- LONDON (Reuters) - Three
enormous U.S.-military owned cargo ships capable of carrying tanks have
left U.S. shores in recent days, a U.S. navy official said on Monday, amid
mounting evidence Washington is building up firepower to attack Iraq.
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- The latest deployment comes as the aircraft carrier battle
group the USS Constellation set sail for the Gulf from San Diego, California
this past weekend.
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- The cargo vessels, the USNS Bellatrix, the USNS Bob Hope
and the USNS Fisher, just short of the length of aircraft carriers themselves,
are some of the largest transport ships in the U.S. military's inventory.
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- Marge Holtz, director of the Military Sealift Command
(MSC), a branch of the U.S. Navy charged with running the ships on behalf
of the U.S. armed forces, declined comment on the exact destination of
the vessels.
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- "It is part of the repositioning of forces and equipment
in support of the war on terror. They are on route," she told Reuters
from Washington.
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- Two, the USNS Fisher and USNS Bob Hope, have seven decks
capable of carrying tanks, helicopters and other heavy armor MSC says.
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- Over 900 feet long and 100 feet wide each has a hold
capacity of 380,000 square feet -- equivalent to eight soccer fields.
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- According to MSC the vessels are capable of carrying
58 Abrams battle tanks, 48 track vehicles, such as armored vehicles, and
900 other trucks.
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- Holtz said the ships would also carry "tanker trucks
and bridge sections."
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- Eight of their sister ships, known as the Watson-class,
and similarly packed with armor and supplies for the U.S. Army, are anchored
around the British base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, within a few
days sail of the Gulf.
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- The fast sealift ship the USNS Bellatrix, of a similar
size but quicker -- it is one of the fastest cargo ships in the world --
loaded equipment for the U.S. Marine Corps on the west coast of the United
States and set sail last week.
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- The two others, Large Medium Speed Roll-on Roll-off (LMSR)
ships, had loaded equipment for mechanized U.S. army units on the east
coast and set sail in the last 14 days. "One last week and one the
week before," Holtz said.
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- There are another six fast sealift ships and seven LMSRs
berthed at U.S. ports awaiting orders according to the MSC.
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- In addition to these government-owned ships the Department
of Defense has regularly chartered merchant vessels to carry tanks, ammunition,
helicopters and other supplies to the Gulf.
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- Since August the Pentagon has chartered at least eight
large vessels.
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- On Friday MSC confirmed to Reuters it had chartered two
ships to move a massive quantity of ammunition and a smaller quantity of
armor to the Gulf and the Red Sea.
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