Strategic sealift ships are part of the United States Military Sealift Command's (MSC) prepositioning program. There are currently 17 ships in the program, strategically positioned around the world to support the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Defense Logistics Agency. Most are named after Medal of Honor recipients from the service they support. The ships are assigned to two Military Prepositioning Ship (MPS) squadrons located in the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia and in the Western Pacific Ocean at Guam and Saipan.

The Type C7 ship (Lancer Class) is a United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) designation for a cargo ship and the first US purpose-built container ship. The vessels were constructed in US shipyards and entered service starting in 1968. As US-built ships they were Jones Act qualified for shipments between US domestic ports. Under the Jones Act, domestic US maritime trade is restricted to US-built and flagged vessels of US owners and manned by predominantly US-citizen crews. The last active Lancer container-configured ship was scrapped in 2019. Lancers of the vehicle Roll-on/Roll-off (RO/RO) configuration remain held in the Ready Reserve Force, National Defense Reserve Fleet and the US Navy Military Sealift Command. All are steam powered.