United States Naval Ship
Encyclopedia
United States Naval Ship or USNS is the prefix designation
Ship prefix
A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval ship.Prefixes for civilian vessels may either identify the type of propulsion, such as "SS" for steamship, or purpose, such as "RV" for research vessel. Civilian prefixes are often...
given to non-commissioned ships that are property of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
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Overview
United States Naval Ships are usually auxiliary support vesselsAuxiliary ship
An auxiliary ship is a naval ship which is designed to operate in any number of roles supporting combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliaries are not primary combatants, although they may have some limited combat capacity, usually of a self defensive nature.Auxiliaries are extremely...
owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by Military Sealift Command
Military Sealift Command
The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's...
. United States Naval Ships are usually crewed by civilians rather than U.S. Navy personnel. In comparison, U.S. Navy ships commissioned
Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
into service have the designation USS
United States Ship
United States Ship is a ship prefix used to identify a commissioned ship of the United States Navy and only applies to a ship while she is in commission. Before commissioning, she is referred to as "Pre Commissioning Unit" .After decommissioning, she is referred to by name, with no prefix.From the...
and are crewed by U.S. Navy personnel; commissioned and held in property by the United States Government.