승조원 부족으로 지원함 17척에서 인력을 차출해 재배치할 예정인 미해군

[위종민]

미해군 해상수송사령부가 지원함에 승조할 인력이 모자라 루이스 앤 클락급 보급함, 함대 유류보급함 1척, 스피어헤드급 원정고속수송함 12척, 루이스.B.풀러급 해군원정해상기지 2척(ESB-3 USS 루이스.B.풀러, ESB-4 USS 허셜 '우디' 윌리엄스) 등 17척을 연장 정비를 실시하고 승조원들을 재배치할 예정이라고 합니다. 이 재배치 계획은 리사 프란체티 미해군 참모총장의 승인을 기다리는 중이라고 하네요. 

해상수송사령부 소속 각종 수송/지원함들은 5,500명의 해군 소속 민간인들이 승조원으로 근무중이고, billet은 4,500개라 billet 1개당 1.27명의 비율로 100명이 바다에 나가 있는 동안 육상에 대기중인 인원은 27명뿐이며 4개월 동안 승선했다가 1개월 동안 하선한다고 합니다. 안그래도 워라벨이 안 좋은데 코로나로 하선이 금지됐던 기간 이후로 퇴직자가 급증해 신규채용이 퇴직자 공백을 채우지 못하고 있다고 합니다. 

재배치를 통해 600명~700명을 재배치할 수 있으며, 이를 통해 billet 당 인원수를 1.5로 늘려 ( 상선의 경우 2), 이미 취역했지만 승조원 부족으로 배치되지 못한 존 루이스급 함대 유류보급함을 운용할 수 있게 될 거라고 하네요. 

Navy Could Sideline 17 Support Ships Due to Manpower Issues - USNI News

Navy Could Sideline 17 Support Ships Due to Manpower Issues

Sam LaGrone

August 22, 2024 7:52 PM - Updated: August 23, 2024 8:07 AM

Military Sealift Command fleet replenishment oiler USNS Yukon (T-AO-202) gives fuel to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) while the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Russell (DDG-59) sails alongside during a replenishment-at-sea, March 12, 2024. US Navy Photo

Military Sealift Command has drafted a plan to remove the crews from 17 Navy support ships due to a lack of qualified mariners to operate the vessels across the Navy, USNI News learned.

The MSC “force generation reset” identified two Lewis and Clark replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, a dozen Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two forward-deployed Navy expeditionary sea bases that would enter an “extended maintenance” period and have their crews retasked to other ships in the fleet, three people familiar with the plan told USNI News Thursday.

Based on the crew requirements on the platforms, sideling all the ships could reduce the civilian mariner demand for MSC by as many as 700 billets.

A defense official confirmed the basic outline of the plan to USNI News on Thursday. Two sources identified the forward-deployed sea bases as USS Lewis Puller (ESB-3), based in Bahrain in U.S. Central Command, and USS Herschel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4), based in Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Greece, and operated in U.S. European and Africa Command.

A Navy official, when contacted by USNI News, acknowledged the service was working on a plan to retask civilian mariners but did not provide details.

The new effort, known informally as “the great reset” has yet to be adopted by the Navy and is awaiting approval from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, USNI News understands.

‘Burning Through People’

A deck cadet with United States Merchants Marine, supervises as cargo is transported into the Green Cove with equipment being sent to the Distribution Management Office Yermo, Calif., on July 6 at Naha Port in Okinawa, Japan. MSC Photo

The Military Sealift Command operates a fleet of logistics ships that refuel and resupply the Navy’s ships around the world and are crewed by 5,500 civilians who are employed by the Navy.

Across the MSC there are about 4,500 billets for mariners on a wide variety of U.S. support ships ranging from resupply vessels, fleet oilers that refuel ships and aircraft, salvage ships, the Navy’s two command ships, submarine tenders and hospital ships.

For every billet on an MSC ship there are about 1.27 mariners to fill the positions, a ratio that two former MSC master mariners told USNI News on Thursday was unstainable.

“If you’re required to have 100 people on a vessel. There are only 27 more people on shore at any given time to rotate those crew members,” a former MSC mariner told USNI News.

At that ratio, a mariner would be at sea for four months and off for about a month ­and then return.

“That math just doesn’t work,” the former mariner told USNI News.
“No one is able to have a healthy work-life balance and be able to get off the ship and get adequate time to go home, have time at home with their family, take leave, take care of medical requirements [in that timeframe]. There is so much training required of every billet at MSC to stay proficient with Navy requirements and training and merchant marine credentialing.”

That’s much more time at sea than commercial mariners. For example, the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association union contracts requires their members to work with two mariners for every billet, which translates to a paid month off for every month at sea.

In addition to the more demanding schedule, the extra wrinkle for the MSC mariners is that they earn leave at the same rate as other DoD employees and junior mariners aren’t paid for their time off on shore if they haven’t accrued leave.

Fleet replenishment oiler USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO-199), left, refuels the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) during an underway replenishment while operating in the South China Sea, April 12, 2023. US Navy Photo

If the Navy and MSC elect to reassign the crews of all 17 ships, the so-called great reset could free up 600 to 700 sailors to the larger MSC pool, USNI News understands. That would bring the ratio closer to 1.5 mariners per billet and allow MSC mariners more time on shore and allow the Navy to crew newer support vessels like the John Lewis-class fleet oiler. Three have delivered to the Navy, but none have deployed in part due to crew availability, USNI News understands.

The punishing schedule for the mariners led to a retention issue for MSC that was accelerated by the severe “gangway up” COVID-19 prevention measures ordered by retired MSC commander Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer.

“[During] COVID nobody was getting off the ship, mariners were being treated poorly and so they started to quit,” a retired MSC mariner told USNI News.
Since then, “mariners have been quitting at a greater rate than MSC can hire new ones… People say ‘I had to quit because it’s a terrible work-life balance. I can’t go to sea and also have a family, so I got to leave.’”

Another former MSC mariner told USNI News he enjoyed sailing with MSC, but he saw his older peers deal with divorce and estrangement from their children and didn’t want that for himself.

“I can’t say much bad about MSC, he said.
“But when I left, I left because of my family.”

That pressure to retain experienced mariners led to the decision to craft the plan to sideline ships, three sources familiar with the plan told USNI News.

“This is basically the result of many years of neglect and mismanagement of their force,” Sal Mercogliano, former MSC mariner and associate professor of history at Campbell University told USNI News on Thursday.
“They are just burning through people.”

Spearheads and Seabases

USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3) and the guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton (DDG-60) participate in a photo exercise in the Gulf of Oman on July 20, 2023. US Navy Photo

Perhaps the highest visibility ships purposed to be sidelined are the two forward-deployed expeditionary sea bases. While Navy officials did not identify the hulls, two people familiar with the draft plan said the ESBs were CENTCOM’s USS Lewis Puller (ESB-3) and U.S. Europe and Africa Command’s USS Herschel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4).

Puller has been forward deployed to Bahrain since 2017 serving as host for both mine countermeasures and special operations forces in the region. For example, CENTCOM has used the ship as a platform to launch anti-smuggling operations to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian. In 2023, it was positioned off the coast of Sudan as a platform in case U.S. citizens needed to evacuate from the country.

Puller is based on the Alaska-class tanker design and is a follow-on to a converted amphibious warship USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15). The ESB was commissioned in port in Bahrain to allow it to operate as a warship. The idea proved so popular, the Navy has bought several more of the platform. Williams has held annual patrols around Africa and been central to the Navy’s effort in the region.

The largest shares of ships proposed to be sidelined in the great reset are the 12 active Spearhead-class EPF in the service, USNI News understands. The first two EPF, USNS Spearhead (EPF-1) and USNS Choctaw County (EPF-2), have already been sidelined at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. While technically still part of MSC, the ships have a sparse crew and are listed in reduced operating status.

USNS Spearhead (EPF-1) in Philadelphia on May 23, 2023. USNI News Photo

The EPFs, high-speed aluminum catamarans that are built at Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., are crewed by about 26 MSC mariners and have been deployed to the Pacific, Europe and Africa as part of U.S. outreach missions.

The hull form is set to be the basis for a new class of hospital ships which will enter the fleet by the end of the decade.

While the order has yet to be signed, Mercogliano has tracked EPFs beginning to return to the U.S. from aboard far from the end of their expected service lives.

“These ships have a lot of life in them,” he said.

[Minowski(김유철)]

냉전말에 소련해군이 함선수와 톤수에서 밀리는데, 건조능력과 수리능력도 뒤쳐져서 전력은 계속 노후화되고, 승조원 처우도 나빠서 사기도 굉장히 낮았고 충원도 어려워서 항구에 묶여있는 백조보트 신세가 되어갔는데....

미해군이 처한 환경이 해결책을 쉽게 찾기 어렵고... 사실상 무인화 올인인 듯 한데 상대방에 시도하는 프로젝트 수와 찍어내는 숫자가 밀리는 상황이니...

[위종민]

보급함 / 지원함은 특성상 무인화로 커버할 수 있는 범위도 제한적인데요. 블루팀은 ㄹㅇ 국가 안 가리고 병력/인력부족 문제가 가장 큰 고민거리네요.

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[위종민]

코로나 때 격리되거나 이런저런 대처 업무에 투입되면서 "AC8 나라 지키려고 군대 왔지 이러려고 왔나 카악 퉤!" 인 경우도 늘지 않았을까 합니다. 인건비도 많이 올라갔고..