Bollinger Shipyards of Louisiana has handed over a new berthing and messing barge to the US Navy.
APL 72 belongs to a class of barges designated by the navy as the auxiliary personnel lighter–small (APL(S)) vessels. The first two APL(S) vessels, APL 70 and APL 71, were delivered to the navy in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
The APL(S) are used by the navy to house crewmembers when ships are in port for availabilities and inter-deployment training cycles.
Bollinger tailors the barges' mobility requirement into the design, ensuring that these can be towed to new bases or shipyards to support changing fleet requirements.
The builder said such mobility offers additional capabilities to serve humanitarian missions and other temporary assignments.
Each APL(S) is 269 feet (82 metres) long and 69 feet (21 metres) wide and has a draught of seven feet (2.1 metres).
Each vessel is also equipped with offices, classrooms, washrooms, laundry facilities, medical treatment areas, a barber shop, and a fitness centre.
With mess seating for 224 enlisted personnel and 28 officers, each meal is served via five 20-minute shifts to allow food service for 1,130 personnel (three meals per day).
The vessels are also fitted with mixed-gender berthing spaces for 74 officers and 537 enlisted personnel, for a total of 611 people.