The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced Friday that it had purchased two vessels to continue modernizing the Ready Reserve Force (RRF).
A subset of the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF), the RRF was founded to support U.S. military deployments while supporting natural disaster relief and mariner training. MARAD is in its 76th year of maintaining the Nation’s reserve of sealift ships.
“The Ready Reserve Force is an essential element of U.S. national security,” said U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We are proud to use this innovative method to more quickly acquire two additional vessels and ensure America’s Ready Reserve Fleet is always ready to answer the call.”
The two ships, HONOR and FREEDOM, join the U.S. flag fleet as Cape Arundel and Cape Cortes and added more than 432,000-square-feet of sealift capacity and 316,000-square-feet of military cargo capacity. The vessels have previously carried military cargoes and participated in the Maritime Security Program (MSP). The two ships replace older vessels retired in Fiscal Year 2022 and will be owned by the U.S. DOT.
“We selected these ships to continue the RRF recapitalization because each meets criteria set forth in the National Defense Authorization Act and provides a standard set of capabilities that we identified with the U.S. Navy, Military Sealift Command, and U.S. Transportation Command,” said Acting Administrator Lucinda Lessley. “These vessels will provide reliable sealift capacity for years to come.”
The vessels were purchased using a vessel acquisition manager (VAM) that integrates MARAD and Naval Sea Systems Command members and leverages commercial practices. Partnering with VAM allows the Departments of Transportation and Defense to partner more effectively with the industry to quickly replace aging sealift vessels with newer ships that will meet national security requirements.