Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

SS Altair (T-AKR 291)

Sorry, no coat of arms available.

Named after the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, the ALTAIR was the fifth ALGOL - class fast sealift ship. Originally built in West Germany in 1973 as SS SEA-LAND FINANCE for Sea-Land Services, Inc., Port Elizabeth, N.J., the ship was purchased by the Navy in 1982 and converted. The cargo hold was redesigned into a series of decks connected by ramps so that vehicles could now be driven in and out of storage areas for rapid loading and unloading. Four cranes were installed - twin cranes amidships capable of lifting 35 long tons and twin cranes aft capable of lifting 50 long tons. The ALTAIR was delivered to the Military Sealift Command in 1985.

SS ALTAIR was put to the test during Operation Desert Storm. In August 1990, she was the second fast sealift ship (FSS) to reach Saudi Arabia from Savannah, GA with elements of the 24th Infantry Division, responding to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. From the beginning to the end of the operation, ALTAIR made nine round trips. In December 1993, ALTAIR was activated to carry equipment for Operation Restore Hope in Somalia.

The SS ALTAIR was the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. On October 1, 2007, ALTAIR was transferred to the MARAD. On October 1, 2008, the ship was transferred to the Ready Reserve Force and lost her USNS designation. On October 1, 2025, ALTAIR was downgraded from RRF status to non-retention disposal, and on October 20, 2025, she departed for All-Star Metals, with arrival recorded on October 27, 2025. She was subsequently scrapped.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard SS ALTAIR. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

SS ALTAIR History:

ALTAIR (T-AKR 291) began life as the commercial roll-on/roll-off container ship SEA-LAND FINANCE, built at Rheinstahl Nordseewerke in Emden, West Germany (yard number 431). She was launched on April 1, 1973, and delivered on August 1, 1973 to Sea-Land Services, Inc., based at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. On January 5, 1982 the ship was purchased by the U.S. Navy for the strategic sealift program and entered Military Sealift Command service as ALTAIR, initially carrying the auxiliary cargo ship designation T-AK 291.

Conversion to the ALGOL-class "fast sealift ship" configuration began on February 1, 1984, at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana, a rebuild centered on rapid vehicle delivery: the former container holds were reworked into multiple internal decks connected by ramps so vehicles could be driven directly to stowage and back out again, and the ship was equipped with heavy-lift cargo-handling capability via two crane pairs (one pair amidships rated for 35 long tons and one pair aft rated for 50 long tons), alongside a helicopter landing area (without an embarked aviation detachment). The plant remained high-power steam - two Foster-Wheeler boilers feeding two General Electric MST-19 steam turbines driving twin screws - intended to preserve the class's defining attribute, sustained very high transit speed, while the rebuilt cargo arrangement was sized for large Army vehicle loads (including tracked and wheeled equipment and helicopters) for surge deployments. The converted ship was delivered to Military Sealift Command on November 13, 1985 as USNS ALTAIR (T-AKR 291).

In the first major crisis test of the fast sealift concept after the Cold War's endgame began, ALTAIR became part of the early sealift surge for Operation Desert Shield after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990: on August 17, 1990 ALTAIR and CAPELLA (T-AKR 293) departed Savannah, Georgia, carrying equipment of the U.S. Army's 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) bound for Saudi Arabia, a movement that helped establish heavy ground combat power in theater while the coalition build-up was still in its opening phase. During the broader Persian Gulf War sealift effort (Desert Shield/Desert Storm), ALTAIR is documented as making nine round trips over the course of the operation, contributing to the high-volume vehicle and sustainment flow that the fast sealift ships were built to provide.

In the humanitarian-intervention context of the early 1990s, ALTAIR was activated again in December 1993 to carry equipment for Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. Contemporary accounts of the Somalia operation specifically note USNS ALTAIR as a ship whose onboard cranes were used in the offload process, reflecting the practical importance of self-sustaining discharge capability when shore infrastructure was limited or contested. After her years in the surge sealift force, administrative custody shifted from Navy/MSC to the U.S. Maritime Administration: on October 1, 2007 ALTAIR was transferred to MARAD, and on October 1, 2008, she entered the Ready Reserve Force (RRF), where she was assigned in the Gulf program with a layberth at Marrero, Louisiana. From that point, her status was managed through the NDRF/RRF accounting system as a sealift reserve asset rather than an continuously active MSC ship, while remaining available for activation in support of Department of Defense surge requirements.

In later RRF service she continued to appear in monthly MARAD inventories as an ALGOL-class roll-on/roll-off vessel assigned to Marrero, until a formal change in disposition in 2025: effective October 1, 2025, ALTAIR was downgraded from RRF status to non-retention disposal, and on October 20, 2025 she departed for All-Star Metals, with arrival recorded on October 27, 2025 - marking the end of her RRF role and the start of her final disposal process.

back to top

go to the end of the page

SS ALTAIR Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Vehicle Cargo Ships.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.