De Soto County-class tank landing ship

The De Soto County class was a group of seven tank landing ships built for the United States Navy in the late 1950s, an improved design with more speed and troop capacity than earlier tank landing ships and with air-conditioned crew and troop spaces. Eight ships were authorised in fiscal year 1955 and one, LST-1172, was cancelled when its contract was never awarded. The lead ship, De Soto County, was launched on 28 February 1957 at the Avondale yard in New Orleans, while the other hulls came from Boston Naval Shipyard, Newport News Shipbuilding and American Ship Building. A ship could carry 28 medium tanks or vehicles up to 75 tons on a tank deck 288 feet long. Most of the class was decommissioned in 1972, two ships were sold to Italy and one to Brazil, and Graham County was converted into a patrol gunboat support ship.