USNS Big Horn (T-AO 198)

- Military Sealift Command -

USNS BIG HORN is the 12^th of the 18 HENRY J. KAISER class underway replenishment oilers.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: June 20, 1988
	Keel laid: October 9, 1989
	Launched: February 2, 1991
	MSC "in service": May 21, 1992
	Builder: Avondale Shipyards, Inc., New Orleans, La.
	Propulsion system: two Colt-Pielstick 10 PC4.2 V 570 diesels
	Propellers: two
	Length: 677 feet (203 meters)
	Beam: 97 feet (29.6 meters)
	Draft: 35 feet (10.6 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 40,700 tons
	Speed: 20 knots
	Capacity: 180,000 barrels of fuel oil or aviation fuel and eight 20-feet containers refrigerated
	Refueling stations: five
	Aircraft: none, but helicopter deck
	Armament: none
	Crew: 82 civilian crew (18 officers); 21 Navy (1 officer)
	Fleet: Atlantic

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS BIG HORN. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

Click here to view the list.

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Accidents aboard USNS BIG HORN:

Date	Where	Events
September 23, 2024	off Oman	USNS BIG HORN grounds off the coast of Oman and suffers stern damage while operating in the Arabian Sea. The Navy reports no injuries and no pollution. She was subsequently towed "dead-stick" to Duqm, Oman, for assessment.

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USNS BIG HORN History:

USNS BIG HORN, a HENRY J. KAISER-class fleet replenishment oiler, was built by Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans after a Navy contract award on June 20, 1988. Her keel was laid on October 9, 1989, she was launched on February 2, 1991, and she entered non-commissioned Military Sealift Command (MSC) service on May 21, 1992, crewed by civilian mariners (CIVMARs). From delivery she was assigned to MSC's Atlantic force, a role that shaped her early operating pattern across the Western Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Her first full Mediterranean cycle came amid the long Balkan crises. During THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71)'s 1993 "Med 2-93" cruise (March 11-September 8, 1993), THEODORE ROOSEVELT's command history records the carrier taking fuel and cargo from BIG HORN, emblematic of the oiler's place inside the carrier's daily battle rhythm. On July 8, 1993, the frigate DE WERT (FFG 45) rendezvoused with PETERSON (DD 969) and then conducted a refueling and UNREP with BIG HORN before anchoring at Port Suez - placing BIG HORN in the eastern approaches to the Mediterranean as allied ships cycled toward the Adriatic and Suez. That same year the cruiser HUE CITY (CG 66) noted a replenishment with BIG HORN while turning over "Red Crown" duties in the Adriatic, a snapshot of the logistics web that kept no-fly enforcement and blockade patrols supplied. The geopolitical backdrop was NATO's enforcement of the Bosnia no-fly zone (Operation Deny Flight, April 12, 1993-December 20, 1995) and the joint NATO/WEU embargo at sea (Operation Sharp Guard, June 15, 1993-June 19, 1996).

BIG HORN's 1994 logbook footprints recur across East Coast and Caribbean pre-deployment workups and Atlantic transits feeding the Mediterranean. DE WERT recorded back-to-back refuelings with BIG HORN on April 14 and April 17, 1994, while WASP (LHD 1)'s 1994 command history shows an UNREP with BIG HORN during movements in the Bahamas-Great Inagua area as amphibious forces rehearsed and staged in the broader run-up to the Haiti intervention (Operation Uphold Democracy, September 19, 1994-March 31, 1995). THEODORE ROOSEVELT's 1994 narrative also lists BIG HORN among the ships supporting her evolutions, reflecting the carrier group's steady diet of alongside logistics.

In 1995, the amphibious transport NASHVILLE (LPD 13) recorded replenishments with BIG HORN - including on May 9, 1995 - during Atlantic and Mediterranean tasking, while AUSTIN (LPD 4) likewise logged a UNREP with BIG HORN in the course of that year's training and transit cycle. The cruiser MONTEREY (CG 61)'s history around mid-1994/1995 shows an UNREP with BIG HORN en route to Curacao, illustrating how the oiler knit together Caribbean workups and Atlantic passages that fed into Sixth Fleet commitments.

The first months of 1996 brought West Africa to the fore. On January 29, 1996, WHIDBEY ISLAND (LSD 41) conducted an UNREP with BIG HORN. By April the ARG built around GUAM (LPH 9) and TRENTON (LPD 14) was off Liberia for Operation Assured Response, the non-combatant evacuation during renewed civil-war fighting. TRENTON's command report explicitly notes an "underway replenishment with USNS BIGHORN", and the period is bracketed in official reporting by the President's April 12, 1996 letter to Congress detailing the Monrovia crisis and the evacuation's timeline. BIG HORN's fueling track in those weeks underwrote the flexible sea base that enabled Marines and sailors to move evacuees offshore.

Through 1997, the ship remained a familiar presence across Atlantic and African stations. NASSAU (LHA 4)'s 1997 narrative records a connected-replenishment ("CONREP") with BIG HORN on the long West Africa swing that took the ARG across the Line and to "Simba Station" off Pointe-Noire, Congo - again demonstrating how an MSC oiler extends the legs of amphibious formations that operate far from large ports.

As NATO presence and training continued to evolve after the Dayton Accords, BIG HORN's name surfaces repeatedly in late-1990s command histories. GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73)'s records for 1998-1999 include replenishments with BIG HORN during the carrier's Atlantic-Mediterranean operating periods. The destroyer BARRY (DDG 52) logged an UNREP with BIG HORN on January 21, 1999, at the very moment Sixth Fleet surface forces were maintaining a high-tempo posture as the Kosovo crisis escalated into NATO's 1999 air war (Operation Allied Force). The cruiser TICONDEROGA (CG 47)'s chronology captures a further RAS with BIG HORN on March 13, 2000, as the fleet pivoted from the pressures of 1999 back into routine patrol and training cycles.

The early 2000s show the same dense pattern of carrier-and-amphib support in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. MAHAN (DDG 72)'s 2000 command history notes refueling from BIG HORN off northern Spain - typical of the oiler's role bridging workups to ocean crossings. In 2001, HUE CITY recorded a RAS with BIG HORN during the JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) Battle Group's composite training unit exercise. USS PONCE (LPD 15)'s 2001 chronology shows a fueling at sea with BIG HORN followed by an in-port at Dubrovnik, while KEARSARGE (LHD 3) and CARR (FFG 52) each logged replenishments with BIG HORN in Sixth Fleet waters (CARR specifically citing an UNREP with BIG HORN in the Ionian Sea while patrolling the Adriatic off Albania). These entries - along with 2002-2003 logs from CARR and COLE (DDG 67) listing multiple UNREPs and VERTREPs with BIG HORN - map a continuous logistics presence that kept destroyers, cruisers, amphibs and carriers on station across the Med in the post-9/11 security environment.

On July 19, 2006, as the IWO JIMA (LHD 7) Expeditionary Strike Group was ordered toward the Eastern Mediterranean to help evacuate U.S. citizens during the Lebanon war, IWO JIMA conducted an underway replenishment with BIG HORN - a snapshot of the oiler's contribution to that operation's sea bridge. Over July-August 2006, the United States evacuated nearly 15,000 citizens from Lebanon, with IWO JIMA and her group among the principal naval assets supporting the effort.

In the run-up to and after that period, BIG HORN's movements often took her through NATO's logistics hubs. She made a documented port visit to Souda Bay, Crete, on August 21, 2008, a routine stop for ships cycling between the Eastern Med and Suez approaches. The next year, on June 16, 2009, she prepared to pass fuel to the cruiser LAKE CHAMPLAIN (CG 57) while that ship was deployed with the BOXER (LHD 4) Amphibious Ready Group for maritime security operations in U.S. Fifth Fleet waters, bridging BIG HORN's Atlantic tasking with sustained Central Command support.

After the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake, BIG HORN shifted quickly to humanitarian support. She got underway from the U.S. East Coast immediately after the quake, arrived off Haiti on January 17, 2010, and remained on scene until being relieved on February 11, conducting logistics transfers of fuel and relief cargo to the joint task force and supporting ships during Operation Unified Response. The mission underscored the oiler's utility in disaster relief - keeping aviation fuel and ship diesel moving to platforms delivering aid ashore.

In 2011, BIG HORN completed a high-tempo deployment in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, steaming 39,355 nautical miles and conducting 112 replenishments at sea in support of U.S. and allied units - a statistical portrait of the ship's core work during a period that included NATO maritime security and presence operations across the Euro-Atlantic.

Her 2012-2013 activity mixed exercises and pre-deployment workups. On December 30, 2012, she was photographed in Souda Bay alongside USNS JOHN LENTHALL (T-AO 189) during concurrent port calls, and in the BATAAN (LHD 5) Amphibious Ready Group's training cycle she repeatedly fueled USS BATAAN during group sail and subsequent PHIBRON/MEU Integration Training, including a replenishment off North Carolina on December 16, 2012, and again during PMINT on September 20, 2013. On July 23, 2013, aircraft carrier HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75) came alongside BIG HORN in the Atlantic for a fueling evolution before deploying to Fifth and Sixth Fleet waters.

By October 9, 2015, during the KEARSARGE (LHD 3) Amphibious Ready Group deployment, BIG HORN was again on the line, conducting a replenishment with USS KEARSARGE in the Atlantic as that ARG moved into U.S. Central Command rotations tied to counter-ISIS and maritime security tasking.

The tempo continued into 2016. On April 14, 2016, she executed a rare "double-sided" evolution - simultaneously fueling WHIDBEY ISLAND (LSD 41) and WASP (LHD 1) - before calling at Souda Bay on July 27. Later that year, on December 8, 2016, she replenished BATAAN during ARG/MEUEX workups, part of the certification sequence preceding amphibious deployments to the Mediterranean and Middle East.

In the 2017 hurricane season, BIG HORN supported stateside disaster response at sea. On October 19, 2017, she refueled and re-stocked hospital ship USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20) off Puerto Rico during COMFORT's post-Hurricane Maria medical mission, transferring 50 pallets of cargo, 7,500 gallons of JP-5, and 380,000 gallons of F-76 ship fuel.

On December 17, 2018, BIG HORN returned to Norfolk from a 10-month deployment that spanned Fifth and Sixth Fleet. During that cruise she supported exercise TRIDENT JUNCTURE 2018 and the HARRY S. TRUMAN Carrier Strike Group (CSG-8), operating with NATO partners including the Royal Norwegian and Royal Danish navies and ranging as far north as above the Arctic Circle - evidence of the renewed allied focus on high-latitude operations. That autumn, she also appeared alongside the forward-deployed destroyer CARNEY in the Gulf of Aden, part of combined presence and sea-lane security tasks linking the Med to the Indian Ocean.

From late 2019 into the early 2020s, BIG HORN's docket reflected the Navy's global posture: Atlantic and Mediterranean exercises and transits interleaved with periodic returns to the Middle East and, increasingly, the Indo-Pacific. In November 2021, she shifted to the Philippine Sea for ANNUALEX 2021, conducting back-to-back replenishments with allied ships - JS OHNAMI and JS KIRISHIMA of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, German frigate FGS BAYERN, Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS WINNIPEG, and Royal Australian Navy units HMAS BRISBANE and HMAS WARRAMUNGA - during the November 21-30 serials led by Japan. The event highlighted NATO hardware interoperability and standardized "NATO gear" alongside procedures practiced with regional partners.

Her Pacific work continued the following years. On January 16, 2023, destroyer DECATUR (DDG 73) conducted a fueling with BIG HORN in the South China Sea while operating with the NIMITZ (CVN 68) Carrier Strike Group, a routine but strategically significant evolution given the tempo of freedom-of-navigation operations and presence patrols there.

In late spring 2024, BIG HORN supported U.S. Seventh Fleet units across the South China Sea. On June 1, 2024, RUSSELL (DDG 59) fueled alongside her; on June 2, MANCHESTER (LCS 14) conducted an underway replenishment, with both events publicly emphasized as demonstrations of sustained, mobile logistics in contested sea lanes.

By summer 2024 the ship was in U.S. Fifth Fleet backing Carrier Strike Group operations tied to the broader Middle East crisis set off by the Gaza war, Hezbollah-Israel exchanges, and Houthi attacks on shipping. On July 10, 2024, she fueled THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71); on August 17 she refueled DANIEL INOUYE (DDG 118); and on August 23 she conducted a replenishment with SPRUANCE (DDG 111) - snapshots of a logistics rhythm sustaining multi-carrier presence in CENTCOM waters.

On September 23-24, 2024, BIG HORN grounded off the coast of Oman and suffered stern damage while operating in the Arabian Sea. The Navy reported no injuries and no pollution. She was subsequently towed "dead-stick" to Duqm, Oman, for assessment. Reporting at the time noted that BIG HORN had been the only U.S. Navy oiler on station in the Middle East, and the mishap highlighted how single-point logistics failures can ripple across a carrier group's operations under crisis conditions.

By late 2024, her operations with THEODORE ROOSEVELT's team and other surface combatants remained part of the official record, and the Navy described those refuelings as routine elements of a ready force posture across CENTCOM and INDOPACOM. At the same time, independent reporting and congressional attention focused on the age and availability of MSC oilers - context for subsequent programmatic decisions affecting the class.

In mid-2025, MSC moved to retire the ship from active service. A formal "Deactivation Availability" solicitation for USNS BIG HORN (Notice N3220525R4094) was posted on SAM.gov in July-August 2025, calling for East or Gulf Coast yard work to prepare the ship for layup, with performance anticipated from October 1, 2025 through January 30, 2026. That action marked the closing chapter of her more than three decades as an Atlantic-centered oiler that frequently surged to the Middle East and, in later years, extended west to the Philippine Sea and South China Sea.