Ready Reserve Force Vessel Cape Ray.
The steel is rotting,â retired Rear Adm. Mark Buzby, administrator of the Marine Administration, testified during the hearing.
I would think the ânot mission capableâ means the ship is currently in a shipyard. âLost certificate of inspectionâ is quite a different problem. Whatâs up with that?
With a fleet of 61, of which 10% are out of class and certification and 21% are inoperable for whatever reason, it is good that they are not commercial and required to make a profit.
Well come to think of it, that is what it has been like for the Offshore Marine and Drilling Contractors for several years now. (Some with 50-60% of the fleet inactive)
When Marad tried to sortie the RRF in Norfolk for Hurricanes Micheal it was a disaster, a few could not get underway, one had engine room fire, two returned as they could not get the speed up to run from the hurricane. One supposedly didnât get underway because the could not get food to leave.
Marad and their contractors/ operators have let these ships rot by the poor or lack of proper maintenance.
I wonder what it costs to keep one of these propping up a pier vs funding an MSP slot
The scuttlebutt is they are considering transferring some of those RRF ships from union/private contractor manned to MSC manned. (I wonder where they hope to get more officers and crew from?) The real problem is many of those ships just sit at reduced manning while tied to a pier.
The MSP slots have to be filled with ships that are both militarily useful and commercially viable (with a subsidy). The reserve fleet need only be militarily useful.
Itâs less expensive to keep ships that are not commercially viable tied up.
How is that different than any other governmentâs military?
Did I say it was different?? I canât think of any military force that is expected to make a profit.
I did compare the mothball fleetâs situation favourably to that of the civilian Offshore Marine and Drilling fleet worldwide, which has seen worse number of inactive ships for several years now.
I had to dig a bit on the Shughart as I didnât realize she was in operation for almost 15yrs before MSC acquired her from the commercial side and had her modified. The âlost COIâ didnât seem right for, what I thought was, a fairly new ship.
Additionally, most of the steamers are surely running on borrowed time as the pool of qualified steam engineers dwindles.