Command ships serve as the flagships of the commander of a fleet. They provide communications, office space, and accommodations for a fleet commander and his staff, and serve to coordinate fleet activities.
An auxiliary command ship features the command and control components prevalent on landing ships (command) and also feature the capability to land troops and equipment. These forces will be slightly less than on a pure landing ship due to the nature of the ship as a command vessel and hence will also house the assault commander, the flotilla commander or someone of similar status (generally of NATO OF-9 or OF-10 rank - such as a vice admiral or major general).
Currently, the United States Navy operates two command ships, USS Blue Ridge and USS Mount Whitney, both of the purpose-built Blue Ridge class. The USS La Salle was decommissioned in March, 2005 and sunk as target in support of fleet training exercise, 11 April 2007. The USS Coronado was decommissioned and sunk as part of live-fire exercise Valiant Shield 2012.
Famous quotes containing the words command and/or ship:
“There are confessable agonies, sufferings of which one can positively be proud. Of bereavement, of parting, of the sense of sin and the fear of death the poets have eloquently spoken. They command the world’s sympathy. But there are also discreditable anguishes, no less excruciating than the others, but of which the sufferer dare not, cannot speak. The anguish of thwarted desire, for example.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“I saw a ship a-sailing,
A-sailing on the sea,”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. I saw a ship a-sailing (l. 1–2)