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In many cases an AK, AKA, AO or AOE are much more complex than a combat ship. A combat ship has many redundancies in it for survival but it's cargo handling systems usually don't go beyond a block and tackle (except the Fast Automatic Shuttle Transfer we tried some time back). The sliding padeye is the best we've ever come up with and it's still ridiculousy simple.
But the supply ships topsides are a Rube Goldberg of Kingposts, booms, cranes, winches, etc. I worked in the Fittings and Rigging design section for 12 years and some of those systems were a nightmare to envision in 3 dimensions but draw in 2 dimensions. My "talent" in being able to draw isometrics almost got me stuck in that section forever. I was so happy to transfer to the structural section on a promotion as all I had to worry about then was how to keep the ship floating or how thick the armor should be over a certain space.
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Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.
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