General Frank S. Besson-class support vessel

General Frank S. Besson-class logistics support vessels (LSV) are the largest powered watercraft in the United States Army, and are designed to give the Army a global strategic capability to deliver its vehicles and cargo.

Design
Named in honor of Gen. Frank S. Besson Jr., former Chief of Transportation, U.S. Army, these ships have bow and stern ramps and the ability to beach themselves, giving them the ability to discharge 900 short tons of vehicles and cargo over the shore in as little as four feet of water, or 2,000 short tons as an intra-theater line haul roll-on/roll-off cargo ship. The vessel's cargo deck is designed to handle any vehicle in the US Army inventory and can carry up to 15 M1 Abrams main battle tanks or 82 ISO standard containers.

Subclasses
The Robert T. Kuroda is the lead vessel of a new subclass of the Frank S. Besson class called LSV (MOD). The Kuroda, named after Robert T. Kuroda, and its sister ship, the Smalls, named after Robert Smalls, are generally similar to the rest of the class except that the ships are 42 ft longer than the other ships of the class. This is due to a more streamlined "visor" bow that hides the front ramp and allows for the vessels to move through rough water more easily. While these ships have the same main deck area as the rest of the class—10500 ft2— however they displace 6000 ST, can make 10000 gal of water a day, have incinerators for burning trash, are taller than the traditional Besson-class LSVs, and have 25% more horsepower. The ship has a range of more than 5500 nmi and can deploy fully provisioned worldwide at a speed of 12 kn carrying a standard port-opening package weighing 1000 ST.

Related classes
The Philippine Navy commissioned two Bacolod City-class logistics support vessels during the early 1990s. These ships were based on a helicopter-capable variant of the General Frank S. Besson Jr.-class logistics support vessel.

Ships

 * USAV General Frank S. Besson Jr. – 335th Transportation Detachment, 7th Expeditionary Transportation Brigade
 * USAV CW3 Harold C. Clinger – 489th Transportation Detachment, USAR
 * USAV General Brehon B. Somervell – 805th Transportation Detachment, 8th Theater Sustainment Command
 * USAV Lt. General William B. Bunker – 1099th Transportation Detachment, 7th Expeditionary Transportation Brigade
 * USAV Major General Charles P. Gross – 411th Transportation Detachment, 1st Theater Sustainment Command
 * USAV SP4 James A. Loux – USAR
 * USAV SSGT Robert T. Kuroda – USAR
 * USAV Major General Robert Smalls – 605th Transportation Detachment, 8th Theater Sustainment Command