The Navy will buy more oil tankers. Now it needs enough sailors to man them

The destroyer USS Laboon receives supplies from the Military Sealift Command supply ship USNS John Lenthall in the Atlantic Ocean in July 2023. The Navy faces a critical shortage of skilled civilian Marines needed to staff the hospital ships, oilers and other support vessels operated by Military Sealift Command. (Jacob Hilgendorf/U.S. Navy)

A Navy plan to purchase at least eight additional supply ships for $6.75 billion has raised questions about whether the Navy will be able to adequately man the ships when they are completed.

Analysts say the oil tankers are vital to keeping the Navy’s warships moving in a hypothetical war against an adversary with a large, modern military, such as China.

However, it remains unclear how the service will address the long-term shortage of skilled civilian mariners needed to man the Military Sealift Command’s oilers, hospital ships and other support vessels.

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington and the fleet supply ship USNS John Lenthall conduct a vertical replenishment in the Pacific Ocean on June 14, 2024. The Navy faces a critical shortage of skilled civilian Marines needed to staff the hospital ships, oilers and other support vessels operated by the Military Sealift Command. (Geoffrey L. Ottinger/U.S. Navy)

The temporary solution is to sideline 17 ships. The Navy hopes that a plan to transfer 700 people from those ships to other vessels will fill the gaps and allow sailors to take enough vacation time.

The underlying problem with the proposal is “they’re taking these crews off ships that are very different from the oil tanker and the ships that are supplying along the way,” said Sal Mercogliano, an associate professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy who has served on land and at sea with the Military Sealift Command.

Many of the sailors being transferred come from cargo ships, Mercogliano said.

USNS John Lewis docks at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in California on Nov. 4, 2022. Three new John Lewis-class ships have been delivered to the Navy but have not yet been deployed. (Dana Rene White/US Navy)

Unlike active seamen, civilian seamen are permanent employees, meaning they can quit their jobs at any time.

“They don’t have the experience and some of them may not come,” said Mercogliano, who compared the difference in skills to that between taxi drivers and long-distance truck drivers.

Military Sealift operates about 125 civilian-crewed vessels that supply naval vessels, pre-position warheads at sea and perform specialized missions. The fleet’s 15 Kaiser-class oil tankers are also operated by the command, the website says.

In all, about 5,500 civilians fill about 4,500 jobs at Military Sealift Command. But about 10,000 sailors are needed, experts say.

A grueling schedule, combined with policies that forced many civilian sailors to remain on their ships for months during the COVID-19 pandemic, caused many of them to leave.

Meanwhile, the Navy is replacing its current class of oil tankers, which first entered service in 1987. Three new John Lewis-class ships have been delivered to the service but have not yet been deployed. Three more are under construction and three more are under contract, the Navy said.

The number of civilian personnel freed up for the new construction by idled about a dozen expeditionary fast transport ships (EFPs) and five other vessels likely would not be enough, according to Steven Wills, a retired Navy officer and researcher at the CNA think tank in Arlington, Virginia.

“Each EFP has a nominal crew of 22,” Wills said. “It takes 99 of those people to crew a John Lewis class (oil carrier), so there’s not a lot of extra crew because of that change.”

Analysts say Maritime Sealift Command should address the crew shortage by stepping up recruitment efforts at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and six state maritime academies.

Such efforts may include incentives, such as assistance with paying tuition at state colleges.

The command must also ensure that policies are changed to ensure that seafarers receive adequate paid leave at sea and that administrative backlogs that prevent them from quickly obtaining the required certificates for sea service are cleared, Mercogliano said.

More attention should be paid to helping Navy veterans obtain the training and certifications they need to transition to careers as civilian Marines, Mercogliano said.

“If you have resistance long enough, you’re going to say, ‘I’m going to do something else,'” he said. “That’s how you lose sailors.”