Wichita-class replenishment oiler

USS Wichita (AOR-1), 1985
Class overview
Name: Wichita
Builders:
Succeeded by: Cimarron-class fleet replenishment oiler
In commission: 1969–1995
Completed: 7
Retired: 7
General characteristics
Type: replenishment oiler
Displacement:
  • 13,533 tons empty,
  • 40,151 tons full
  • 26,618 dwt
Length: 640 ft (195 m) wl; 659 ft (201 m) oa
Beam: 96 ft (29 m)
Draft: 35 ft (10.6 m)
Propulsion:
  • 3 × boilers, 2 × steam turbines,
  • 2 × shafts, 32,000 SHP (24 MW)
Speed: 25 knots
Complement: 34 officers, 463 men
Armament:
  • (As built) 2 × twin 3"/50 AA guns;
  • (as decommissioned) 1 × NATO Sea Sparrow missile system,
  • 2 × Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried: 2 × UH-46 Sea Knight helicopters
USS Wabash (AOR-5) during underway replenishment

Wichita-class replenishment oilers comprised a class of seven replenishment oilers used by the United States Navy from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. During this time the ships were commissioned naval auxiliaries with the hull classification AOR. The ships were designed for rapid underway replenishment using both connected replenishment and vertical replenishment. The ships could carry 160,000 barrels of petroleum fuel, 600 tons of munitions, 200 tons of dry stores and 100 tons of refrigerated stores. The original concept was that the AORs would serve the same function for the anti-submarine carrier (CVS) groups that the larger, faster Sacramento-class AOEs did for the attack carrier (CVA) groups.

With the reduction in the U.S. Navy fleet, these ships were all decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) in the 1990s.

Ships

Traditionally Navy oilers have been named for rivers; the Wichita class were named for city/river pairs with Native American names.

Ship Hull No. Builder Home Port Commissioned–
Decommissioned 		NVR page
Wichita AOR-1 General Dynamics, Quincy Oakland 1969–1993 AOR-1
Milwaukee AOR-2 General Dynamics, Quincy Norfolk 1969–1994 AOR-2
Kansas City AOR-3 General Dynamics, Quincy Oakland 1970–1994 AOR-3
Savannah AOR-4 General Dynamics, Quincy Norfolk 1970–1995 AOR-4
Wabash AOR-5 General Dynamics, Quincy Long Beach 1971–1994 AOR-5
Kalamazoo AOR-6 General Dynamics, Quincy Norfolk 1973–1996 AOR-6
Roanoke AOR-7 National Steel Long Beach 1976–1995 AOR-7

References

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