MSC will sideline 17 ships to ease stress on civilian mariners

Military Sealift Command’s 140-something logistics supply ships provide support for the transport of military cargo and supplies. A temporarily reduced fleet and new recruitment and retention efforts aim to bolster the pool of MSC mariners.
Military Sealift Command’s 140-something logistics supply ships provide support for the transport of military cargo and supplies. A temporarily reduced fleet and new recruitment and retention efforts aim to bolster the pool of MSC mariners.
Military Sealift Command’s 140-something logistics supply ships provide support for the transport of military cargo and supplies. A temporarily reduced fleet and new recruitment and retention efforts aim to bolster the pool of MSC mariners.

In late November 2024, Military Sealift Command (MSC) said it would take 17 ships offline in order to ease pressure on civilian mariners. Efforts are also underway to improve mariner recruiting and retention. In August 2024, MSC said that a lack of qualified mariners prompted the command to draft plans to sideline some 13 percent of its approximately 125 vessels.

By taking part of the fleet offline, MSC will free up some 600 to 700 more civilian mariners, according to U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) News. That would enable the current pool of MSC mariners to staff the remaining fleet to about 95 percent. “It is aligning the force so that we are most ready and that we are getting after the fleet requirements,” Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, MSC commander, said at a press conference.

MSC is made up of 5,500 civil service mariners and 1,500 contracted mariners operating 140 logistics supply ships that support the replenishment and transport of military cargo and supplies for U.S. forces and partners, according to the U.S. Navy. The current billets typically mean that a mariner is at sea for four months, off for one month, and then must return to work.

The now-reduced fleet will allow mariners more time on shore.

Sobeck said the service is trying to hire and retain more mariners to improve the ratio of available personnel for all vessels MSC needs to crew and eventually bring the sidelined ships back into active service. “If you’re required to have 100 people on a vessel, there are only 27 more people on shore at any given time to rotate those crewmembers,” one former MSC mariner told USNI News in 2024.

In addition to the reduced fleet, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro approved a plan in October 2024 to restore the health of the MSC workforce and create more logistics support for fleet operations worldwide, the Navy said in a press release. This would include “crew reassignments to higher-priority vessels and the placement of some MSC logistics support ships into extended maintenance periods. Rotating crews to higher-priority vessels will minimize overdue reliefs and provide a more predictable work environment for civil service mariners.”