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
The following is the Department of Defense Inspector General January 2020 report, Audit of Surge Sealift Readiness Reporting. Read More
RRF vessel SS Cornhusker State off the coast of Haiti, February 2010. MARAD Photo
This post was updated to properly identify the Ready Reserve Force. An earlier version included an incorrect title of the force.
THE PENTAGON — U.S. Transportation Command started the largest turbo activation of the Ready Reserve Force since 2003 to stress-test the military’s ability to quickly deploy the cargo ships required for a massive troop movement.
World War II Merchant Marine recruiting poster.
The Maritime Administration’s top official warns of “a bleed-off of talent” in the merchant fleet because there are fewer ships for each year’s maritime academy graduates to serve on and even fewer chances of a long career.
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
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The best way to achieve future cybersecurity is scrapping the web of today and start over by baking protections into the new version, according to the top security official at the Maritime Administration.
SATTAHIP, Thailand—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. Military Sealift Command Far East photo.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The few American-built and-operated tankers available to carry fuel for aircraft, tanks, fighting vehicles and trucks into war zones throws into sharp relief the strategic sealift problems facing the nation, a senior Maritime Administration official told USNI News on Tuesday.
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
RRF vessel SS Cornhusker State off the coast of Haiti, February 2010. MARAD Photo
If push comes to shove, the U.S. doesn’t have enough mariners to move tanks, personnel carriers, ammunition, medicines, food and water into a hot zone in a prolonged crisis, the head of the Maritime Administration said Thursday. Read More
National Defense Reserve Fleet Suisun Bay, Calif. in 2014. US Navy
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The Maritime Administration is working with the Coast Guard to certify sea service veterans as credentialed merchant mariners, in an attempt to address a personnel shortfall that MARAD Administrator Paul Jaenichen called a “top priority.” Read More
