Named in honor of Gen. Frank S. Besson Jr., former Chief of Transportation, U.S. Army, these ships have bow and stern ramps and the ability to beach themselves, giving them the ability to discharge 900 short tons of vehicles and cargo over the shore in as little as four feet of water, or 2,000 short tons as an intra-theater line haul roll-on/roll-off cargo ship.[2] The vessel's cargo deck is designed to handle any vehicle in the US Army inventory and can carry up to 15 M1 Abrams main battle tanks or 82 ISO standard containers.[3]
The Robert T. Kuroda is the lead vessel of a new subclass of the Frank S. Besson class called LSV (MOD). The Kuroda, named after Robert T. Kuroda, and its sister ship, the Smalls, named after Robert Smalls, are generally similar to the rest of the class except that the ships are 42feet longer than the other ships of the class. This is due to a more streamlined "visor" bow that hides the front ramp and allows for the vessels to move through rough water more easily. While these ships have the same main deck area as the rest of the class—10500ft2— however they displace, can make 10000gal of water a day, have incinerators for burning trash, are taller than the traditional Besson-class LSVs, and have 25% more horsepower. The ship has a range of more than 5500nmi and can deploy fully provisioned worldwide at a speed of 12kn carrying a standard port-opening package weighing .[3]
The Philippine Navy commissioned two s during the early 1990s. These ships were based on a helicopter-capable variant of the General Frank S. Besson Jr.-class logistics support vessel.