Friendly navies sought for unwanted U.S. ships.

The delivery of two former Navy warships to Taiwan last month marks the beginning of what is expected to be a busy ship-transfer season for the United States.

Four years after the Navy agreed to turn over its Kidd-class destroyers, all four vessels are now in service with the Taiwanese navy.

On the heels of the Kidd-class transfer is the handoff of the USS Trenton amphibious transport ship to the Indian navy, a transaction that is scheduled for Jan. 17, 2007. The Trenton in recent months gained notice for its participation in humanitarian campaigns, such as hurricane relief in the United States and the evacuation of U.S. citizens from Lebanon.

The handover to the Indian military is what the Navy calls a "hot transfer"--the Trenton will remain in service under U.S. flag until the very same day that India re-commissions it. "Cold" transfers, by comparison, involve ships that have been out of service for an extended period and require extensive repairs and reconditioning.

"Hot transfers are more common than cold ones," says Capt. David Tungett, the Navy's program manager for ship transfers.

Next on the list are the anticipated hot transfers to Egypt of two mine-hunting ships--the USS Cardinal and the USS Raven. These are two of the Navy's 12-ship Osprey class of coastal mine-hunting vessels.

The Navy would like to execute hot transfers for 10 of the 12 Osprey ships, and will keep two in storage for spare parts until the entire class is decommissioned, Tungett says.

The Greek navy currently is the top candidate to receive two mine-hunters, the USS Heron and the USS Pelican. Four others will be offered to Turkey and Lithuania.

Two Osprey-class ships already have been decommissioned from U.S. service and are being offered to Taiwan as a cold transfer.

The Navy's decision to do away with the mine-hunting fleet has stirred controversy, because it leaves the service with no dedicated anti-mine warships. To replace them, the Navy is deploying mine-sweeping and mine-hunting helicopters aboard amphibious ships and plans to introduce new mine-hunting robotic vehicles with the next-generation littoral combat ship. Critics argue that the Navy is rushing to give away the Osprey class at a time when it may need them for operations in the Persian Gulf or other hotspots where potential enemies would lay underwater mines. Also fueling the debate is the fact that the Osprey class ships are relatively new--all were commissioned in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Decisions to transfer ships to other nations are "driven by fleet and operational resource" calculations, Tungett says. "Before a decision is made to transfer a ship, the Navy looks at the capabilities they want other navies to have. That's part of the calculus."

Nuclear-powered ships--submarines and aircraft carriers--are destroyed at the end of their service life because the United States does not want that technology shared with other countries, he explains. Some guided-missile cruisers and destroyers also have sensitive technologies, but still are offered to friendly foreign nations. Nevertheless, sometimes there are no takers. The Navy tried to transfer three of its Spruance-class destroyers but nobody wanted them because they were too big, so they were torn down.

When the Navy hands over a ship, it also trains the recipient nation's crews how to operate and maintain the vessel, but it does not teach them war fighting tactics or mission planning.

To prep ships for transfer, the Navy contracted the services of BAV, a division of VSE Corp. The company has been the sole contractor for this work since 1995, when the Navy decided to outsource the job.

Since 1995, the Navy has transferred 32 ships, says Harold Flammang, program manager at BAV.

Hot transfers are relatively painless because the ships are in working condition. Conversely, he says, cold transfers are tough jobs because they require finding spare parts and materials that no longer are produced or exist in the Navy's supply inventory.

The Kidd destroyers were inactive for seven years before they were transferred to Taiwan. "That was a real challenge," Flammang says. The Mk 26 missile launchers on the Kid& for example, were obsolete and required BAV to search for parts aboard old Ticonderoga cruisers. "It was fortunate that the Navy decided to decommission five Ticonderoga cruisers, so we could get parts," he adds. Other parts came from the Spruance class.

BAV currently is surveying the Trenton in preparation for the transfer to India.

The company also expects to be prepping the USS Anchorage dock landing ship, which was decommissioned in 2003, for a future transfer to Taiwan, although the deal is not yet final.

Two guided-missile frigates--the USS George Philip and the USS Sides--are being refurbished and slated to join the Portuguese navy.