The US Navy has received the Lewis and Clark class dry cargo ship USNS Wally Schirra (T-AKE 8) from National Steel and Ship Building company (NASSCO), a subsidiary of General Dynamics.

The 689ft-long ship is designed to deliver over 10,000t of dry cargo and petroleum products at a time to US and allied ships at sea.

T-AKE 8 is the eighth ship of Lewis and Clark class and will a part of the navy’s Military Sealift Command.

The Wally Schirra can carry two helicopters with a crew capacity of 124 civil service mariners and 11 sailors to perform vertical replenishment missions.

The ship was named in honour of the fifth American launched into space, Navy Captain Walter M ‘Wally’ Schirra, Jr.

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