Robert Smalls News

The U.S. Army has chosen BriarTek to provide the ORCA Man Overboard Indicator (MOBI) system for sailors aboard its Large Tug (LT) MG Winfield Scott and Logistics Support Vessel (LSV) MG Robert Smalls. The vessels are the first in the U.S. Army fleet to be outfitted with the life-saving alert system. ORCA systems deployed aboard the Winfield Scott and Robert Smalls are fully interoperable with the thousands of ORCA units already installed across the U.S. Navy fleet, providing for swift and efficient rescue operations at sea. BriarTek is the sole-source provider of man overboard indicators for the United States Navy and has ORCA systems deployed aboard over 500 vessels of all classes, including the entire carrier fleet.

The logistics support vessel Major General Robert Smalls (LSV-8) - the first Army vessel named for an African American - was inducted into the Army's watercraft fleet yesterday during a commissioning ceremony at Baltimore's historic Inner Harbor. The 314-ft. long, 5,412-ton vessel officially joined the Army Reserve's 203rd Transportation Detachment as more than 300 guests looked on. Smalls is the second of two improved LSVs based on the six earlier Gen. Frank S. Besson-class vessels. Her sistership, Staff Sgt. Robert T. Kuroda, LSV-7, joined the Reserve's Honolulu-based 548th Trans. Det.