EMPIRE STATE VII
Adecade ago, the training ships at America’s six state maritime academies (SMAs) were generally old, repurposed vessels. Some were really old, such as the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College’s 1962-era Empire State VI, a converted cargo ship that had seen 60 years of service when it was stricken in 2022. Of course, old didn’t mean it lacked educational value, but just about everyone agreed replacement vessels were necessary.
Rear Adm. Richard Gurnon, then the president of Massachusetts Maritime Academy and representing a consortium of state maritime academies, proposed in a September 2013 hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives that the most cost-effective replacement would be state-of-the-art, purpose-built training vessels that could also serve as needed for disaster relief, humanitarian assistance and logistics support for the U.S. Department of Defense. The new training ships should be designed, in his words, for training “from the keel up.”
Movement began when the 2016 proposed federal budget included $5 million for the design of a purpose-built National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) as part of the Department of Transportation allocation. Rear Adm. Michael A. Alfultis, then-president of SUNY Maritime College, expressed delight with the “funds in the 2016 federal budget for the design of the NSMVs that will serve as training vessels for future generations of merchant mariners and be available to support other national missions such as disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.”
This initial $5 million triggered a series of additional appropriations, decisions and eventually contracts. One significant decision along the way was to hire TOTE Services to be vessel construction manager and serve as intermediary between the U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd) and Philly Shipyard, which is building the five ships. TOTE is overseeing the construction of the vessels and using commercial design standards and construction practices. The NSMV program is the first government-sponsored shipbuilding program to utilize the vessel construction manager model.
Several milestones so far in the project include the September 2023 delivery of the NSMV-1, also known as Empire State VII, and the other four NSMVs reaching various stages of completion. In February 2024, crews at Philly Shipyard cut steel for NSMV-5, the fifth and final build, destined for the California State University Maritime Academy in Vallejo, Calif.
MarAd recently shared the following updates on the NSMV project. For NSMV-2, Patriot State, which is bound for Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the shipyard completed a deadweight survey and performed dock trial testing, final preparations for sea trials. Final outfitting of compartments and spaces is in progress and will continue when the vessel returns from sea trials. In the period between sea trials and delivery, TOTE personnel, NSMV program staff and shipyard personnel will load and stow outfitting of spare parts, special tools and other equipment for delivery. The planned delivery date will be in late summer or early fall 2024. Prior to departure for Mass. Maritime, the vessel will complete final inspection and survey by the U.S. Coast Guard and ABS to receive all statutory and classification documents.
For NSMV-3, State of Maine, shipyard crews primarily focused this summer on interior work, including cable pulling and terminations, insulation and painting. Modular cabin construction is in progress and cabin loading on the vessel was expected to start in August 2024. Delivery to Maine Maritime Academy is expected during summer or fall 2025.
NSMV-4, Lone Star State, has 18 of 39 grand blocks dock-mounted. As blocks are landed, activity will include erection seam welding, followed by hull painting, insulation and cable pulling. The delivery date of NSMV-4 will be determined after progress is made on additional hull work. NSMV-5, Golden State, is in fabrication with blocks and grand blocks in various stages of completion, and delivery is expected about a year after Lone Star State.
MarAd, TOTE and the shipyard have focused on numerous fuel oil system areas, structural insulation, IT networks, telecommunications, cameras, reverse osmosis equipment and monitoring systems that are now standard on modern ships. Because the NSMVs implement new technology and systems with increased performance requirements, the project team has worked to identify any production shortfalls in coating systems, electrical, safety and other arrangements, with significant reach back to the shipyard to better implement required changes on follow-on hulls.
According to MarAd, the NSMV program has exceeded expectations from the onset of designing, building and operating a ship solely designed to conduct training and to support secondary missions. As in most design-build programs, there are lessons learned and recommendations from the first crews to improve upon design aspects that were not considered originally.
The USCG’s Public Nautical School Program has worked with the state maritime academies to provide the NSMV program with recommendations and assist in the implementation of these best practices. Some are as critical as conducting analyses of operating equipment; others are much simpler to implement, such as adding stretchers versus surgical beds in the ship’s hospital spaces. The two program offices continually work together with all the schools to implement these enhancements whenever possible. One concern raised during construction included the sufficiency of logistics and life cycle management. This area is being continually improved and is having benefits already to the forthcoming NSMV-2 delivery.
MarAd acknowledged some first-of-class growing pains have been associated with NSMVs. The required bridge equipment such as steerage, navigation and communications all performed as expected. However, given the complexity of design and implementation of new technology, new processes for management are required and are being learned. To create an opportunity that enabled understanding of crewing requirements, SMA personnel were included in the construction of the vessels to gain understanding of the new operations complexities, the built-in redundancies of equipment and the information technology systems. This process enabled greater familiarity with equipment, commissioning, operational limitations and routine procedures.
In practice and operation, NSMV-1 Empire State’s short cruise during a late 2023 two-week cruise to Puerto Rico provided limited run time for experience. In the follow-on summer cruise, which was scheduled to end by mid-August 2024, engineering and communications issues resulted in decisions by SUNY Maritime to limit the cruise to U.S. ports for greater logistical and repair support. While equipment had required redundancies per regulation, the cruise was intentionally modified to facilitate rapid support and completion of necessary sea time.
SUNY Maritime did not respond to most questions sent to the university at its request or make anyone available to discuss the new ship.
The recently announced purchase of Philly Shipyard by the South Korean firm Hanwha is not expected to close until late November 2024. MarAd expects the remaining training ships will be delivered on time. The impact of the transaction will be better known once the deal is complete, but as in any significant foreign-source investment in U.S. firms, the interagency process coordinated by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States will assess the impact of the potential sale on the national security of the U.S.
The twin challenges facing the NSMV program, particularly with NSMV-1 Empire State VII, are being overcome: First, any “first-in-class” ship comes with ample design changes and challenges, and NSMV-1 is certainly no exception. Unrelated to the new design, the second challenge was the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic during finalization of planning and initial steel-cutting. Nevertheless, the project never stopped and soon NSMV-2 will be delivered, with the remaining ships following close behind, to train the next generations of American mariners. •