Maritime Prepositioning Ship

Maritime Prepositioning Ship

The 31 Maritime Prepositioning Ships (MPS) are part of the United States Military Sealift Command's (MSC) Prepositioning Program. They are strategically positioned around the globe to support the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Defense Logistics Agency. Most are named after Medal of Honor recipients from the service they support. The MPS ships are assigned to three Maritime Prepositioning Ship squadrons located in the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia and the Western Pacific Ocean at Guam and Saipan. The MPS ships in each squadron have sufficient equipment, supplies and ammunition to support a Marine Air-Ground Task Force for 30 days. The MPS ships are self-sustaining, with cranes to unload at sea or pierside.

MSC chartered the first two ship classes in the MPS role (the Corporal Louis J. Hauge, Jr. and Sergeant Matej Kocak classes) from civilian shipping lines and converted them. Later ships were purpose-built.