The United States is experiencing a significant mariner shortage that impacts U.S. Transportation Command’s ability to crew the sealift fleet. Maritime Administrator Rear Admiral Ann Phillips told House Armed Services subcommittees in November 2023 that she was not confident all the ships in the Ready Reserve Fleet could be crewed during a national security challenge. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments further found that sustaining military sealift during an initial surge would require every proficiently qualified mariner. Indeed, this November, Military Sealift Command confirmed it will lay up 17 ships due to a lack of mariners.
The Navy Reserve offers a practical and cost-effective solution to the mariner shortage. The service already has a Strategic Sealift Officer Force (SSOF) that comprises 2,200 experienced U.S. Coast Guard-credentialed merchant marine officers. During a national security challenge, these officers sustain essential sealift. The SSOF steps in to fill officer billets on board surge sealift ships. They also demonstrate the practicality and cost-effectiveness of leveraging the Navy Reserve.
But SSOF only provides officers in an emergency. This is inadequate. The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the Navy depend on maritime unions to provide unlicensed credentialed ratings on board sealift ships. The United States does not have enough unlicensed credentialed mariners, let alone obligated mariners, in the total mariner pool. The absence of an obligated force to replicate the unlicensed credentialed mariner personnel pool leaves a critical mission gap in sealift crewing. A ship with officers but no sailors is not mission-capable.
MARAD and the Navy should look to Navy Reserve enlisted sailors to fill the crewing gaps in unlicensed credentialed mariners. These sailors have years of seagoing experience and the training to operate in a contested environment. Enlisted Reserve deck, engine, security, operations, and administration ratings can be identified to create a Strategic Sealift Rating Force (SSRF). Sailors who wish to return to meaningful seagoing service can serve in the SSRF instead of performing unrelated shoreside augmentee work. The Navy can assist MARAD by returning Reserve sailors to sea-going billets on board sealift vessels by using a three-pronged approach.
The Problem
According to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations, U.S.-flagged sealift vessels and the U.S. merchant mariners that crew these vessels carry 90 percent of the Department of Defense’s equipment for global conflicts and contingencies. During the First Persian Gulf War, U.S. Sealift transported 95 percent of all cargo, 85 percent of all dry cargo, and 99 percent of all petroleum, ensuring the United States’ ability to defeat Saddam Hussein.1 Vice Admiral Albert J. Herberger, former Deputy Commander of U.S. Transportation Command, noted that during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, U.S. Sealift provided the global reach necessary for the U.S. to conduct operations successfully.2
More recently, U.S. Sealift has delivered almost 70 percent of security cooperation materials to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022. For the United States to win a conflict with China, the military will have to move massive amounts of equipment in the Indo-Pacific region on ships crewed by U.S. merchant mariners.3 MARAD’s Maritime Workforce Working Group Report found current crewing requirements for U.S. strategic sealift stretch U.S. mariner capacity to the breaking point. The United States is more than 2,000 mariners short.
One alternative is to turn to crews of foreign-flagged ships. But sealift in wartime must be dependable, and foreign crews were problematic during the First Persian Gulf War. Thirteen foreign-flagged ships refused to carry cargo into the war zone at all. Moreover, the Coast Guard listed 40 percent of the employed ships that held foreign registries on their Targeted Flag List, which complicated operations. Ships with open registries created further concerns for the Department of Defense (DoD) regarding cargo safety and security.4 Foreign-credentialed merchant mariners caused significant issues for DoD in meeting U.S. sealift requirements.
How It Would Work
Civilian Crew Augmentation: Coast Guard credentialing and training for the applicable deck and engineering ratings clears a path for Navy sailors to augment the Ready Reserve fleet. First, Coast Guard Policy Letter No. 02-20 waives credentialing application fees for members of the uniformed services. Next, Reserve sailors during annual active-duty training can take Coast Guard-approved training. Deck and engineering ratings obtain Coast Guard-approved Merchant Mariner Credential ratings at the U.S. Army Transportation School at Ft. Eustis, Virginia. The Maritime and Intermodal Training Department offers courses for able seaman; qualified member of the engine department; basic and advanced firefighting; standard of training, certification, and watchkeeping; basic safety training; personnel survival craft; and lifeboatman. Sailors can become credentialed mariners at little to no cost to themselves, the Navy, or MARAD.
Operational/Tactical Support: Military Sealift Command created the Tactical Advisor (TACAD) program to ensure sealift ships have the critical capability to operate in contested environments, but the program primarily employs SSOF Reserve officers with little experience in underway naval operations. Placing highly skilled and experienced enlisted operations specialists in TACAD would add substantial value and depth to the program. These sailors also would provide indispensable training to the SSOF TACAD officers, and the TACAD package could further add gunners’ mates and master-at-arms ratings to assist in force protection. Sealift ships would receive operations and force protection expertise, smoothing their integration with naval forces. This modern-day version of the hallowed Naval Armed Guard, which served with distinction in World War II, would add essential depth of force.
Administrative Support: The Navy should consider assigning administration ratings to the Strategic Sealift Program Office to manage the current SSOF and the proposed SSRF. Sailors with years of experience in naval administration can ensure sealift ships have the trained and credentialed reservists they need to support national security challenges. In addition, Reserve sailors can gain valuable knowledge in commercial crew management. An exclusive corps of SSRF-qualified sailors creates a career path for expertise development not only in Navy-specific administration and medical requirements, but also those required of merchant mariners. The Strategic Sealift Program Office continually tracks requirements, expertise, and continuity of knowledge. This tracking is critical to the mission. Enlisted reservists would spend their careers administering, managing, and overseeing the new SSRF program.
Creating an SSRF alleviates the critical gap in U.S. capability and capacity to crew sealift vessels. The Navy and MARAD gain qualified and trained sailors who can operate in a contested environment to meet national security challenges. These enlisted sailors are intimately familiar with Navy operations, procedures, communications, and directives. The SSRF ensures a highly skilled force that meets U.S. Transportation Command’s sealift requirements. More important, these sailors are bound by duty to go into harm’s way without question or hesitation. The time is now to create a Strategic Sealift Rating Force.
1. Albert J. Herberger et al, Global Reach: Revolutionizing the Use of Commercial Vessels and Intermodal Systems for Military Sealift, 1990-2012 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2015): 97.
2. Herberger et al, Global Reach, 212.
3. Herberger et al, 222.
4. James K. Matthews et al, So Many, So Much, So Far, So Fast (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, 1996): 136.
