships at sea with food, munitions, fuel and spare parts. One ship is now a commercial oil tanker in China. It is also known as Taicang class.
Type 991 cable layer is a family of Chinese cable layers first saw service in Chinese navy, and later on, additional units also entered service with Chinese civilian authorities.
Qiongsha (琼沙)-class cargo ship is a class of Chinese ship developed by China for its People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). These ships are mainly used for supplying garrisons in South China Sea. There are three versions of this class, including cargo ship, ambulance transport, and troopship versions. The general designers of all versions of Qiongsha class were Mr. Pan Hui-Quan (潘惠泉) and Mr. Huang Zhong-Fu (黄钟福).
300-ton class environmental research ship is a class of naval auxiliary ship currently in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The exact type of this class remain unknown as of 2015, because no official information has been released, despite the ships have already been in service around a decade. 300-ton class is the most commonly referred term when describe these ships. In addition to the usual task of conducting regular environmental sampling, surveillance and research missions, these ships are also tasked with additional task of sewer transfer and treatment from other ships to prevent sewer onboard other ships from overflowing into the sea and thus causing pollution, and thus these ships also act as sewer vessels for vessel sewage discharging.
The Type 631 tanker is a type of naval auxiliary ship currently in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Originally designed as a type that is capable of transport both water and oil, but only the oiler version entered service with PLAN.
Type 637 tanker is a type of naval auxiliary ship currently in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Originally designed as a type that is capable of transport both water and oil, these ships entered service from 1981 onward for both military and civilian, but only the oiler version has entered service with PLAN.
The Type 901 is a class of fast combat support ship of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy.
PRC 