USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) conducts a replenishment-at-sea (RAS) with the fast combat support ship USNS Arctic (T-AOE-8) on April 12, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Navy is struggling to find support to buy new logistics ships, even as a new study finds the Navy’s current plans to recapitalize that logistics fleet are insufficient to support distributed operations in a high-end fight against China or Russia. Read More
RRF vessel SS Cornhusker State off the coast of Haiti, February 2010. MARAD Photo
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Force is still as small and perhaps less ready than this time last year, when a top MARAD official said the RRF was “on the ragged edge” of readiness. Read More
National Defense Reserve Fleet Suisun Bay, Calif. in 2014. US Navy
NATIONAL HARBOR. Md. – The merchant fleet that would carry the U.S. military to war is in dire need of recapitalization and might not prepared to fight its way to a conflict zone, said a panel of officials tasked with oversight of military sealift. Read More
M/V Cape Ray (T-AKR-9679). MARAD Photo
By 2022, the United States will need “70,000 new people” for the nation’s maritime fleet, but the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., and the six state maritime academies only graduate 900 per year and are at capacity, Paul Jaenichen Sr., the head of the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), told the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee on Tuesday. Read More
MV Cape Ray (T-AKR-9679)
The Pentagon is preparing a ship-borne facility to neutralize of Syrian chemical weapons at sea, a defense official told USNI News on Monday. Read More
The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) released its May report on the economic impact of the shipbuilding industry in the U.S. The following was from the executive summary:
Currently there are 117 shipyards in the United States, spread across 26 states, that are classified as active shipbuilders. In addition, there are more than 200 shipyards engaged in ship repairs or capable of building ships but not actively engaged in shipbuilding. The majority of shipyards are located in the coastal states, but there also are active shipyards on major inland waterways such as the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Ohio River. Employment in shipbuilding and repairing is concentrated in a relatively small number of coastal states, with the top five states accounting for 62 percent of all private employment in the shipbuilding and repairing industry. Read More
