Florida Facility One of 17 Strategic Seaports in US
American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier, or ARC, recently paired up with the Jacksonville Port Authority to facilitate the transport of several V-22 Osprey aircraft through the Florida port’s Blount Island Marine Terminal.
The move for the US Air Force Special Operations Command began with US Air Force pilots flying the tilt-rotor V-22s into JAXPORT – one of 17 strategic seaports in the US – from the nearby Hurlburt Field airbase.
The South Carolina-based 841st Transportation Battalion and the Virginia-based 597st Transportation Brigade – units of the US Army’s Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command – coordinated the move through the port.
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Stevedores with SSA Atlantic, one of several stevedoring partners that JAXPORT has across its three terminals, then towed the aircraft aboard ARC’s 199-metre-long MV Patriot, a US-flag RoRo vessel certified to carry V-22s and CH-47 helicopters in sealift configuration.
Once loaded on the vessel, the V-22s, the world's first aircraft to combine a helicopter’s take-off and landing capabilities with the speed and range of a conventional altitude plane, were ready to be deployed on military mission overseas.
Loading the aircraft onto the vessel took half a day, a spokesperson said.
ARC, the largest US-flag RoRo carrier, provides port-to-port and end-to-end transport of heavy vehicles, helicopters, household goods, privately-owned vehicles and other equipment for the US government and its various agencies.
The carrier will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Americas 2023 on 26-28 September in Houston.
