The current state of sealift: a conversation with Capt. Bill Mccarthy, military sealift command.
Without sealift capacity, the nations wars do not get fought. Historically, government-owned ships and US commercial vessels have delivered about 90 percent of the supplies needed to sustain US armed forces abroad.That government-private collaboration, actualized through agreements like the Maritime Security Program, remains a pillar of national defense.
On the government side of the sealift equation, the US Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) maintains 23 ships--both government-owned and long-term commercial charters. That's not including a variety of commercial vessels chartered as needed on a short-term basis. In fiscal year 2016 alone, MSC's dry cargo ships moved 394,498 measurement tons of cargo, and tankers transported 37,255,667 barrels of fuel.
Capt. Bill McCarthy is MSC's current Sealift Program Manager, responsible for overseeing ship participation in operations and military exercises worldwide. McCarthy has spent close to three decades as a civilian mariner, including 12 years as a master on various MSC ships that provide food, fuel, ammunition and other supplies to US Navy warships at sea.
He moved to an ashore position in late 2016, and transitioned into the top slot in the Sealift Program this past May. The following conversation is lightly edited for clarity.
DTJ: Thanks very much for taking the time to interview today. To start out, can you talk about some of the highlights and achievements from MSC's sealift program in the past year?
McCarthy: We have three business lines, or areas of responsibility, under the sealift program--dry cargo, tankers and surge sealift. If you look at each one of our business lines, we are at or above historical quantities in movements of military cargo and DLA [Defense Logistics Agency] fuel. We transferred 394,000 metric tons of cargo last year, and 37 million barrels of fuel. I think that is our biggest achievement, that we're at our historical highs. And we worked closely with our MARAD [Maritime Administration] partners and successfully activated numerous organic ships to meet critical missions.
DTJ: Which missions in particular?
McCarthy: We have a lot of ammunition movements, and we supported Pacific Pathways last year, which was a large exercise.
DTJ: I think that gives me a little bit of the background. Looking through the rest of the year and ahead to 2018, what are your top three goals and initiatives for managing the program?
McCarthy: I would say number one, to improve the readiness of our surge fleet. The ships are aging, so we're looking at a more holistic review of the ships to ensure that we are able to activate them successfully. So most certainly it's to improve readiness to be able to support the movement of cargo for the United States Navy in time of conflict.
The second goal is to increase training afloat so that our mariners, although they meet the Coast Guard requirements for the positions they fill, that they're trained in mission-specific areas to move the critical supplies for our armed forces.
And then I think the number three goal is to recruit and promote a diversified workforce within the program itself, so that we have the right people in the right positions.
DTJ: That's a good segue into my third question. Obviously unless activated, all of the surge sealift ships are maintained in ROS [reduced operating status] 5 at various layberths around the country. You mentioned aging ships, but could you discuss some of the other current challenges that maintaining those vessels entails?
McCarthy: Yes. So the ROS 5 model--which is reduced operating status, able to activate in five days--is a very difficult model to maintain. The expectation is for an aging fleet to lay inactive for many years, and then to activate in five days and get underway. As you can imagine, it is very challenging. We have struggled out of the gate on occasion. Most recently, if you look back to last year, from the mid-March to September/October timeframe, we had a mission activation success rate of 60 percent.
However, that brought a lot of focus from MSC and from Admiral Mewbourne on what really is the state of readiness and what are the difficulties in the ROS 5. So like I said, we took more of a holistic approach and we look at more than just the reporting of CASREPs [casualty reports].
We'd look at how long since the ship was last activated, what the manning is, CASREPs, Coast Guard requirements, how ABS [American Bureau of Shipping] has any outstanding items. And we have increased our activation success rate since February of this year until present from that historical low of about 60 percent to about 92 percent. We're 12 of 13 successful activations since February.
So there are many challenges, but one thing that MSC is very adept at is identifying the problems and concentrating our efforts to address those problems, and alter our models when necessary.
DTJ: As a follow-up to that, are there any current plans or studies between MSC and MARAD to develop common readiness standards for ships in ROS?
McCarthy: Yes. There is presently an ongoing study that analyzes the differences in maintenance practices and readiness standards between both MARAD's Ready Reserve fleet and MSC's surge fleet. Hopefully the outcome will be that the recommendation is to standardize the way we report readiness and to accurately define what readiness is, because everybody looks at it a little differently.
Some may say, well the ship isn't reporting any issues, so it must be ready. But in ROS 5, there may not be opportunities where you're alighting off the ship and exercising equipment. And you don't know that until the last minute. So we're looking at how we can analyze both MSC and MARAD, and come together where we will standardize our reporting.
DTJ: You said that the study is currently ongoing. Is there a planned release date, or is it just progressing as it progresses?
McCarthy: No, it was a 90-day study, so we're probably less than a month into it.
DTJ: To pivot a little bit, at previous points in the past year or so Rear Adm. Mewbourne has pointed to potentially contested environments in times of conflict. How does that reality impact the way you think about--and plan for--the sealift mission?
McCarthy: I think it was a wakeup call for the program, the operating companies, and for mariners. The expectation of free and uncontested access as we saw in the Gulf wars--where vessels could freely maneuver in the sea lanes from point A to point B--may not be the condition of the next conflict, where we're looking at a contested environment with near-peers. And there might be EMCON [Emissions Control] requirements, or zig-zag or steaming in formation so that we can avoid areas where there may be submarine threats.
So like I said, I do think it was a wakeup call. To respond to that, Military Sealift Command has stood up a contested environment working group, and making recommendations not only to the Sealift Program, but also for CLF [Combat Logistics Force] ships and basically all the programs throughout MSC.
The Sealift Program itself is looking to increase its training, so that when we get ships underway for various reasons, whether it's an onboard condition inspection, whether it's a transit to a shipyard, whether it's a sea trial, we put on additional personnel and conduct sensitive environment exercises.
Most recently we had the [USNS] Yano and [USNS] Shughart underway, and we had them steaming in formation, conducting zig-zag maneuvers, practicing EMCON, so that the mariners themselves would get some familiarity with how to operate in that contested environment.
DTJ: In testimony May 2 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. McDew highlighted the threat posed by a shrinking pool of US merchant mariners and US-flagged ships. By DOD policy, MSC looks to the US-flagged commercial market first when chartering ships. Does the current state of the US-flagged fleet create any difficulties in meeting MSC's mission requirements?
McCarthy: By state, if you mean the decline of US-flagged ships, then I would say, yes. The situation that presents itself is we have cargo offerings, and the same vessels offer in for those cargo movements. When the number of movements required exceeds the US-flagged vessels that are available, we are then required to activate organic vessels. So that takes out of our reserve capacity.
DTJ: Broadly speaking, what do you need from the US commercial sector to maintain the historically strong relationship between MSC and private industry?
McCarthy: So you're correct, we've always had a very strong relationship, and we've always enjoyed honest and open dialogue with the US commercial sector. But it is even more important now to keep that open and honest dialogue going, so that MSC is aware of the state of readiness of the ships that our commercial mariners man and operate for us as those ships age.
DTJ: Is there anything important I missed about sealift that you want to discuss?
McCarthy: I think we've pretty much covered everything. The sealift program is critical for the strategic defense of the United States. We move a tremendous amount of cargo, rolling stock and fuel for the warfighter, and I'm proud to be the Sealift Program Manager.
By James M. Marconi
Director of Public Relations, NDTA
Caption: Above: The crew of the MSC-chartered tanker Maersk Peary departs from the National Science Foundations McMurdo Station, Feb, 7, 2017. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star's crew safely escorted the tanker from the station and through the frozen Ross Sea of the coast of Antarctica. (U. S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer David Mosley)
Caption: An M1126 Stryker is lowered into general purpose, heavy lift ship MV OCEAN GLORY during a backload of equipment at Chuk Samet, here, from exercise Hanuman Guardian, July 12. Military Sealift Command's contracted voyage charter MV OCEAN GLORY recently conducted a backload of about 250 items in Thailand as part of U.S. Army Pacific's mobility operation PACIFIC PATHWAYS 16-2. (U.S. Navy photo by Grady T. Fontana! Released)
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| Author: | Marconi, James M. |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Defense Transportation Journal |
| Article Type: | Interview |
| Date: | Aug 1, 2017 |
| Words: | 1672 |
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