The U.S. Navy announced it has taken delivery of its sixth Auxiliary Personnel Lighter–Small (APL) Class berthing and messing barge from Bollinger Shipyards following the recent successful completion of acceptance trials.
The 269'x69' APL 72 will be used by the Navy to house duty crewmembers while ships are in port for maintenance availabilities and inter-deployment training cycles. APLs are mobile and can be towed to new bases or shipyards to support changing fleet requirements, but also offer potential use for humanitarian missions and other temporary assignments.
Each vessel is equipped with offices, classrooms, washrooms, laundry facilities, medical treatment areas, a barber shop, and a fitness center. With mess seating for 224 enlisted personnel and 28 officers, each meal is served via five 20-minute shifts to allow food service for 1,100 personnel (three meals per day). The vessels are fitted with mixed gender berthing spaces for 74 officers and 537 enlisted personnel, for a total of 611 people.
Acceptance trials consisted of integrated testing to demonstrate the capability of the platform and installed systems across all mission areas to effectively meet its requirements, according to the Navy.
Previous APLs were built by VT Halter Marine, which Bollinger acquired in late 2022. Halter received the initial contract in 2018.
