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Navy cargo ships find new home

MSC PAO 03-09
February 6, 2003

Philadelphia, Corpus Christi, Texas, and Violet, La., will be home for five U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command cargo ships when they are not at sea. Three new contracts for the operational berths for five large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ships, called LMSRs, were announced Jan. 29.

Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and Violet Dockport, Inc., of Violet, La., each will operate two berths, and Maritime Berthing, Inc., of Corpus Christi, Texas, will operate one berth. The three-year, firm, fixed-price contracts with two one-year options total more than $11 million. These berthing locations are capable of providing power, potable water, garbage and sewage removal as well as steam to the ships -- services for which the companies will be reimbursed.

The 950-foot long LMSRs slated for these berths are some of the largest ships in the Navy inventory. Capable of carrying more than 300,000 square feet of oversized, heavy military cargo, the surge sealift ships are normally kept in a reduced operating status in berths on the East and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. When ordered to full activation status, the ships add additional crew and are ready to sail in four days or less. Currently, nine out of ten surge sealift LMSRs are employed in the president's global war on terrorism.

Ninety-five percent of all equipment and supplies needed by U.S. forces in a war or contingency moves via sea on U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command controlled ships. When fuels are added, the total percentage of cargo required for a war or contingency moved by sealift rises to 97 percent.

Military Sealift Command, the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense, operates about 120 civilian-crewed, noncombatant ships around the world each day during peacetime. MSC ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea and at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies.