U.S. Navy

Floating Dry Docks (AFD / AFDL / AFDM / AFDB)

The Navy's portable shipyards. Floating dry docks brought drydock capability to forward bases where no fixed infrastructure existed - from small AFDLs that serviced submarines to massive AFDBs that could lift battleships and carriers. Built in sections, towed across oceans, and assembled at remote atolls, they turned coral islands into functioning naval bases. Without them, damaged ships would have faced months-long voyages home for repair instead of days in a forward drydock.

World War II - Forward Repair Infrastructure 1941 - 1945

Small Floating Dry Docks (AFDL)

Auxiliary Floating Dock, Little - 1,000 to 2,800 Ton Capacity

Primary Clients

The workhorses of the floating dry dock fleet. Small enough to be towed by a single ocean tug, AFDLs could lift submarines, destroyer escorts, minesweepers, and patrol craft. Deployed to forward bases across the Pacific, they drydocked fleet submarines between war patrols - keeping boats in the fight without returning to Pearl Harbor or stateside yards. Read more

View Full Roster

Medium Floating Dry Docks (AFDM)

Auxiliary Floating Dock, Medium - 8,000 to 18,000 Ton Capacity

Primary Clients

Medium docks capable of lifting destroyers, cruisers, and large auxiliaries. Sectional construction allowed them to be assembled at forward bases from pre-fabricated sections towed across the ocean. At Manus, Ulithi, and Guam, AFDMs provided the drydock capacity that turned remote atolls into functioning naval bases capable of sustaining the fleet's westward advance. Read more

View Full Roster

Large Floating Dry Docks (AFDB)

Auxiliary Floating Dock, Big - 45,000 to 90,000 Ton Capacity

Primary Clients

The largest mobile structures ever built by the Navy. AFDBs could lift battleships, aircraft carriers, and the heaviest vessels in the fleet. Assembled from multiple sections at forward bases, they represented the ultimate expression of American industrial power - the ability to build a full-sized drydock, tow it across the Pacific in pieces, and reassemble it at a coral atoll thousands of miles from the nearest shipyard. Read more

View Full Roster

56+

Floating Dry Docks

90,000

Max Ton Capacity

3

Size Classes

Forward

Base Infrastructure