National Security Multi-Mission Vessel NSMV
The NSMV is a Department of Transportation (DOT) effort for the recapitalization of public nautical school ships. It was developed with input from offices within the Navy, including Military Sealift Command. The Navy had representatives assist DOT as technical advisors at various steps in the process, including requirements development. The current fleet of seven training ships are owned and maintained by DOT and loaned to the six State Maritime Academies (SMAs) and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) as required by statue. The ships are employed as academic and seagoing laboratories providing the Midshipmen and Cadets with critical hands-on navigation and engineering training that is mandatory for their U.S. Coast Guard (USGC) credential.
The proposed NSMV would provide a modern, functional, environmentally compliant training ship which could be readily deployed to support multiple Department of Homeland Security national security missions and Department of Defense (DOD) emergency and humanitarian missions.
The NSMV is a critical aspect to the training of qualified U.S. mariners, who are integral to supporting economic and national security. School ships have been used in the past to provide Federal response for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) (e.g. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and Super Storm Sandy). The proposed new design would provide a modern training platform, with increased capabilities to support HA/DR missions in the future. The NSMV recapitalization of five training ships owned and maintained by DOT will expand upon the capabilities of the training ships to support such missions.
Although the Navy has no specific requirement for this vessel, the service did see the value in having a low cost Federal resource that could be called upon in lieu of a military resource which has other operational obligations and a significantly higher operating cost. Additionally, there may be utility in a common hull design and machinery space for both the NSMB and future non-combatant vessels.
In 2015 alone, Navy Combat Logistics ships transferred nearly 1 million pallets of dry cargo and ordinance, and offloaded 8.3 million barrels of fuel to Navy ships. U.S. flagged sealift ships were responsible for the transport of over 900 thousand tons of dry cargo, much of which was being transported to and from combat zones. These critical capabilities are what allow the United States to project power anywhere in the world without having to depend on foreign vessels.
Unfortunately, America had reached a time period where this capability was being put in jeopardy. In 2012, there were 241 active commercial and Military Sealift Command (MSC) vessels. In just 4 short years, that number has dropped to 208. The Maritime Security Program (MSP) carriers, who operate 60 of the commercially owned sealift ships, continue to operate at a loss due to the expense of sailing their ships under the U.S. flag versus what it costs to flag outside of the US.
These challenges left the U.S. with a pool of qualified mariners that would preclude the Navy from a sustained activation of the 46 Ready Reserve Fleet (RRF) ships. Of the 100,000 credentialed mariners, only approximately 11,280 had sailed in the last 18 months and would comprise the total pool of mariners needed to man the RRF. The Maritime Administration (MARAD) estimates that more than 13,000 qualified mariners are needed to sustain a full activation of the RRF. Should the qualified mariner pool fall below 11,119 which is just 161 fewer mariners than today, there would be insufficient mariners to even support an initial activation of the fleet.
A variety of options could help reverse this trend and ensure there is a viable and sustainable military and commercial sealift capability. Options could include continued recapitalization of the Navy’s combat logistics ships, reconstituting the RRF, increasing the MSP stipends to ensure the viability of that program and, finally, ensuring that maritime training institutions have the necessary resources needed to provide newly qualified mariners to the workforce. With regard to maritime training requirements, MARAD had been working on a design for a new state maritime training vessel that would replace the aging vessels that are in use now.
The current aging fleet of vessels supports the training of nearly two-thirds of all new mariners. According to MARAD’s own information, the oldest ship in the program – the TS EMPIRE STATE attached to SUNY Maritime College – is 55 years old and is expected to end its service life in 2019. Again, according to MARAD, loss of this ship alone without replacement would cause a loss of 36 percent of the existing training ship capacity needed for mariner education -- portrayed as “a major setback to meet the rising national demand for mariners” by the agency in its 2017 budget request to Congress.
