Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…It’s been more than 70 years since the United States dropped from being the world’s largest producer of merchant shipping and the country’s maritime industry fell into a precipitous decline. Today the U.S. owns only about 3 percent of the 55,000 ships in the global commercial fleet, dominated by foreign owned-and-managed companies. China alone produces more than half the commercial ships delivered each year. What should be done about it? What can be done? Veteran maritime industry executive Michael Roberts joins us for a deep dive into some of the issues surrounding this deeply complex issue.
Please send us feedback by DM’ing @CavasShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com.
This Week’s Naval Round Up:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on December 15 extended the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS GERALD R FORD and embarked Carrier Air Wing Eight because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The ship, wing, and ships of its strike group deployed from the US East Coast initially in May and already have been extended twice, for a total, as of the 15th of December, of 227 days out – seven and half months — and counting. Cruiser USS NORMANDY is with the FORD as the air defense commander. SecDef Austin was to visit the FORD as part of a trip including stops in Israel, Qatar and Bahrain. Extended carrier deployments have become almost routine since the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the GEORGE H W BUSH strike group spending eight months on deployment and the HARRY S TRUMAN group, nine.
In the most recent naval developments in the Red Sea region, Houthi rebels from Yemen attempted to board and reroute the Hong Kong-flagged containership MAERSK GIBRALTAR December 14, then launched missiles when the ship did not comply; the missiles missed. Responding to a distress call from the MAERSK GIBRALTAR, the destroyer USS MASON then shot down a Houthi-launched aerial drone. And early on December 15 a missile hit was reported on the Marshall Islands-flagged containership AL JASRAH as she approached the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. A fire reportedly had broken out on the ship, which is operated by Hapag-Lloyd shipping company.
The increasing level of Houthi attacks on merchant shipping near the Bab al-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea led to shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd announcing on December 5 a halt to their ships passing through the choke point. Neither said how long the halt would be in force, although Hapag Lloyd said they would reevaluate the situation on December 18. Efforts by the United States to beef up the Combined Maritime Force in the region, in particular Combined Task Force 153 with specific responsibility for security in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden, are expected to increase.
Meanwhile, in a possible resurgence of Somali-based pirate activities, the Spanish frigate VICTORIA, operating with the European Naval Force in the Gulf of Aden region, was responding December 15 to an alleged hijacking of the Malta-flagged bulker RUEN in the eastern Gulf of Aden.
On a different sort of note, a spirit spot that aired in the middle of the Army-Navy football game broadcast on December 9 featured the destroyer USS CARNEY, along with several not-previously-released scenes of the ship conducting missile and gunfire warfare against Houthi-launched targets. The spot prominently featured the graphic “USS CARNEY 22 to 0” indicating at least 22 targets downed, presumably since mid-October. On December 14 US Central Command commander General Michael Kurilla embarked on the ship to speak to the crew and pass out awards to more than 20 sailors.
The US Coast Guard medium endurance cutter HARRIET LANE arrived at Pearl Harbor on XX December to switch homeport from Portsmouth, Virginia to Hawaii. Commissioned in 1984 and fresh off a major service life extension program carried out at Coast Guard Yard Curtis Bay in Maryland, the HARRIET LANE is the first of the 13 Famous-class cutters to be based in the Pacific. The move is part of a larger Coast Guard effort to shift resources to the Pacific region with a greater emphasis on enforcing territorial laws and regulations.
US Marine Sergeant Matthew Bylski died December 12 when an amphibious combat vehicle rolled over during exercises at Camp Pendleton, California. Fourteen other Marines in the vehicle were treated for injuries with one remaining hospitalized after three days. Bylski was a vehicle commander with Battalion Landing Team 1/5, which is training with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit for an upcoming deployment with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group.
And in new ship news, a keel ceremony was held December 15 for the new destroyer GEORGE M NEAL DDG 131. The Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is under construction at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
In Better Late than Never News, the US Navy finally has a confirmed top acquisition official. The US Senate on December 13 confirmed Nickolas Guertin to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition — the top weapons buyer in the Department of the Navy. It was only 1,057 days since the last permanent ASN RD&A, James Hondo Guerts, left office.
And, eager to get out of town for the end-of-year recess, the US Congress on December 15 approved the 2024 National Defense Authorization Bill. Among its provisions, the bill authorized $32.9 billion for shipbuilding, including one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, two Virginia-class attack submarines, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, two Constellation-class frigates, one submarine tender, one John Lewis-class fleet oiler, and an auxiliary personnel lighter. The Auth Bill, of course, contains no real money – that’s in the National Defense Appropriations Bill, which Congress has yet to see fit to act on. Both previous bills, the defense appropriations and authorization acts of 2023, expired after September 30 of this year.
And oh by the way, after yet another pointless delay in bringing the bill to the floor for a vote, the House approved the Defense Auth Bill 310 to 118; the Senate by a whopping 87 yays to 13 nays. Amazingly, your critters in Congress actually CAN agree on something if they want to…
