Do you recall the no-notice, 2019 TransCom logistic surge
exercise in which 80%-86% of the ships were able to sail within the required
5-day window? We discussed whether this
was a good result or bad and kind of concluded that it was not horrible but not
great (see, “Logistics Surge Exercise”). Well, I finally remembered managed to track
down the after exercise report so let’s take a closer look.
The Maritime Executive website published a summary of the
exercise findings.[1]
Not surprisingly, as with any Navy related activity, the
results weren’t quite as good as initially claimed.
The exercise resulted in 27 of the 33 (82%) ships activated being
ready to sail within the 5-day window, however, 6 of the 27 that sailed
subsequently experienced problems that would have prevented them from executing
any mission. That drops the ‘sail and
mission capable rate’ to 21/33 or 64%.
Not quite the 80%-86% success initially claimed.
Worse, 12 ships of the 61 ship fleet were excluded from the
exercise due to known, pre-existing problems, 10 others were excluded due to
planned maintenance, and one could not leave port due to a bridge height
clearance issue. Thus, 23 of the 61 (38%)
ship fleet were unavailable for the exercise.
Apparently, the sailing included ship’s speed tests and it
was noted that,
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My apologies for having let this slip until now.
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[1]The Maritime Executive website, “Activation Exercise
Reveals Challenges Facing U.S. Sealift Fleet”, 31-Dec-2019,
https://maritime-executive.com/article/activation-exercise-reveals-challenges-facing-u-s-sealift-fleet
… none of the four Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off ships (LMSRs) in the test completed their operational speed runs at the target speed of 24 knots. One heavy lift vessel, the Cape Mohican, also failed her operational speed run due to a control automation casualty.[1]I think we can revise our previous assessment of ‘not horrible’ to ‘extremely disappointing’ especially since these ships were all supposed to be manned with caretaker crews whose job was to maintain them in ready-to-go condition.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/activation-exercise-reveals-challenges-facing-u-s-sealift-fleet