Navy Likely to Remove 17 Support Ships, Called the “Logistics Backbone” of the Fleet, from Active Service
Drastic manpower shortages to mandate the proposed move, which is symptomatic of other, related U.S. military manpower problems
For several years we have been chronicling the drastic problems the U.S. Navy has been suffering under, in everything from manpower and recruiting to warship and submarine warfighting readiness:
- In Latest Blow to Military Effectiveness, U.S. Navy Will No Longer Require Sailors to Pass Physical Fitness Tests
- Last Bastion of U.S. Military Implodes; Navy Seals Celebrate “Pride” Month
- Navy Deletes Photo of Ship Captain Shooting Rifle with Scope on Backwards
- U.S. Navy Facing Major Shipbuilding Delays While China’s Navy Expansion Accelerates
- U.S. Navy, Faced with Recruiting Nightmare, Begins Accepting High School Dropouts
- Navy Drag Queen Recruiters – Definitive Evidence that the Military has Lost Its Way
You get the idea; and keep in mind that the six above posts are just a sample of those posted from 2023 and 2024.
Anyway, we have yet to post any bad news about the Navy’s merchant marine fleet, which deploys with the regular U.S. Navy and supplies at-sea ship refueling, spare parts, ammunition, repairs, etc., so we were surprised to see the latest evidence of the decline of this portion of the U.S. Navy.
From the Naval Institute: Navy Could Sideline 17 Support Ships Due to Manpower Issues:
Military Sealift Command has drafted a plan to remove the crews from 17 Navy support ships due to a lack of qualified mariners to operate the vessels across the Navy, USNI News learned.
The MSC “force generation reset” identified two Lewis and Clark replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, a dozen Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two forward-deployed Navy expeditionary sea bases that would enter an “extended maintenance” period and have their crews retasked to other ships in the fleet, three people familiar with the plan told USNI News Thursday….
A defense official confirmed the basic outline of the plan to USNI News on Thursday. Two sources identified the forward-deployed sea bases as USS Lewis Puller (ESB-3), based in Bahrain in U.S. Central Command, and USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4), based in Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Greece, and operated in U.S. European and Africa Command….
The new effort, known informally as “the great reset” has yet to be adopted by the Navy and is awaiting approval from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, USNI News understands.
The problem is that there are insufficient numbers of civilian merchant sailors, who man the Navy’s support ships. Ideally there are two crewmembers for every at-sea position, which means a rotation of one month on (or longer), with an equal amount of time off. But as the Naval Institute reports, that number is now 1.27 to one, which means that for every month off, a civilian merchant sailor has to spend four months at sea, which is “unsustainable”:
“That math just doesn’t work,” the former mariner told USNI News.
“No one is able to have a healthy work-life balance and be able to get off the ship and get adequate time to go home, have time at home with their family, take leave, [and] take care of medical requirements.”
Fox News reports that this plan, currently under consideration by Navy brass, is only part of the Navy’s overall “great reset” involving decommissioning 48 ships in four years, from 2022 – 2026:
The Navy has a 30-year shipbuilding plan that will include the decommissioning of 48 ships to occur over a four-year period that started in 2022…
In the first year, the Navy retired 10 ships, and in 2023 the force retired 11 more ships ranging from missile cruisers, dock landing ships and ocean tugs.
And msn.com reports on some of the impacts to the Navy: ‘Great Reset’ Plan for US Navy: Active Surface Fleet Battle Force Ships to Be Stripped of Crews
While the move may alleviate some manpower concerns, it leaves naval support capabilities severely diminished.
The dozen fast transports targeted as part of the drawdown are used to provide “rapid transport of military equipment and personnel in theater,” according the Military Sealift Command.
If the plan is enacted, the command would only have access to two operational fast transports for its entire operation.
Here is a Tweet of one of the Fast Transports entering port in Sri Lanka:
The United States Naval Ship (USNS) Brunswick made a formal visit to the Colombo port yesterday.
This 103-metre-long Spearhead-Class Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel is operated by a 24-member crew, under the command of Captain Andrew H. Peretti.
While in Colombo, the ship's… pic.twitter.com/XyhrmUDK5J
— DailyMirror (@Dailymirror_SL) October 12, 2023
Msn.com reports further on the manpower issues involved and asks a key question:
According to USNI, some of the fast transport ships have already begun to return to the United States for unknown reasons.
The Navy’s manpower problems ring similar to issues faced by other branches of the military. The U.S. Army admitted a complete failure on the recruiting front, necessitating a massive reduction of 24,000 soldiers from the force, 5 percent of its total strength.
In the background of the military shakeup is the rise of China in the Pacific.
As Beijing becomes increasingly aggressive in claiming international waters and foreign territory as its own, America’s ability to counter the Asian superpower will largely be based on our naval capabilities.
If the time comes when we must put firepower behind our words, will we be ready to meet a powerful threat on the water?
Finally, from the Eurasian Times: US Navy’s Achilles Heel In Indo-Pacific Gives Edge To China; Pentagon Banks On Asian Allies To Boost Its Navy:
In the coming decade, the US Navy will be stretched thin to counter the burgeoning numerical strength of the Chinese PLA Navy in the Indo-Pacific. The US Navy that will deliver the wrath of the US beyond its border has an Achilles Heel—not the lack of warships but trained crew to man those warships.
The shortage of qualified mariners is forcing the US to sideline 17 support ships, impacting the logistics backbone of the force….
The US military has been struggling to recruit people in its rank and file. After the US Army failed to meet its recruiting targets for two consecutive fiscal years, its strength fell from an original level of 485,000 in late 2021 to around 452,000 active-duty soldiers in 2023.
It is the lowest full-time force size since 1940, before the US entered World War II….
According to reports, in fiscal 2023, only the Marine Corps and the Space Force among the five service branches met their recruiting goals. The Army fell short by about 10,000 of its goal to bring on 65,000 active-duty enlisted soldiers; the Air Force recruited only 24,100 of the 26,877 it wanted; and the Navy recruited 30,236 active-duty enlisted sailors, well short of its goal of 37,000.
The shortfall understates the challenges facing the US military, as the service also had to lower its end-strength goals in recent years to ease the recruitment shortage. The recruitment crisis has been deemed one of the biggest challenges faced by the all-volunteer force since its inception….
This will make it difficult for the US to keep pace with the growing flotilla of the Chinese Navy. According to the 2022 Pentagon report, China is building more modern surface vessels, aircraft carriers, and support ships to help its naval influence grow. By 2025, the People’s Liberation Army Navy is expected to grow to 400 hulls, up from its fleet of 340.
In contrast, the US Navy has admitted that all of its key shipbuilding programs—from the new Columbia-class submarine to the new Constellation-class frigate—are facing years-long delays.
“I’m concerned that the Navy is falling behind — it is behind,” Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said Wednesday. “The Navy continues to retire ships faster than it builds them, and I’m troubled by the Navy’s request to decommission 10 ships before the end of their service life and build only six.”
The labor shortage is further resulting in a backlog of ship production and maintenance at a time when the Navy faces global threats. The US has put the US behind China in the number of ships at its disposal, and the gap is widening.
Navy shipbuilding is currently in “a terrible state” — the worst in a quarter century, says Eric Labs, a long-time naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. “I feel alarmed,” he said. “I don’t see a fast, easy way to get out of this problem.”
As the world seems to steam right into WWIII, this administration is gutting our military thanks to ultra-woke policies that are creating an existential threat to America.#lawenforcement #news #navyhttps://t.co/3dWo50Flrm
— Blue Lives Matter (@bluelivesmtr) August 28, 2024
US Navy plans to stand down 17 ships citing massive manpower shortage, crews will be reassigned! — BIDEN-HARRIS REGIME HAVE WEAKENED OUR MILITARY! #VoteDemsOUT https://t.co/VYqrlZXGjS
— GawdyNews (@gawdynews) August 29, 2024
What's happened to my beloved Navy and DON? Malice over mission, DEI over military readiness, THAT has led to our weakening. We must have an abrupt America first, strong and focused military. Only Trump can rebuild DOD and keep us from war at the same time!https://t.co/rEnRcpVtk3
— Chieflywaze (@Chieflywaze) August 28, 2024
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“If the time comes when we must put firepower behind our words, will we be ready to meet a powerful threat on the water?”
Our military is at its lowest active duty rate since 1940. We cannot find enough civilians to crew critical Naval support vessels. Recruiting rates continue to drop, and the pool of suitable recruits also dwindles. Our shipbuilding capabilities are horrendous. Our ship maintenance programs are in the toilet, and the Chinese navy now outnumbers us.
Unfortunately, I think the question has been answered: no, we will NOT be ready,
We aren’t ready now. When the balloon goes up we will never be able to replenish what we have on the front,
Correct. If the Chinese make a move on Taiwan, there’s not much we can do about that. I don’t even think we have a carrier in the Pacific right now.
I have heard some well-meaning but ignorant folks say we can ramp things up like in WW2.
The differences between then and now are among other things:
1) We were far more unified as a people and as a nation back then despite segregation and restrictions.
2) We had companies that made things rather than licensing their names to foreign manufacturers (General Electric), or going from being manufacturers of real, actual hard goods, rather then becoming an importer that slaps an American name on something else (General Motors).
One might almost think this planned.
The Fast Transports are a Navy issue. The rest are MSC and clearly the Maritime Academies are not producing career Merchies. Wonder why?
Great question. Problems within the Merchant Marine have been noted since at least 2021, but it appears no one is interested in addressing them.
https://maritime-executive.com/editorials/u-s-strategic-sealift-s-merchant-mariner-problem
From the article I noted, here is the conclusion if it’s TL:DR for some.
“Merchant mariners are essential personnel to America’s economy and warfighting enterprise. While one could argue they are contractors, or mere transportation workers, and therefore do not deserve a more significant status, this argument ignores that merchant mariners operate up to 20 percent of Navy vessels. Furthermore, no contractor or transportation worker has paid the price that merchant mariners have paid in past wars and may pay again in future wars, or has a legal precedent that recognizes a time when they were veterans. Mariners feel they deserve more, they do deserve more, and the fact we cannot recognize them is a factor in how unattractive becoming a mariner has become as a career. Fixing some or all of these issues, removing some of these hurdles, will take a whole government approach. However, if we cannot fully crew the ships we have available, how can we crew the ships we need in war?”
Thanks for that. I didn’t realize that merchant mariners weren’t considered veterans. Another shameful political class decision.
This isn’t just due to wokeness, although that plays a part. The brutal on-off schedules also are hurting.
Here is one of the better-known v-loggers on shipping, Professor Sal Mercogliano, talking about the issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tl31dM-d68
Not excusing what’s outlined here but at same time I suspect the military, like any beurocracy, is bloated and too large.
How long before massive ships are obsolete due to warfare shifting to drones, unmanned planes and ships.
Will we ever have a war lining up tens of thousands of tanks against one another?
I don’t think many will disagree that there are too many flag-rank officers wandering the halls of the Pentagon, but did you miss the part in the article where it stated that active-duty strength is at 1940 levels, and that enlisted recruitment has fallen short in all services but the Marines and Space Force?
I cannot conceive of a time where fleet support ships will be “obsolete.” How will you get these drones, “unmanned planes,” and the personnel to maintain them to the fight? The Chinese are certainly taking the projection of naval power seriously, while we seemingly can’t stop a handful of Houthi rebels from shutting down the Gulf of Aden and transit of the Red Sea.
And finally, perhaps the Russians should be asked about the need for maintaining adequate stocks of modern MBT’s, given that they’re now having to dust off decades-old T55’s and T62’s to fight their war in Ukraine.
The fact is that we are unprepared, at any level, to fight a two front war much less a possible three front war. Smoking hopium won’t fix that.
Agree enthusiastically with all of this and would add that our domestic force protection is WOEFULLY inadequate. For instance, 95% of our air assets and 100% of our naval assets are unprotected from local drone attack with our most advanced fighters almost always sitting outside, uncovered. We have allowed 10M+ fighting-age men into our country in the last 40-months. Given the ubiquity of commercial drone availability as well as the chemicals readily available to make simple, but effective explosives, a surprise attack the likes of which we haven’t seen since December 7th low-hanging fruit for any of our enemies.
We have maintained the defense posture one would expect when we enjoyed continental dominance, protected from attack by two gigantic oceans. Unfortunately, we ceded that advantage when we allowed ourselves to be invaded. We’re sitting ducks, now.
I should clarify, 100% of our surface warfare assets are unprotected. We do have some of our submarines in hardened shelters.
Yep. It’s interesting that you bring up the lack of protection for our domestic forces. I was thinking about that the other day. I used to live right near a major AFB, and their squadrons were routinely parked outside. How hard would it be for one of those Chinese or Iranian agents who hoofed it across the border to fly a drone over the fence and drop a homemade chemical explosive onto a $150 million F-22 or a $100 million F-35?
We seem to be, as usual, fighting the last (overseas) war, except this time we’re doing it with both arms tied behind our backs, blindfolded, and in a wheelchair.
I am old enough to remember the Communist bromide: The best way to defend the country is to make it worth defending. By which they meant massive new social welfare programs and draconian laws to crack down on “bigotry” (read: anything the Communists disagreed with).
Well, in 2024 it came true, although not in the way the Communists envisioned. Apart from lunatics and mercenaries no one is willing to fight and die for drag queen shows, sexual mutilation of children to satisfy the Transtapo, DHS spying on Americans, Latin American drug gangs and terrorists flooding across the southern border, widespread censorship by Big Tech, jailing and murdering of opposition candidates and dissidents, and taxpayer-funded abortion up to the 666th trimester.
Okay, none of this is good news. But look at the silver lining: the U.S. will have a world-class Pride fleet with unmatched proper pronoun usage!
It’s as if the US is aiming for a participation trophy in the “Comedy in The Face of Adversity” category. This is all troubling news
Eric Labs, a long-time naval analyst says, “I feel alarmed. I don’t see a fast, easy way to get out of this problem.”
If you’re going the wrong way, the first thing to do is turn around. Until you stop doing what caused the problem, it’s no use to talk about fixing it.
These boats, as I understand it, are the civillian arm that supplies the Navy worldwide. During Covid, the people than man these ships were treated abysmally – they were essentially kidnapped and locked on board. They had to sit on deck and watch their cars get towed, and their civillian lives impload while held captive by their employers – For pay that has become less and less “worthwhile” in our failling economy.
This is entirely a case of “you reap what you sow.” Anybody with two brain cells to rub together could have seen this coming.
Nitpicking here, but in the Navy, boats are submarines. These MM vessels are SHIPS, also known as targets.
plus
US Navy warship commander relieved of duty following image of him shooting rifle with scope mounted backward
Cameron Yaste, commanding officer of USS John McCain, faced criticism on social media
foxnews
“man”power\is that still an allowed word??
If you haven’t listened to the Mike Rowe/Victor Davis Hanson interview, go do so! And then replay the whole thing and listed to it again! (It’s on Mike Row’s podcast “The Way I Heard It”)
This is one of the topics they touch on: the continued bad mouthing of white males in the armed services, treating them as racist conspirators, even though they die in disproportionate numbers in actual combat.
The backbone of out services have been driven out or no longer join because of leftist ideology which treats anyone white or male as aggressive, supremacist, troglodytes.
Just some additional information. Up until the at least the late 1970’s, many of the support ships involved in this decision were USS and not USNS vessels. They were transferred to MARAD to free up sailors for the combat fleet.
Military service tends to become a family tradition. My father came to this country; 12 years old, alone, and not speaking English. He learned English fluently and a well paid trade. As soon as he was legally able during WW-II, even though not a citizen, he enlisted. He fought his way across Europe as a combat infantry squad leader in the 3rd Army and among other things his unit liberated the last concentration camp in Nazi hands. For his services, he was granted citizenship.
I got mine the easy way, being born here. My career goal was to be a Navy officer and I aimed my education towards Annapolis. Academically, I had a slot nailed down, and I had a US Senator who said he would send me. Unfortunately, when the Navy medics got a look at the anatomy of my spine, they did the paperwork equivalent of sprinkling holy water on me to exorcise me from the clinic and any future military service.
I ended up spending most of my working life wearing a badge and fighting felons, retiring after 28 years on the job. As a sideline, both gratis and for pay, I started writing for publication and eventually online. Coincidentally, I started writing for the same USNI that is the source of the news article cited, And I spread to other defense industry oriented publications. I was security-cleared to a fair-thee-well, and was an invited guest for briefings in some very interesting places. In short, I know more about defense than the average civilian.
That said, it is the combat forces that are the cutting edge defending the country, but all that will fail without the logistical backup which we no longer have. I will also say that despite my father’s service, and my attempts to serve and defend this country; it is not the country my father came to and I grew up in. My children had no inclination to enlist and did not. And if when my grandchildren become of military age, if we still have a country, if still alive I will try to talk them out of enlisting to be abused by an ungrateful government and people.
Subotai Bahadur
Subotai is right.
All the military blogs like “Valor Guardians” are full of commenters bemoaning the woke diversity training.
Promotions based on identity and not merit.
Hostility towards conservatives and whites in general.
The mostly southern conservative families that have provided the majority of recruits for generations have opted out of a woke military.
There are not enough LGBTQIA’s to fill the ranks to replace the families with a generational tradition of military service.
The military leadership refuses to identify the problem and continues to pander to leftism with drag queen recruiting ads.
They refuse see the cause, so they cannot fix the problem.
Obama succeeded in his fundamental change and has gutted the military.
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