Navy's sealift command picks up the pace: cargo is moving faster than in first Gulf War, 'but we need to be faster' yet, chief says.

One of the dearest lessons learned from the recent U.S.-Iraq war is the need for greater speed in moving combat equipment and supplies across oceans, said Navy Vice Adm. David L Brewer III, head of the Military Sealift Command.

The MSC has sped up its act since the first Persian Gulf war, Brewer told National Defense, but more needs to be done. "We may be fast, but we need to be faster," he said.

"During Desert Storm, the average speed of our ships was about 13 knots," Brewer said, "Today, our large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ships can go up to 24 knots. Their average speed, during the war, was about 18 knots. When you're going 9,000 miles, that's a significant difference."

Since Desert Storm, the MSC has invested $6 billion to convert or build 20 LMSRs. Nineteen now are in service. The 20th--the USNS Benavidez (T-AKR 306), being built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems' Avondale Operation, in New Orleans--was scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in June.

LMSRs "really are the ships of choice for cargo-carrying missions," said one MSC official. They are 950 feet long and have more than 380,000 square feet of cargo space, making them only slightly smaller in size than the Navy's aircraft carriers.

An LMSR's six-deck interior is larger than eight football fields. Each ship can carry an entire Army armor task force, including 58 Abrams tanks and 48 other tracked vehicles, plus more than 900 trucks and other wheeled vehicles.

The ship's decks have ample open space for lashing down helicopters, tanks, trucks and other large vehicles. A moveable stern and side ramps make it easy to drive vehicles on and off the ship. An LMSR can be loaded or off-loaded within 96 hours. Two 110-ton, single-pedestal, twin cranes make it possible to load and unload cargo even in locations without port facilities.

Despite their huge size, LMSRs have small crews--as few as 26 merchant mariners, compared to the 5,500 or so sailors assigned to the typical carrier. The reason, Brewer said: "They don't engage in combat, and they don't fly and maintain aircraft."

Although spectacular in size, the LMSRs were only a small portion of the fleet that delivered U.S. equipment and supplies for operations in Iraq. To get the job done as quickly as possible, the MSC chartered scores of merchant ships to bolster its normal peacetime fleet of about 115 vessels. "At the peak of operations--on March 24--we had 167 ships directly supporting the war," Brewer said. They included:

Fast Sealift Ships. These ships were built originally as container vessels. Two decades ago, the MSC had eight of them converted for use as vehicle cargo ships. Capable of speeds up to 33 knots, they can sail from the U.S. East Coast, through the Suez Canal, to the Persian Gulf in 18 days.

Like the LMSRs, the FSSs are roll-on/roll-off ships, equipped with on-board cranes and self-contained ramps. Despite a length of 946 feet, each one can carry only half as much as an LMSR. Together, however, the eight FSSs can carry nearly all of the equipment needed to outfit a full Army mechanized division.

During peacetime, the FSSs are kept in a reduced operating status at harbors around the U.S. coastline, ready to be activated and able to sail within 96 hours.

Ready Reserve Force. The U.S. Maritime Administration, a part of the Transportation Department, maintains a fleet of 90 reserve ships for use when the MSC needs help. They include roll-on/roll-off ships, break-bulk ships, barge carriers, auxiliary crane ships, tankers and troop ships.

During peacetime, these ships are maintained in reduced operating status, but they can be activated in as little as four days. At that time, they come under the MSC's operational control.

Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force. The NFAF operates 28 ships that support the Navy's combatant fleet. These vessels perform underway replenishment services for Navy battle groups and amphibious ready groups by delivering food, fuel, spare parts and ammunition.

Some NFAF ships provide ocean towing and salvage services. NFAF ships are crewed by civil service mariners, with small Navy sections ranging in size from four to 45 people. The civilian crews operate the ships and provide logistics services to the fleets. The military personnel provide communications support, coordinate supply operations and, in some cases, conduct military helicopter operations.

Hospital Ship. The USNS Comfort, one of two hospital ships operated by the MSC, deployed to provide on-site, medical care for combat casualties in the Iraqi war. The Comfort, normally berthed in Baltimore, Md., contains 12 operating rooms and a 1,000-bed hospital facility.

During this deployment, the ship's medical crew--more than 1,200 doctors, nurses and other specialists on temporary duty from naval medical centers in Bethesda, Md., and elsewhere--treated hundreds of U.S., coalition and Iraqi casualties.

Prepositioned Ships. The MSC maintains 40 prepositioned ships at the island of Diego Garcia, a British possession in the Indian Ocean, and at Guam and Saipan, U.S. islands in the western Pacific Ocean. These vessels are laden with military equipment and supplies for all of the services. Fourteen of the ships carry enough equipment and supplies to sustain two Army heavy divisions--up to 34,000 personnel--for up to 30 days.

Another 14, known as Maritime Prepositioning Ships, are designed specifically to transport supplies and equipment for the Marine Corps. These are divided into three squadrons, each one capable of sustaining up to 17,600 Marine Corps Air Ground Task Force personnel for up to 30 days.

Additional vessels carry munitions for the Air Force and Navy and fuel for the Defense Logistics Agency.

The concept dates back to 1979, after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and Iranian mobs took 66 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. That same year, President Carter warned that any attempt by an outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region would be regarded as an assault on the United States.

To bolster the U.S. presence in the area, the Carter administration created the Maritime Prepositioning Ship Program. During the Gulf War, prepositoned ships provided the initial equipment and fuel for U.S. forces deployed to the region.

In total, during the Gulf War, the MSC moved more than 12 million tons of ranks, helicopters, ammunition, fuel and other supplies into the theater. It took about seven months, however, far the United States to build up enough strength in 1991 to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

More than a decade later, investments in LMSRs and prepositioning enabled the MSC to move U.S. forces into place for Operation Iraqi Freedom "about 50 percent faster," Brewer said.

The sealift started with little fanfare, an MSC official said. "We actually got a rolling start last July," the official explained.

During a training exercise, prepositioning ships offloaded Army combat equipment in Kuwait and left it there, in case it might be needed later. Then in October, a chartered ship delivered equipment for the 3rd Infantry Division, which later played a major role in the invasion. That same month, other ships delivered supplies for Air Force units on Diego Garcia.

In January, sealift operations for Operation Iraqi Freedom "went into high gear," the official said. Between January and April, MSC ships delivered:

* 21 million square feet of dry cargo.

* 261 million gallons of fuel primarily for ground and air forces.

* 117 million gallons of fuel to replenish Navy ships at sea.

All told, 95 percent of all the equipment and supplies used during the war in Iraq was delivered by ship, Brewer said.

Operations were complicated by the fact that MSC ships were limited to just one Kuwaiti port, Ash Shu'abyah, just outside of Kuwait City, Brewer explained. Ships had to line up, unload quickly and get out of the way for the next vessel, he said.

The MSC had planned to move supplies for the 4th Infantry Division into northern Iraq through Turkish ports, Brewer said. "We had 42 ships just sitting off the coast of Turkey," he said.

Although they never landed, they still had a positive impact, Brewer said, because the Iraqis couldn't be sure that Turkey wouldn't let the U.S. forces pass.

As non-combatant ships, MSC vessels carry no heavy weapons systems. Their crews are trained to use only small arms, such as M-14 rifles, 12 gauge shotguns and 9 mm pistols. To help protect its ships from terrorist attack, the MSC added Army National Guard reservists to vessels sailing to and from Southwest Asia. More than 1,300 soldiers from the 92nd Separate Infantry Brigade of Puerto Rico's National Guard were activated to provide security for the ships.

The soldiers--called Guardian Mariners--were organized into 12-person teams. They received training on weapons and shipboard security from Army and Marine Corps instructors at Fort Bragg, N.C., and Fort A.P. Hill, Va. Much of the training focused on how to help a ship cope with a chemical, biological or radiological attack.

Although the MSC prefers to do business only with U.S. carriers, it turned to foreign shipping to help move the high volume required for the war. In March, MSC agreed to pay $6 million to Ignazio Messina & Co. S.P.A., of Genoa, Italy, and $5.2 million to Nile Dutch Africa Line BV, of Rotterdam, Netherlands, in order to lease roll-on/roll-off ships for 90 days.

The command also turned to foreign shipbuilders in its experiments with high-speed catamaran vessels, Brewer said. The twin-hulled catamarans have interested the Navy because they can attain speeds up to 40 knots and can operate in water as shallow as 14 feet, he said.

Since 2001, the MSC has used the WestPac Express, leased from Australia's Austal Ships Pty., to ferry Marines from their base on Okinawa to exercises to islands throughout the Western Pacific.

"Before we had the WestPac Express, it took 14 days to move a reinforced Marine battalion," Brewer said. "Now, we can do it in an average of two to three days. The WestPac Express can carry 968 Marines and 350 short tons of equipment."

In 2002, the MSC signed a $31 million contract with Austal to continue the service for three more years. Earlier, other elements of the Navy, Marines, Army and Coast Guard leased another catamaran, the Joint Venture high-speed vessel, from a second Australian firm, Incat Tasmania. The price: $21 million for one year.

This summer, the MSC is scheduled to accept delivery of yet another catamaran, leased for one year at $21.7 million from Bollinger/Incat USA LLC, a U.S-Australian joint venture in Lockporr, La.

The ship, currently being built in Australia, will support three customers, Brewer said. These are the Navy's Mine Warfare Command, in Ingleside, Texas; the Navy Warfare Development Command, in Newport, RI., and the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, in Quantico, Va.

The catamaran will replace--temporarily at least--the USS Inchon, the Navy's only mine countermeasures command and control ship. The 30-yearold Inchon was decommissioned in 2002 after a fire in the boiler room.

The Inchon's replacement is an aluminum-hulled, 319-foot catamaran. Its design is based on existing high-speed ferries, but has been altered to include military features, such as a helicopter flight deck and hangar, small boat launch and recovery capability, modifiable berthing compartments, ramps for military vehicles and an advanced communications suite.

Such catamarans appear to have a future in the MSC, Brewer said. "High-speed vessels clearly will be in the mix ... Speed--that's the bottom line. You're talking about 35 to 40 knots."

The MSC also is planning to introduce a new class of 12 dry cargo and ammunition ships. The first of these ships, the Lewis and Clark (T-AKE 1), being built by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, of San Diego, is scheduled for delivery in 2005. The Lewis and Clark class of ships are being designed to operate independently for extended periods of time while providing replenishment services to U.S. and allied ships.

Although the effort required by Operation Iraqi Freedom was strenuous, Brewer maintains that his command could have handled another major crisis-say in Korea--if necessary. "Even at the peak of our operations, we still had 30 ships ready to go," he said.

In addition, he said, the U.S. government has a Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement with the maritime industry, allowing the MSC to "pull ships from the merchant fleet as needed."

The heavy fighting may have ceased in Iraq, but the MSC is not experiencing a slowdown. Its ships now are delivering humanitarian and peacekeeping supplies to the region and beginning to bring back combat equipment that is no longer needed.