U.S. Capitol on Dec. 29, 2022. USNI News Photo
The House Armed Services Committee passed its annual defense policy bill early Thursday, authorizing the Navy to buy a total of 10 ships, an increase from the requested nine in the budget proposal. Read More
MARAD Ready Reserve ships MV Cape Ray (T-AKR-9679), MV Cape Rise (T-AKR-9678) in port near Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on April 6, 2023. USNI News Photo
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The U.S. commercial maritime industry needs more business incentives to make changes that support the Defense Department’s requirements for sea lift, an industry panel said this week. Read More
Signet Warhorse II towed Military Sealift Command’s Large, Medium-Speed, Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) ship USNS Yano (T-AKR 297) from Newport News Marine Terminal in Newport News, Va., to the Maritime Administration Reserve Fleet in Beaumont, Texas, where the vessel will permanently join MARAD’s Ready Reserve Force (RRF). US Navy Photo
The head of the Maritime Administration “was not at all confident” that all the ships in the Ready Reserve Fleet could be crewed if called to duty in a crisis. Read More
USS Lassen (DDG-82) escorts the merchant vessel Tomahawk through the Strait of Hormuz on Nov. 18, 2019. US Navy Photo
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Electronic spoofing, jammed communications and navigation systems, armed drone attacks and pirates are challenges American crews on U.S.- flagged ships in the Ready Reserve Force and Military Sealift Command already face, a panel of maritime experts said Wednesday. Read More
Expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Brunswick (T-EPF 6) departs Naval Base Guam, passing the MSC expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Fall River (T-EPF 4) and marking the start of Pacific Partnership 2019. Navy photo
A military mobility study due out in June will place a greater emphasis on smaller, lower-draft vessels that will ferry supplies, troops and vehicles inside a theater, U.S. Transportation Command’s top general said on Tuesday. Read More
USS America (LHA-6) conducts a replenishment at sea with the dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE-14) on Aug. 12, 2020. US Navy Photo
The Navy and Marine Corps need to grow their capacity to move people and supplies to and around a contested sea space – using both manned and unmanned ships and aircraft – and the service leaders asked lawmakers today for help in creating a supply chain that can stand up to a peer competitor. Read More
RRF vessel SS Cornhusker State off the coast of Haiti, February 2010. MARAD Photo
Lawmakers were skeptical the Navy could meet its sealift requirements as part of the National Defense Strategy and that the service was on track to recapitalize its aging sealift fleet. Read More
A fleet of military vehicles wait pier side in preparation of Exercise Saber Strike 16 in Riga, Latvia, June 4, 2016. The vehicles were transported by a British Roll-On, Roll-Off ship from Norway for the exercise. US Marine Corps photo.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) wants to know why the U.S. military’s surge sealift capability has yet to augment its aging fleet’s capabilities with used cargo ships. Read More
The Military Sealift Command maritime prepositioning ship USNS Sgt. William R. Button (T-AK 3012) is moored off the coast of Latvia for the Saber Strike 17 Maritime Prepositioning Force offload operations on May, 25, 2017. US Navy photo.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A National Maritime Strategy, expected to address the various deficiencies facing the nation’s sealift capacity, is finished and awaiting final approval, a top sealift official said last week.
A UH-60 Black Hawk is raised from Military Sealift Command’s voyage-charter, general-purpose, heavy-lift vessel MV Ocean Grand at the pier in Sattahip, Thailand, Aug. 17, during an offload of equipment that will be used during exercise Hanuman Guardian 2018.
An aging and inactive government fleet dependent on a shrinking pool of merchant mariners to get underway is how a new report describes the U.S. military’s strategic sealift capability.
