The US Navy a… SS George G. Henry had already served in the Navy in 1917-18 under her own name; as one of the few tankers to escape the Philippines in December 1941 and be available to the Allied fleet in Australia, she was recommissioned under an emergency bare-boat charter at Melbourne the following April and named for the Australian state. [3] Up through the Second World War Navy oilers used commercial tanker hulls, with the addition of UNREP gear, defensive guns, and military electronic and damage-control equipment; since the 1950s however they have been built from the keel up as specialized naval auxiliaries. The Wichita class comprised seven 13,500/40,000-ton replenishment oilers that were used from the late 1960s through the mid-1990s.

The five T5 Champion-class tankers have double hulls and are ice-strengthened for protection against damage during missions in extreme climates. The four Sacramento-class supply ships were replaced by the four Supply-class ships commissioned between 1994 and 1998. The Missions were Type T2-SE-A2 ships like the Navy's Escambias ordered by the Maritime Commission in 1943 as civilian-operated transport tankers.

They were previously classified as Fleet Oilers[4] in the 20th Century; under the current MSC operation their full classification is listed as Fleet Replenishment Oilers. The names of the newest class of combined oiler/supply ships honor the names of supply ships of years gone by: Supply, Arctic.

The U.S. Navy economized its fleet oilers by employing them close to the combat zone, chartering commercial tankers to bring oil to forward bases where the fleet oilers refueled. AOE-5 was canceled in 1968. These were the remaining four 1917 program oilers, 5450/14,500-ton tankers built to USSB Design 1128 between 1919 and 1921 by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia. The T2-SE-A3 (Cohocton) class were canceled, but would have differed from the A2s only in being built from the start with UNREP gear rather than being converted by the Navy.

Modern examples of the fast combat support ship include the large British Fort class, displacing 31,066 long tons (31,565 t) and measuring 669 feet (204 m) in length and the United States' Supply-class USNS Arctic, which displaces 48,800 long tons (49,600 t) and has an overall length of 754 feet (230 m). Military Sealift Command She was the first ship equipped with an offshore petroleum discharge system (OPDS), allowing her to supply fuel to forces ashore by pumping it directly over the beach instead of having to deliver it in a port. With the overall reduction in size in the U.S. Navy fleet, these ships were all decommissioned and stricken during the 1990s. An important innovation in American oilers was the retrofitting of spar decks (raised platforms) over the main deck.

Such ships are equipped with multiple refueling gantries to refuel and resupply multiple ships at a time. Matthiesen is equipped for UNREP. The elderly tanker J. C. Donnell was acquired in January 1943 with the intent of using her as a floating storage tank at New Caledonia. The third large oiler class built during World War II was the Suamico class.