The Administration’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget proposal calls on Congress to appropriate $186 million for the Maritime Security Program, the amount authorized by the Congress to fully fund this Program. The $186 million will ensure the continued operation of the maritime security fleet, comprised of 60 privately-owned militarily-useful U.S.-flag vessels commercial vessels crewed by American mariners.
As stated by the Administration, “The purpose of the [Maritime Security] Program is to establish and sustain a fleet of active ships that are privately-owned, commercially viable, and militarily useful to meet national defense and other emergency sealift requirements. Participating operators are required to make their ships and commercial transportation resources available upon request by the Secretary of Defense during times of ward or national emergency. Commercial transportation resources include ships, logistics management services, port terminal facilities, and U.S. citizen merchant mariners to crew both commercial and government owned merchant ships.”
The Maritime Security Program is a critical component of America’s commercial sealift policy. It guarantees that the Department of Defense will have the U.S.-flag commercial sealift capability it needs to fulfill its missions around the world and to deliver the material, equipment and supplies necessary to support America’s troops. In fact, more than 90 percent of the supplies and equipment required by the Department of Defense to support America’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have been transported by privately-owned U.S.-flag vessels and their civilian U.S. citizen crews.
The current composition of the maritime security fleet ensures that the companies that participate in the Program provide the Department of Defense with not only their U.S.-flag and U.S.-crewed vessels but also with access to their worldwide logistics network. The United States Transportation Command has estimated that it would cost the U.S. Government an additional $52 billion to replicate the global intermodal system that is made available to DOD by MSP participants.
Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee and a Member of the House Armed Services Committee and its Seapower Subcommittee, has been one of the strongest and most vocal supporters of the Maritime Security Program, telling his colleagues: “The U.S. flag fleet is critical to our military in delivering cargo overseas to our military to ensure proper readiness and sustainment. The Department of Defense (DOD) for well over a decade has relied on MSP-enrolled vessels for sealift of necessary cargo into conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other troubled areas in the world, all at a fraction of the cost of what it would cost DOD to replicate that sealift if it had to build its own vessels. These military-sensitive cargoes are handled by U.S.-flag ship operators and mariners that must meet DOD and homeland security standards. They have a demonstrated record of delivering these cargoes efficiently and safely.”