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USNS Watkins

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(Redirected from USNS Watkins (T-AKR-315))
History
United States
Ordered23 May 1997
BuilderNational Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Laid down24 August 1999
Launched28 July 2000
In service2 March 2001
Identification
Statusin service
General characteristics
Class and typeWatson-class vehicle cargo ship
Displacement29,000 tons
Length950 ft
Beam106 ft
Draft34 ft
PropulsionGas turbine

USNS Watkins (T-AKR-315) is one of Military Sealift Command's nineteen Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off Ships and is part of the 33 ships in the Prepositioning Program. She is a Watson-class vehicle cargo ship.

She was named for Master Sergeant Travis E. Watkins, a Medal of Honor recipient.

Laid down on 24 August 1999 and launched on 28 July 2000, Watkins was put into service in the Pacific Ocean on 2 March 2001.

According to The Guardian the human rights group Reprieve identified the Watkins and sixteen other USN vessels as having held "ghost prisoners" in clandestine extrajudicial detention.[1]

References

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  1. ^ Duncan Campbell, Richard Norton-Taylor (2 June 2008). "Prison ships, torture claims, and missing detainees". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-06-01. mirror
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