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| By MICHAEL R. McKAY | |
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The Maritime Security Program assists 47 U.S.-flagged ships in commercial
foreign trade and guarantees the Department of Defense immediate access to
the ships and their civilian officers and crews for sealift service in
national security emergencies. But the program is to expire in September
2005, and seagoing unions are among those calling for its renewal this
year. We were therefore pleased to see the respected and influential
National Defense Transportation Association weigh in on the subject late in
February.
In a report distributed in Washington, the non-profit, non-partisan NDTA--civilian and military defense logistics experts--said the MSP is critical to U.S. sealift capabilities, especially in view of the continuing war against terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere and a likely U.S.-led war against Iraq. The study also said the Maritime Security Program represents an efficient and practical way to deliver U.S. military equipment and supplies to overseas flash points. Al Herberger, a retired Navy admiral who planned sealift strategy for DOD, said the NDTA's report supports testimony late last year by Air Force Gen. John W. Handy, commander of the U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) before the House Armed Services Committee's Oversight Panel on the Merchant Marine. Gen. Handy had told the panel that the U.S. cannot fight a war overseas without a merchant fleet under its own flag. "Our report agrees with Gen. Handy's conclusion that the Maritime Security Program is the linchpin in this country's wartime U.S. commercial sealift capability." Herberger also noted that the use of active, privately owned and operated U.S.-flagged merchant ships for sealift gives DOD the most "bang for the buck." Each ship in the program draws only $2.1 million a year in operating aid, an amount Herberger said is "less than one-tenth the estimated annual operating cost of providing the same capability using government-owned ships." According to DOD estimates, it would cost the federal government $9 billion to duplicate the sealift capacity represented by the MSP and the associated Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement program, or VISA. Herberger, a former Maritime Administrator in the Department of Transportation, said TRANSCOM supports renewal of the Maritime Security Program "and sees it becoming increasingly more important as we look toward the future and looming wartime scenarios--the ongoing war on terrorism may push the demand for commercial sealift even higher as the U.S. military engages simultaneously in operations in several theaters." He called the MSP "an unquestionable success" and said the U.S.-flag shipping companies and U.S. citizen officers and crews aboard the 47 ships "deserve our support and our thanks." If the 108th Congress does not reauthorize the Maritime Security Program, or if the program is made "unattractive" to commercial vessel operators, the U.S.-flagged liner fleet in foreign trades will "disappear," and the U.S. will be forced into "increased reliance on ships of foreign registry, entrusting precious military cargo to non-U.S. crews in times of great crisis," Herberger advised. "Additionally, a decrease in these ships means slower response time to international conflict and predictably higher costs to the U.S." NDTA President Kenneth Wykle, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, said DOD needs "commercial shipping partners." The NDTA study "demonstrates the absolute importance and tremendous benefits of this program." The National Defense Transportation Association's Maritime Security Program study found that the MSP:
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