The U.S. Navy's aging fleet of transport ships leaves the military without a reliable means of moving forces and equipment across the ocean in case of a conflict with another country, Stars and Stripes reports.
"With no recapitalization in place and only a distant hope that Navy will find this a priority, I continue to be perplexed how the Army and the Marine Corps expects to get to the future battlefield on these aged ships," Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, said during a hearing Thursday.
"I continue to be concerned about the modernization of our mobility forces and their ability to operate in a contested environment," he added.
"The steel is rotting," retired Rear Adm. Mark Buzby, head of the Marine Administration, said Thursday, speaking of the Navy's Ready Reserve Force of transport ships, which have an average age of 44 years.
"Over 90 percent of the equipment, personnel, fuel and other cargo necessary to sustain a major conflict is moved by sealift ships, but the readiness of the aging surge sealift fleet is trending downward," the Government Accountability Office said in a 2017 report.
"Without a demonstrably resilient and survivable logistics capability, U.S. deterrence will suffer and the ability of the U.S. military to operate globally will be at stake," a Defense Department special task force said last November.
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