The US Navy has christened the sixth and final vessel under its Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) program in San Diego, California.
The ship, to enter service as the USNS Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (ESB 8), was named after a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War.
According to the military, the warfighter single-handedly held off an enemy force while protecting fellow marines by throwing a live grenade that landed in their position “at the cost of serious personal injury.”
US President Harry Truman presented the award to the soldier in 1952.
“USNS Hector A. Cafferata Jr. joins a fleet of ships named for warriors who never gave up the fight, putting themselves in harm’s way for their county, their families, and their brothers and sisters in arms — without hesitation,” Military Sealift Command Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson remarked during the San Diego ceremony.
US Navy’s ESB System
General Dynamics signed the contract to build the ESB 8 in 2022 as part of the US Navy’s goal to modernize staging, aviation, command and control, and berthing support for the Special Operations Force and Aviation Mine Countermeasure deployments.
Each platform under the fleet was modeled after the company’s Alaska-class commercial crude oil tanker.
The ESB design spans 785 feet (239 meters) long and has a beam of 164 feet (50 meters).
It is equipped with twin diesel electric engines for speeds over 15 knots (28 kilometers/17 miles per hour) and a range of 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 kilometers/10,900 miles).
The vessel can carry up to 250 sailors and features compartments for up to three landing craft and air cushion boats, as well as a 52,000-square-foot (4,830-square-meter) flight deck for rotary-wing and vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
