Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2024)

FEATURE INTERVIEW track missiles and warheads for the Mis- sile Defense Agency, and it travels with its support ship, the MV Hercules.

For our Service Support ships, we have the two hospital ships, USNS Mer- cy and Comfort; two rescue and salvage ships; two submarine tenders; and the

Sixth Fleet ? agship, USS Mount Whit- ney, that has a combined civil service and military crew. Our two ocean going tugs are going to be part of a 10-ship class. We have a special warfare support ship; two high-speed transports; and the high-speed expeditionary fast transport, of which 14 are now in service. We have contractor-owned ships that are em- ployed for ? eet experimentation

Our prepositioning and sea basing ships are loaded with combat vehicles, equip- ment and supplies at stationed forward at strategic locations in the Paci? c and

Indian oceans. To support the Marines, we have ten container and roll on/roll off ships, two expeditionary transfer docks (ESDs) and four expeditionary sea base ships. We also have two offshore petro- leum distribution system ships that help move fuel ashore. Another ten preposition ships support the Army and Air Force.

It should be pointed out that we can build adaptive force packages to be placed on a number of our ships to add additional capability.

MSC can also lease ship or contract

Military Sealift Command’s ? eet replenishment oiler USNS Joshua Humphreys for services as needed. For example, we (T-AO 188) sends fuel to MSC’s fast combat support ship USNS Arctic (T-AOE have ? ve leased tankers deliver petro- 8) during an underway replenishment at sea in the Atlantic Ocean, July 17. leum products to our storage and distri- bution sites around the world. The MSC

The San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD contracting team and the skill set of con- 24) sails alongside the Henry J. Kaiser-class ? eet replenishment oiler USNS tracting in this environment at the at the

Joshua Humphreys (T-AO 188) in the Atlantic Ocean.

numbers in which we’re contracting, is absolutely going to be critical to how we can project at its speed and scale.

With all of that, do you have what you need to get the job done?

We’re meeting mission. But we don’t have the ? eet that we need; we don’t have the force that we need; and we certainly don’t have the wherewithal to provide all of the end-to-end logistics the force will require in a future major con? ict.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John Bellino 28 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • April 2024

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