Earlier this month, we reported on the U.S. Navy’s latest plan to sideline 17 logistics ships that provide fuel and other supplies to the Navy’s deployed fleet: Navy Likely to Remove 17 Support Ships, Called the “Logistics Backbone” of the Fleet, from Active Service.
That plan “is only part of the Navy’s overall ‘great reset’ involving decommissioning 48 ships in four years, from 2022 – 2026.”
So, things are not looking too good for my former service, and now, we have a real-time operational crisis at a time of continued challenges with Israel and other hot spots in the Middle East.
From maritime reporting service gCaptain: US Navy Oiler Runs Aground, Forcing Carrier Strike Group to Scramble for Fuel:
gCaptain has received multiple reports that the US Navy oiler USNS Big Horn ran aground yesterday and partially flooded off the coast of Oman, leaving the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group without its primary fuel source.First reported on the gCaptain forum and by maritime historian Sal Mercogliano, a leaked video and photos show damage to the ship’s rudder post and water flooding into a mechanical space…we don’t know the exact location of the ship but a Navy source confirms she is anchored near Oman awaiting a full damage assessment.Fortunately, no injuries or environmental damage have been reported for the ship. This is significant because the 33-year-old vessel is one of the single-hull versions of the Kaiser-class oilers.“USNS Big Horn sustained damage while operating at sea in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations overnight on Sept. 23. All crew members are currently safe and U.S. 5th Fleet is assessing the situation,” according to a statement from a Navy official provided to Sam Lagrone at USNI News.
This has caused a major problem for naval operations in the Middle East.
gCaptain continues:
[T]he Big Horn is the only oiler the Navy has in the Middle East. One shipowner told gCaptain that the Navy is scrambling to find a commercial oil tanker to take its place and deliver jet fuel to the USS Abraham Lincoln.If the Navy resorts to using a commercial oil tanker as a temporary replacement, it would need to install a Consolidated Cargo Handling and Fueling (CONSOL) system for underway replenishment operations. This system includes specialized refueling rigs, tensioned fueling hoses, and high-capacity fuel pumps—all essential for safely transferring fuel to warships at sea. The tanker would also require robust communication and control systems to ensure precise coordination during refueling maneuvers.This retrofitting process is no small feat. It requires significant modifications to the commercial vessel, enabling it to withstand the unique stresses and operational demands of pumping fuel while sailing at full speed. Moreover, a U.S. Merchant Marine crew trained in CONSOL UNREP procedures—a complex and high-risk operation—would need to be flown to the Middle East to supervise the operation. This adds another layer of complexity to an already challenging situation.Commercial tankers are significantly slower than Navy oilers, which could leave the USS Abraham Lincoln more vulnerable to attack during aviation fuel loading operations.[emphasis added]
The footage in this X post doesn’t look all that scary, but keep in mind that seawater is not supposed to get into the engine room of a Navy ship, at all:
And the gCaptain article points out the critical problem with the Navy’s current fleet of supply ships:
The grounding of USNS Big Horn is a stark reminder of the broader tanker crisis facing the U.S. military, as highlighted by Captain Steve Carmel, a former vice president at Maersk, in an editorial for gCaptain last year. The Department of Defense is projected to need more than one hundred tankers of various sizes in the event of a serious conflict in the Pacific. However, current estimates indicate that the DoD has assured access to fewer than ten, a dangerously low number that threatens to cripple U.S. military operations. Without sufficient tanker capacity, even the most advanced naval capabilities—including nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which still rely on aviation fuel—will be rendered ineffective.
So we need 100 fleet oil tankers……and we have fewer than 10. Let that sink in. But not to worry – because the fleet replenishment ships are part of the U.S. Merchant Marine, not the Navy, they actually fall under the U.S. Department of Transportation, which means Pete Buttigieg is in charge:
This crisis—coupled with the equally troubling US Merchant Marine crewing crisis—poses a significant challenge for the US Navy. Encouragingly, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has called for a bold new Maritime Statecraft. Moreover, with the leadershipof RepresentativeMichael Waltz and Senator Mark Kelly, Congress is working on a bill to address our maritime dilemmas—a bill this incident makes more compelling than ever. However, major obstacles remain. These solutions take time, and other federal agencies—including the US Coast Guard but most notably the US Maritime Administration under Secretary Pete Buttigieg—are under-resourced and lack motivation to do the heavy lifting required to solve these problems.
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