Deployed Navy Disaster: Damaged Fleet Oiler in Middle East Cripples Aircraft Carrier Operations
USNS Big Horn, a single-hull Kaiser-class Fleet Oiler, ran aground off the coast of Oman and is out of commission; Navy scrambling to supply USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group with jet fuel.
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.
US Navy Fleet Oiler Damaged in Grounding Off Oman
USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198) sustained damage while operating in the US 5th Fleet area of operations. Photos online purport to show minor flooding in an engineering space and a damaged rudder post.https://t.co/eDTSGz5VZL pic.twitter.com/azPdPz4khT— Roman Romanovich (@Romanovichphoto) September 24, 2024
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:
Incredible…
“US Navy oiler USNS Big Horn ran aground yesterday, leaving the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Group without it’s primary fuel source. The Navy doesn’t have a spare oiler to deploy and is now scrambling to find a commercial tanker.”
– @johnkonradpic.twitter.com/RPf2ergsAG
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) September 24, 2024
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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Comments
“after the Navy oiler USNS Big Horn ran aground and partially flooded”
If only there was a thingy that might let captains know, even the AA ones, how much water was under the keel. Rumpelstiltskin will sooner find a way to spin gold out of straw before such a wonderful device might be invented. If only those cheap Republicans in Congress would properly fund research for the Navy.
DEI captain and crew.
We’ve got plenty of money for Ukraine:
“We Are Giving More Money to Ukraine Than the Budget of the US Marine Corps! (House Armed Services Committee, 04/17/24)
That’s not counting the 8 billion more the US promised Ukraine after Zelenksky’s visit this week. Too bad some of that couldn’t be used to fund research for the Navy or buy some new ships.
I thought that we had GPS on every naval ship a maps showing places that could cause our ships to run aground? There is no excuse for our ships to run aground. Commercial ships somehow avoid running aground. The problem is what the progressive fascists have done to our military where the most important issue isn’t fighting war it’s concerns about race. This puts incompetent DEI people in charge and drives out the competent leaders. The same crap happened to the SS where DEI incompetents were put in leadership positions.
How do ships with GPS and up to date maps run aground? I bet that a navigation computer could easily prevent a big ship from running aground.
How is the Navy protecting the immobilized Bighorn from Houthi missiles?
Like any Communist dictatorship, there are many institutions and organizations in the US that are comically inefficient. Only the Federal Stasi (FBI, Homeland Security, ATF, etc) are even remotely competent – and they work with lethal efficiency when they decide to target “racists”.
A typical US citizen is far more likely to be murdered by US government than by the Chicoms or the dastardly Russians.
The globalist, neocon DC establishment and their admirers who for some reason believe the USA has a duty to be the ‘world police’ might want to start paying attention. Our military has been rode hard and put away wet for two + decades. Believe it or don’t the tempo of operations hasn’t really declined since end of GWOT, instead of a combat deployment they doing operation deployments to Jordon or Africa or Europe as well as rotations through the national trading centers. Navy tempo has is increased.
Our service members are getting worn out. Their ships, aircraft and other equipment has been worn out. A great deal of maintenance and outright replacement has been ‘deferred’. There’s cohorts of personal in O5/O4 and SR NCO positions who didn’t get the time to attend full length training courses, many curtailed and some eliminated due to GWOT and lack of available bodies to fill units for deployment.
Please don’t believe that we can whip anyone with our hands behind our back. Those days are done. Our adversaries know this and they won’t be intimidated into inaction just b/c we show up anymore. We can’t even suppress what amounts to piracy in the Red Sea so get the idea we can easily defeat a peer competitor out of your mind.
Sorry chief but the Navy is doing this to themselves. They have ships with DEI captains and leadership that are there to cover their asses. Look at what happened to the captain who tried to help his crew during Covid! This “Softer more gentle” Navy is falling apart.
We can add your accurate observations to the existing problems. I didn’t b/c I was trying to communicate how bad things are without factoring DEI and CYA leaders into the equation. Not confined to the Navy, these same issues are widespread throughout the military services.
The Statistics show that young white men are no longer joining the military in the same numbers as before it got the reputation for blaming white men for everything and promoting incompetent women and minorities.
Our military is also the first ones to rush into a conflict and the last ones to leave. In many respects this allows all the other countries in organizations like NATO to not take the lead in any conflict no matter where in the world.
Or even fund a functional military. Germany is an example of this. Their own defense ministry says they don’t have a single Brigade that is combat capable and their Naval and Air Forces are on fumes. They didn’t budget 2% of their GDP to defense, NATO member guideline, until the ’24 budget. Even then it was barely met and that was grudging.
Most European Gov’t post cold war budgets until about 15 minutes ago didn’t spend diddly on defense. Instead they put those funds into social programs and economic subsidies they used to, IMO, unfairly compete with US Manufacturing.
Wow.. who’da thunk Biden would be resurrecting Carter’s Navy.
And it’s going to take a “Reaganesque” president fix it. Which is certainly not Harris.
Absolutely idiots
Another day, another…
https://media.128ducks.com/file_store/4c002e38de749f7c1ab458d5179d6cbeb44781ba7ab1c90f7f2c0c276191fca0.png
The Navy seems to assume “best case” – good to hope for but not one on which to base a plan.
I don’t know the details of the grounding. But, the easiest way to get relieved as the captain of a surface ship is to run aground. The chances the skipper is still employed in 6-weeks are slim. About the only thing that could save him/her is if they were entering/exiting a harbor/controlled waters with a pilot onboard. But, it doesn’t sound like that was the case. What a logistics cluster-F.
Depends on many things…for example: how many DEI checkboxes does the Captain Check?
Is they a member of a protected class?
Has the Captain ensured that all crewmembers have received their mandatory quarterly training on the use of (im)proper pronouns?
Has the Captain ensured that the crew includes at least one drag queen as “recommended” by Transportation Secretary Butt-a-gig (or whatever they’s name is) for morale purposes?
These and more are the burning questions that must be answered by an extensive investigation into the incident before determining the suitability of the Captain for continued command responsibilities.
In an admittedly hurried search of the news: the Captain, being responsible for everything that happens aboard ship or that the ship does, is usually publicly relieved of command by either the XO or a replacement Captain sent by higher command when a naval vessel runs aground. I found news articles about the running aground and the Captain’s name is mentioned nowhere. It may have something to do with the detail that our logistics ships [those with USNS prefixes] are officer-ed and crewed by civilians, whose relationship with the UCMJ may be a tad looser. So all the checkmarks may be applied, AND he may know someone with clout.
On a slightly more technical note, even if they can find a hull and crew for it [that last being as much a problem for civilians as Navy vessels]; in order to function as a T-AO [replenishment tanker] it will require the installation of some very specific gear to allow underway replenishment. And that will take more than a little shipyard time . . . when there are not spaces in the shipyards. Nor is there money to pay for it.
Subotai Bahadur
UPDATE: We are not the only naval power that can leave the pooch walking bowlegged.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/26/politics/chinese-nuclear-powered-submarine-sank/index.html
Apparently the newest of a new class of Chinese nuclear attack submarines [SSN] was launched at the shipyard and flooded and sank pierside. It is unknown [but I rather doubt it] if the reactor was in any way operational. However, if she flooded then all the electronics and engines have to be replaced. Kind of like building a whole new SSN. Plus, they have to figure out how and why she flooded and take care of that.
It was spotted by a private naval analyst who used commercial satellite photos.
China has no shortage of dockyard/repair facilities and if it is decreed, it does not matter how much it costs.
Subotai Bahadur
“Plus, they have to figure out how and why she flooded and take care of that.”
Somebody forgot to close the screen door.
The Brandon-Harris Administration can’t do anything right.
But I thought the floating pier in Gaza was a smashing success?
The very fact that your operations can be compromised by the loss of ONE SINGLE SHIP is utterly insane in any military operation. And not just the ship that was there, but the fact they’re trying to get commercial ships says that apparently there is no replacement ANYWHERE for it.
This is lunacy.
Fleet oilers ain’t sexy. The numbers in operation have dwindled b/c $ was used for other things. Often on boondoggle weapons/platform development purchases that didn’t pan out. GWOT soaked up a lot of $. Engines have a life cycle,.same.for Artillery tubes. Equipment wears you and needs depot level overhaul or replacement.
Service/Support functions, even vital ones, like Fleet Oilers get the short end compared to more sexy alternatives; F35, the V-22 and so on. When we broke the berm in Iraq we didn’t have up armored vehicles or body armor. When we needed them and alternatives existed we didn’t buy them or licence production from other Nations….nope not as profit for our Defense Companies so we built our own designs and delayed getting troops what they needed. We didn’t have them in the first place b/c they weren’t as sexy as new aircraft…nor have the same profit margins….and if y’all think that’s not a consideration in what gets produced you need a new perspective.
At least we have a gender neutral submarine with Jon Bon Jovi’s guitar on it. Glad we spent all that money on the sub modifying it for females instead of silly stuff like oilers.
Nothing to worry about. Any minute now all those gays and trannies who’ve been pining to serve their country in a military capacity will start flocking to the Merchant Marine academy and enlisting in the Navy.
And it will be FABULOUS.
“In the navy
Yes, you can sail the seven seas
In the navy
Yes, you can put your mind at ease
In the navy
Come on now, people, make a stand
In the navy, in the navy
Can’t you see we need a hand?
In the navy
Come on, protect the motherland
In the navy
Come on and join your fellow men
In the navy
Come on people, and make a stand
In the navy (In the navy), in the navy (Oh)”
Where’s the redundancy necessary to assure the maintenance of the tempo of a kinetic situation? With only a single oiler in attendance of a carrier group, an opposing force (like the Houthis) only need target what is a relatively undefended ship, sink or damage it, and make the entire group useless (as a carrier is useful only so long as it can launch aircraft and most of the rest of the group are dedicated to protecting the carrier and have limited to no ability to project offensive power themselves).
This is the stuff that really gets the WWIII ball rolling. This ship is supposed to supply fuel to jets on an aircraft carrier in the ME—to deter Iran. If it doesn’t work, Iran is not deterred.
But my guess is that the country that is really quaking in its boots while watching this is Taiwan. If the US can’t keep its military operating in and near the Persian Gulf, imagine how bad it would fare in the Far East.
Looks like end of empire.
Anyone who thinks that this pervasive state of military unreadiness and incompetence doesn’t directly stem from our corrupt, incompetent, dim-witted, corrosively rabid Dhimmi-crat leadership in both civilian and military spheres, doesn’t understand the situation.
I think we can all agree that the important thing is that transgender sailors feel seen, included and welcome in today’s Navy — as demonstrated by taxpayer-funded transition surgeries and treatments. Lest the US become the laughingstock of the world.
Counting inflation, the military budget has been cut every year of Biden.