A New Dimension of Strength

Strategic Sealift Program Provides Outsized Capabilities for Future Conflicts

By ANDRE MARAOUI

The past decade has seen dramatic changes around the world. Throughout this period, the Strategic Sealift Program, under the Program Executive Office Ships, has quietly designed, built, and delivered the largest and most capable roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) vessels in the world. These large, medium-speed, RO/ROs (LMSRs), whose conversion and construction were managed by the Strategic Sealift Program, are vital to carrying out the U.S.-led global war on terrorism and to the effort to remove weapons of mass destruction from the control of hostile nations such as Iraq.

All but one of the 19 LMSRs are now operating under the direction of the Military Sealift Command (MSC--the sea-transportation provider for the Department of Defense)--and moving the U.S. military's tanks, trucks, and other essential cargoes around the globe, on a 24/7 basis.

Today's Strategic Sealift Program grew out of the U.S. military's experiences during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, when the U.S. Marine Corps had much of its equipment already prepositioned in ships overseas, but most U.S. Army equipment had to be moved from land bases--both in CONUS (the Continental United States) and overseas--by surge and commercial sealift. The decades-long decline of the U.S.-Flag Merchant Marine also led to an increased reliance on foreign-flag shipping for the transport of vital U.S. military cargo.

A congressionally mandated Mobility Requirements Study carried out by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in the early 1990s identified the need for additional military sealift capability. The JCS study, which focused primarily on the Department of Defense transportation infrastructure during the Persian Gulf War, identified a shortfall of three million square feet of surge sealift capability and a shortfall of two million square feet of the prepositioned sealift capability needed to carry Army combat and support equipment. The plans developed to remedy the problem called for the construction of 19 LMSRs that would provide five million additional square feet of surge and prepositioned sealift capacity. The acquisition strategy for the Strategic Sealift Program was carried out in three phases:

Phase 0 (Initial Design) began with the award of contracts to nine U.S. shipyards for initial concept designs in September of 1991. The Navy also decided that the vessels would be built to commercial standards under American Bureau of Shipping standards and that U.S. Coast Guard-licensed civilian mariners, rather than uniformed Navy crews, would operate the vessels. The ships would be constructed by: (a) converting commercial container ships; and (b) designing and building entirely new vessels.

Phase I (Engineering Design) began when a request for proposals (RFP) was released in September 1992 for conversion engineering design. The RFP for new-construction engineering design was released in October 1992.

Phase II (Detailed Design and Construction) was initiated on 30 July 1993, when National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), San Diego, and Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), Norfolk, were awarded contracts to convert existing commercial container ships into LMSRs. Contracts for construction of new vessels were awarded in September 1993 to NASSCO and to Avondale Industries (now Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Avondale Operations), New Orleans.

Capabilities by Design

From the outset, the ships built under the Strategic Sealift Program were designed to work in concert with both existing and planned military transportation assets such as the airlift capability provided by the Air Force's C-5 and C-17 transport aircraft. The LMSRs also were designed: (a) with enough flexibility to carry every type and size of military vehicle in the U.S. inventory from frontline M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to self-propelled artillery and trucks, HMMWVs (high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, or Humvees), and even helicopters; and (b) with the capability of loading and/or discharging these vehicles at virtually any port facility, from the most modern to the most austere.

They also were designed to carry very large amounts of cargo. A single LMSR can carry, for example, the outsized air and ground vehicles and other equipment and supplies needed by:

An Air Assault Battalion Task Force
32 Helicopters
1,100+ Vehicles
100,000+ Square Feet of Stores and Supplies
or
An Armored Battalion Task Force
58 M1A2 Abrams Tanks (with full combat loads of fuel and ammo)
6 Bradleys
950+ Support Vehicles
100,000+ Square Feet of Stores and Supplies
or
Prepositioned Forces
60 Bradleys
650+ Other Vehicles
100,000+ Square Feet of Stores and Supplies

Collectively, the ships built and converted under the Strategic Sealift Program can carry or preposition over five million square feet of military cargo. This translates into a military force of more than 1,100 M1A2 Abrams tanks, over 100 Bradleys, and over 18,000 support vehicles--along with the supplies, food, and spare parts needed to sustain this force for an extended period of time.

The very large sealift capacity provided by the LMSRs makes it possible to transport by sea a high percentage of all U.S. naval/military supplies and equipment, particularly outsized air and ground vehicles, and thereby free up existing airlift assets. In terms of floor space alone, according to a Congressional Budget Office report in March 1997, "it would require between 38 and 52 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to deliver the same amount of cargo to the Persian Gulf in the same 11 to 12-day period as one LMSR that had been prepositioned in the Indian Ocean." When tanks and other heavy vehicles are delivered by sea, rather than air, vital and often scarce airlift assets can be released to carry out other missions.

A Highly Successful Program

The 19 LMSRs already built and under construction fall into four classes--two conversion classes (USNS Shugart-class and USNS Gordon-class) and two new-construction classes (USNS Bob Hope-class and USNS Watson-class). Three shipyards were involved in the detailed design and construction of the 19 ships.
The following ship table shows the dimensions and characteristics of the Watson-class LMSRs, which were the largest gas-turbine-powered vessels in the world at the time they were designed. The dimensions and performance characteristics of the other classes of LMSRs are similar to those of the Watson class.

The ships in each class have slightly different machinery and cargo stowage features, but all 19 ships have the same Class Standard Equipment for cargo-handling, which was provided to the shipyards under a contract with MacGregor USA. Each ship also is equipped with four powerful cranes that provide a single-lift capacity of 55 tons. The cranes can be "paired up" to provide a lift of 110 tons, which is more than enough to lift an M1A2 Abrams tank.

Each ship also is fitted with a slewing stern vehicle ramp and with side-port vehicle platforms amidships, both port and starboard. Each also carries: (a) a large portable ramp on the weather deck that can be affixed to any of the three sides of the side-port platforms; (b) a container-lift truck; and (c) five small forklift trucks. This unique combination of cranes, stern ramp, side-port platforms and ramp, and cargo-handling equipment provides an unprecedented level of cargo-handling flexibility to support high-tempo joint expeditionary operations.
In addition to the LMSRs, the MSC fleet includes several other government-owned and -chartered ships--32 Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force ships, 25 special-mission ships, 35 prepositioning ships, and 95 sealift ships. MSC operated 166 of the 213 ships used in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and moved more than 15 million square feet of cargo during the prewar buildup for the operation.

The projected delivery of USNS Benavidez (T-AKR 306) in the summer of 2003 will culminate the impressively successful acquisition of Strategic Sealift ships. When completed, the program will have delivered 19 ships, conversion as well as new-construction, with a total contract value in excess of $6 billion. Eight of the ships built by NASSCO were delivered early and under budget. Of greater importance is the fact that each of the deployed LMSRs is already playing, and will continue to play, a vital role in executing U.S. national-security plans and policies for decades to come.

From delivering the helicopters of the 101st Airborne to the Middle East for Operation Iraqi Freedom to moving tanks for a joint-forces exercise with U.S. allies in the Pacific, the LMSRs are providing a much-needed increase in warfighting capabilities to U.S. as well as coalition forces in the combat theater. *

Cdr. Andre Maraoui is the project manager for the Strategic Sealift Program in the Navy's Program Executive Office, Ships.