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USS Arcturus - a typicalArcturus-class AKA
Class overview
Builders	Sun Shipbuilding, PA (5) Tampa Shipbuilding, FL (3) Federal Shipbuilding, NJ (3)
Operators	United States Navy
In commission	1940-1955 (US Navy)
Completed	11
General characteristics
Type	Type C2 ship
Displacement	14,225 tons
Length	459 ft 1 in (140 m)
Beam	63 ft (19 m)
Draft	26 ft 5 in (8 m)
Speed	16.5 kn (31 km/h)
Complement	267 (varies)
Armament	1 ×5-inch 38 caliber dual-purpose gun mount 4 × twin40 mm gun mounts

TheArcturus-classattack cargo ships were converted from other ship types bySun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. inChester, Pennsylvania,Tampa Shipbuilding Co. inTampa, Florida, andFederal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. inKearny, New Jersey, duringWorld War II.

Like all attack cargo ships (AKAs), they were designed to carrycombat loaded military cargo andlanding craft, and to use the latter to land weapons, supplies, and troops on enemy shores duringamphibious operations.

All these ships were built on the same standard hull design, but there were some differences from ship to ship:

The armament varied, as did that of the other ships of the day. During 1944–1945, the 5"/38-caliber gun was recognized as the best gun for the dual role ofantiaircraft andnaval gunfire support, and the 40 mm was seen as the best antiaircraft gun. The older 20 mm and .50 caliber guns had been recognized to be of limited value, and were being phased out, though they appeared on some of these ships. The 20 mm guns were later removed from all of them, but it is not clear just when this happened.

The complement varied as well, but theDANFS figures sometimes seem to confuse ship's company with embarked troops in determining a ship's complement.

• Andromeda-class attack cargo ship
• Artemis-class attack cargo ship
• Charleston-class amphibious cargo ship
• Tolland-class attack cargo ship
• List of United States Navy amphibious warfare ships
• Fomalhaut (AKA-5) — aType C1 AKA that falls within the number range of the Arcturus class
• Alhena (AKA-9) — aType C2 (C2-S) AKA that falls within the number range
• Almaack (AKA-10) — aType C3 AKA that falls within the number range

 This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

• United States Maritime Commission C2 Type Ships

• Amphibious warfare vessel classes
• Arcturus-class attack cargo ships
• World War II amphibious warfare vessels of the United States

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles lacking in-text citations from January 2013
• All articles lacking in-text citations
• Use dmy dates from June 2021
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships