Command ships serve as the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

s of the commander of a fleet. They provide communications, office space, and accommodations for a fleet commander and their staff, and serve to coordinate fleet activities. An auxiliary command ship features the command and control components prevalent on landing ships (command) and also features the capability to land troops and equipment. These forces will be slightly less than those on a pure landing ship due to the nature of the ship as a command vessel and hence will also house the assault commander, the flotilla commander or someone of similar status (generally of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

OF-7 or OF-8 rank—such as a major general or

vice admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

). Currently, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

operates two command ships, and , both of the purpose-built . Two command ships, and were converted from Landing Platform Docks (LPD); these ships were decommissioned in March 2005 and December 2006 and sunk as targets in support of a fleet training exercise on 11 April 2007 and as part of live-fire exercise ''Valiant Shield 2012'', respectively. The

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

operated several space program command ships, , , , and the Soviet communications ship SSV-33 ''Ural''. These ships greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and uncrewed missions were not within range of Soviet land-based tracking stations.''Tracking sites and ships''
Komsmonavtka Website
Retrieved 13 June 2008 Similar U.S. vessels were classified as Missile Range Instrumentation Ships (T-AGM).

References

External links

*
U. S. Navy Factfile Entry on ''Coronado''
Warships Military command and control installations {{Mil-ship-stub

See also

References

External links