The State of the US-Flag Commercial Fleet By Charles Diorio, General Manager, American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Photos courtesy American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier
O
n 15 June 2016, American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier’s (ARC) M/V Endurance departed from the port of Beaumont, Texas, laden with Army cargo. M/V Endurance had loaded a mix of tanks, trucks, tractors, wreckers, fuel tanks, cargo handlers and various other items bound for Kuwait. While Endurance is among the most militarily-useful, multi-purpose, and largest roll-on, roll-off vessels in the world, she is also one of a small number of commercial cargo vessels trading internationally in the United States-flag fleet. The US-flag international fleet has declined steadily since the end of World War II. The US oceangoing merchant marine 8
| Defense Transportation Journal | AUGUST 2016
fleet has declined by 82 percent since 1951, when the fleet peaked at 1,268 vessels.1 At the end of 2014, the US-flag international fleet was down to 73 vessels, a reduction of 25 percent in just four years.2 With the addition of two new vessels in 2016, ARC may soon operate 10 percent of the US-flag international fleet, but the overall trend line for the industry is steadily downward. The reality is that in order to provide the assets, mariners, networks and readiness the Department of Defense (DOD) requires, US-flag carriers must have cargo. Cargo fills the ships, ships employ mariners, those mariners are in turn available to crew government reserve vessels, and
the ships and related intermodal networks provide readiness to the US military. Unfortunately, cargo preference volumes have declined dramatically in just the past few years. The main driver for this is the cessation of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the concurrent overall reduction of US forces’ overseas footprint. The Maritime Administration calculated that government-impelled cargo fell from a high of 5.6 million tons in 1991 to 2.2 million tons in 2014, with the majority of the decline from DOD cargo.3 Military cargo is estimated to reach a nadir of 1 million tons per year in 2016.4 As a result of these cargo reductions, the international fleet has expe-
