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USNS Sacagawea heads out for sea trials (12/13)

The National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) reports that the USNS Sacagawea, the second ship of the U.S. Navy’s new T-AKE-class of resupply vessels, departed from the San Diego shipyard today for “builder’s sea trials.” For three days, NASSCO personnel will test the ship’s systems and demonstrate its readiness for delivery to the Navy next summer. The T-AKE vessels will be crewed by members of the SIU’s Government Services Division. The ships are being designed and built at NASSCO. Construction of the USNS Sacagawea began in September 2004. The vessel is 689 feet long, displaces nearly 41,000 metric tons and will travel at speeds up to 20 knots. The three-day sea trial of Sacagawea is the fourth major milestone in the Navy’s T-AKE (pronounced as individual letters without the dash) program this month. The NASSCO shipyard christened and launched T-AKE 3 (Alan Shepard) on December 6; started construction of T-AKE 6 (yet to be named) on December 7; and laid the keel of T-AKE 5 (Robert E. Peary) on December 12.