The Navy says it needs the ships because it doesn’t have enough equipment of its own to sustain large-scale operations in Europe or the Middle East. While old “break bulk” ships like the Southwestern Victory are no longer commercially useful, the Navy wants them for military cargo because they are easier to unload in small or battle-damaged ports than the more modern vessels. But skeptics say the Navy is preparing for a protracted war of the past. Future U.S. military conflicts are likely to be decided quickly, before much of the NDRF could mobilize. Even if the fleet were seaworthy, experts say spare parts and crews to run antiquated propulsion systems would be hard to find. Critics say investing more money in the fleet (the president has proposed a healthy increase for 1991) makes no sense. “At a time when we’re trying to find areas to cut this is such an obvious thing,” says Republican Rep. William Broomfield.
Most ships at an NDRF anchorage near Norfolk, Va., get no testing of their systems and only the barest-bones maintenance. While MARAD and the Navy run periodic drills, more than half of these mock “activations” have come with advance notice of up to six months, hardly a test of readiness. Last year two ships tendered to the Navy in drills were returned with engine problems, one had been filled with the wrong fuel. “We had a very bad year last year,” acknowledges Michael Delpercio, MARAD’s director of ship operations. For America’s ghost fleet, the best years are in the past.
