USNS Mount Baker

For other ships with the same name, see USS Mount Baker.

USNS Mount Baker (T-AE-34) was the seventh of eight Kilauea-class ammunition ships. She served in the United States Navy from 1972 to 1996 and with the Military Sealift Command from 1996 to 2010. She was scrapped in 2012.

USNS Mount Baker (T-AE-34)
History
United States
Name	USNS Mount Baker (T-AE-34)
Namesake	Mount Baker
Awarded	8 March 1968[1]
Builder	Ingalls Shipbuilding[1]
Laid down	5 October 1970[1]
Launched	23 October 1971[1]
Commissioned	22 July 1972[1]
Decommissioned	18 December 1996[1]
In service	18 December 1996
Out of service	2 August 2010[2]
Identification	IMO number: 8937053
Fate	Scrapped 2012
General characteristics
Class and type	Kilauea-class ammunition ship
Displacement	20,000 tons (20,300 t) full load
Length	564.3 ft (172.0 m) overall
Beam	81 ft (25 m)
Draft	28 ft (8.5 m)
Propulsion	Three Foster-Wheeler boilers; 600 psi (42 kg/cm², 4.2 MPa); 870 °F (470 °C); 1 turbine, 22,000 hp (16.4 MW); single six-bladed propeller; Automated Propulsion System (APS)
Speed	20 knots
Capacity	60,000 ft3/6,000 tons of ammunition
Complement	125 civilians, 55 naval personnel (including a helicopter detachment)
Aircraft carried	Two CH-46 helicopters
Aviation facilities	Hangar and landing pad

History

She is the second U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, and is named for Mount Baker, a 10,781-foot volcano in the Cascade Range of Washington. Ammunition ships operated by Military Sealift Command provide logistic support to US Navy ships at sea.

USS Mount Baker (AE-34)

Mount Baker was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was commissioned 22 July 1972 as USS Mount Baker (AE-34) and entered service with the Atlantic Fleet.

In 1976, the Chief of Naval Operations authorized the testing of the LAMPS MK III System aboard her flight deck. Later that year, Mount Baker gave support to rescue operations of the Navy's nuclear-powered submersible (NR-1). In 1977, she was awarded the Battle E as the best ammunition ship in the Atlantic Fleet.

USNS Mount Baker (T-AE-34)

On 18 December 1996, Mount Baker decommissioned and was placed in service with the Military Sealift Command. The ship's designation was changed to T-AE-34. Previously, she provided ammunition onload and offload support to U.S. Navy ships operating in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean.

On 20 July 2009, the Navy announced that the ship would be inactivated on 2 August 2010.^[2] She was laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, PA, waiting to be sunk as a target, but she was apparently sold for scrapping c. June 2012 and towed to Brownsville, Texas, for dismantling, circa 7 July 2012.^[3]

References

Media related to IMO 8937053 at Wikimedia Commons

1. "Mount Baker". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
2. Scutro, Andrew (23 July 2009). "Subs, frigate on list of ships being retired". Military Times. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
3. "USNS Mount Baker (T-AE-34)". 20 July 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2012.