The T-AKE, in turn, has a high degree of utility, largely due to the fact that it was built to commercial standards. Designing warships to commercial standards overcomes the bottlenecks of military standards and eliminates the need for builders to follow a set of procedures and requirements that are completely different from those of civilian shipbuilding.
This approach minimizes the cost of shipbuilding. The U.S. government has been able to take advantage of technological innovations in the civilian industry and commercial manufacturing best practices, which reduce life-cycle costs and improve performance, while allowing shipbuilders to improve their civilian shipbuilding.
The existing T-AO class tankers are not all double-hulled like the T-AKE vessels. Only the three newest T-AO class tankers are double-hulled. "The Caesar class tankers will be upgraded in accordance with the International Crude Oil Pollution Protection Agreement (ICPA) to include special hulls over their single hulls as soon as possible.
As the number of T-AO class ships decreases, the Navy's need for T-AKE class ships increases.
The newer T-AKE ships are designed to protect the marine environment, making them the Navy's first environmentally friendly supply ships of the 21st century. The performance demonstrated in the T-AKE's system configuration allows it to withstand environmental protocols for the next 20 years.
The core idea of environmental protection is in line with international regulations. The main way to reduce pollution is to set up hazardous material restrictions (which can also be used for national macro-regulation), thus reducing the emission of pollutants at the source.
The USS Lewis and Clark is the first Navy ship not to produce harmful gases to the ozone layer. It also minimizes the discharge of hazardous liquids at sea and is equipped with a combined sewage and reusable wastewater treatment system. The ship is fitted with a double-hulled fuel storage facility in the fuel storage area to avoid fuel leakage due to accidents.
An analysis of the total pollutant discharges from the T-AFS class, T-AE class and T-ADC(X)/T-AKE class ships shows that the new ships have reduced the total amount of pollutants discharged into the marine environment by 95 percent.
The T-AKE program received the Secretary of Defense's Environmental Protection Award on May 1, 2002. German Type 702 Berlin Class Supply Ship
The German Berlin Class Naval Supply Ship, also known as Type 702, is currently the largest warship in tonnage in the German Navy.
Type 702 Berlin class can carry out water, food, fuel, weapons and ammunition and other supplies, the ship is also equipped with medical facilities, in addition to replenishment of the German Navy at sea, the ship can also be used as a disaster relief, humanitarian aid or evacuation and other tasks.
The class is planned to build four ships, now built two, in active service.