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Sal Mercogliano 🚢⚓🧭🐪🚒 Profile picture
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23 Jun, 5 tweets, 3 min read
My favorite week of the year!

It is Strategic #Sealift week @CIMSEC. Every day, new pieces drop and thanks to @US_TRANSCOM in sponsoring the event.

Looking for some great ideas for @MSCSealift, @DOTMARAD & the merchant marine.
cimsec.org/strategic-seal…
1/THE FOURTH ARM OF DEFENSE: AMERICA’S MERCHANT MARINERS

"Ocean-borne transport is largely taken for granted by the American public."

cimsec.org/the-fourth-arm…
2/ACROSS THE EXPANSE: THE SEALIFT DILEMMA IN A WAR AGAINST CHINA

"The U.S. military must address its critical sealift vulnerabilities in fuel capacity, operational security, and vulnerability to uncommitted partners to win an expeditionary Sino-U.S. war."
cimsec.org/across-the-exp…
3/OBSOLESCENCE, CHOKEPOINTS, AND THE MARITIME MILITIA: FACING PRIMARY THREATS TO U.S. SEALIFT

"If the U.S. wishes to remain a global power with the ability to project influence anywhere on the globe...a robust sealift force...is a necessity."

cimsec.org/obsolescence-c…
4/RECAPITALIZING STRATEGIC SEALIFT SHOULD BE DOD’S NUMBER ONE MODERNIZATION PRIORITY

"Recapitalizing the government-owned portion of the strategic sealift force should be one of DoD’s topmost priorities."

cimsec.org/recapitalizing…

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More from @mercoglianos

Sal Mercogliano 🚢⚓🧭🐪🚒 Profile picture
13 Jun
1/The decline of US merchant marine stems >WWII. In that conflict, the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 #JonesAct, along with acts of 1928 & 1936 provided the basis for the USMM to be 2nd largest in the world & in a position to transport the Arsenal of Democracy & build 2-Ocean Navy.
2/The US controlled 63% of world fleet >WWII, but the Ship Sales Act of 1946 sold US ships at a discounted rate to restock world fleets. Also the Marshall Plan 1948 permitted shipyards to be rebuilt and use the new prefab tech advocated by Henry J Kaiser.
3/Before entry into WWII, the US used the Panama registry as a means to avoid US Neutrality laws and deliver material and fuel to Britain prior to Lend Lease. Post war, Panama, along with Liberia as open registries on international routes with little oversight or regulation.
Read 18 tweets
Sal Mercogliano 🚢⚓🧭🐪🚒 Profile picture
13 Jun
@jsnover @cpgrabow @robertcobrien 1/The decline of US merchant marine stems >WWII. In that conflict, the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 #JonesAct, along with acts of 1928 & 1936 provided the basis for the USMM to be 2nd largest in the world & in a position to transport the Arsenal of Democracy & build 2-Ocean Navy.
@jsnover @cpgrabow @robertcobrien 2/The US controlled 63% of world fleet >WWII, but the Ship Sales Act of 1946 sold US ships at a discounted rate to restock world fleets. Also the Marshall Plan 1948 permitted shipyards to be rebuilt and use the new prefab tech advocated by Henry J Kaiser.
@jsnover @cpgrabow @robertcobrien 3/Before entry into WWII, the US used the Panama registry as a means to avoid US Neutrality laws and deliver material and fuel to Britain prior to Lend Lease. Post war, Panama, along with Liberia as open registries on international routes with little oversight or regulation.
Read 18 tweets
Sal Mercogliano 🚢⚓🧭🐪🚒 Profile picture
18 May
My presentation at the @NDTAHQ Surface Force Projection Conference questioned the need for national merchant marines by examining China and Russia's use of their own to exert hegemony from the past to the present.
The Maritime Silk Road of China's #BeltandRoad Initiative aims to defend their vital trade routes - particularly between Asia & Europe/Africa - and ensure an adequate supply of raw materials and imports to sustain their economy and country.
The historical antecedent may have been the voyages of Zheng He. When the Ming Dynasty assumed power they aimed to ensure the restoration of China as the Middle Kingdom. Their fleet demonstrated the power of China and then was scrapped as trade flowed.
Read 9 tweets
Sal Mercogliano 🚢⚓🧭🐪🚒 Profile picture
5 May
1/The latest from @LexNextDC in @TheNatlInterest on #sealift. The focus in the article is on the 45 surge sealift ships held by @DOTMARAD and 15 by @MSCSealift being 45 years old & declining readiness. It focuses on some options but misses the biggest problem...
2/"Buying new ships built in U.S. shipyards is prohibitively expensive. Building new ships in foreign yards is politically and strategically unattractive."

This leaves few options to rectify this situation and ensure the US can deploy forces from CONUS...
3/Option one is, "to purchase commercial vessels which would then be converted to become militarily useful for the Ready Reserve Force."

The problem is the commerical market is on fire and ship prices have spiked, nearly quadrupled.

gcaptain.com/hot-market-qua…
Read 9 tweets
Sal Mercogliano 🚢⚓🧭🐪🚒 Profile picture
5 May
@DavidLarter @SamDavaham @ConsWahoo @JerryHendrixII @cdrsalamander 1/The Liberty ship could carry 10k tons at 11.5 knots and took days to weeks to load/unload. ULCS can sail at 24 ktsband carry 200k and offload in a port in about 2 days.

The US maintains a fleet of geared & fearless containerships through the Maritime Security Program...
@DavidLarter @SamDavaham @ConsWahoo @JerryHendrixII @cdrsalamander 2/MSP provides $5M/ship/year for 60 vessels=$300M. The ships provide capacity and service on key routes for the military - such as APL western Pacific routes. They also provide employment for crews who can be used for surge sealift in @DOTMARAD & @MSCSealift...
@DavidLarter @SamDavaham @ConsWahoo @JerryHendrixII @cdrsalamander @DOTMARAD @MSCSealift 3/The cost barely covers the differential to remain US flag, the ships are all foreign built, and the capacity is not enough to sustain a true peer-to-peer conflict. Currently the US merchant marine has a total of 180 ships.

COSCO has over a 1000.

lines.coscoshipping.com/home/Services/…
Read 5 tweets
Sal Mercogliano 🚢⚓🧭🐪🚒 Profile picture
2 May
The @USNavyCNO in his testimony #HASC placed #sealift for @US_TRANSCOM @MSCSealift @DOTMARAD as the second strategic area for the ship construction budget, behind Columbia SSBN.

His concept is to buy old versus build new.

This is the WRONG APPROACH.
1/
appropriations.house.gov/events/hearing…
2/The @USNavyCNO notes that it would cost $300-500 million to obtain new ships, vice used ships at $20-25 million with 20 years of life. Here is what is wrong with that statement.

First, their market analysis has alerted the ship owners of US government interest...
3/This interest, along with a massive uptick in commercial market, will make ships much more expensive plus conversion costs.

Second, this follows what was done after 1991, when @DOTMARAD added ro/ros to their fleet. Ships built back then had longer service lives than today...
Read 14 tweets

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