Posted on 03/29/2024 1:20:35 PM PDT by rxsid
“Huge Problem”: The Pentagon’s Rapid Wartime Response Cargo Ships Are Trapped in Baltimore After Bridge Collapse
By Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge • Mar. 29, 2024
(ZeroHedge)—Two high-speed military cargo ships are stuck in the Port of Baltimore following Tuesday morning’s collapse of the 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge. The major US East Coast port has been paralyzed for several days as the bridge collapse prevents inbound and outbound vessel traffic along the harbor’s channel.
Using the automatic identification system, or AIS, data that tracks commercial vessels, three bulk carriers, two general cargo ships, one vehicle carrier, one tanker, and four Ready Reserve Force vessels (RRF), along with the container ship Dali that struck the bridge, are trapped in the harbor, according to the shipping blog gCaptain.
The three bulk carriers include:
The vehicle carrier is:
The tanker is:
The US Maritime Administration (MARAD) Ready Reserve Force vessels include:
According to the military blog The War Zone, (TWZ), Algol class vessels are “some of the fastest cargo vessels of their general size anywhere in the world.” These ships are part of the RRF, a subset of vessels within MARAD’s National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) that provide surge sealift capability to the Pentagon for overseas conflicts.
TWZ said the activation process of RRF vessels takes about five to ten days. The vessels are operated with a skeleton crew until called upon.
RRF are stationed at major marine ports around the US.
TWZ noted the Algol class vessels have been called into action several times over the last three decades:
Algol class have been called upon multiple times since they entered US service. Just five of these ships were responsible for transporting 20 percent of US cargo sent from the United States to Saudi Arabia during the first phase of Operation Desert Shield in the immediate run-up to the First Gulf War. The ships would go on to deliver 13 percent of all cargo that arrived in Saudi Arabia from the United States in the full course of that conflict.The US military subsequently used Algols to support operations in Somalia and the Balkans in the 1990s, as well as the opening phases of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s.
Breitbart News’ Kristina Wong reported on Thursday that “The Department of Transportation will not say how many National Defense Reserve Fleet Ships are Stuck” in the Baltimore harbor.
Baltimore Bridge Mess: DOT Will Not Say How Many National Defense Reserve Fleet Ships Stuck https://t.co/Nz7FPPQ2QT via @BreitbartNews— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) March 28, 2024
The current readiness of the RRF fleet is unknown. And just like that, part of America’s RRF fleet was taken out not by a missile or suicide drone, but a container ship that allegedly suffered a catastrophic ‘electric issue’. America’s enemies are taking note.
Thanks, I’ll keep an eye open for it.
The own and operate most of the largest ports in the U.S. it’s to their advantage gee wonder how all that happened.
Congress and senate shrug shoulders.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Thanks, I had to look up the Act specifically.
Jones Act Waivers
In the wake of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, the Act may be waived to increase the number of ships that can legally supply goods to an affected area.
The Secretary of Defense can request waivers in the “interest of national defense” and there is a separate procedure for non-defense entities. In both cases, the final authority for a waiver is the Secretary of Homeland Security.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jonesact.asp
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/jones_act
Don’t worry.
To run REFORGER we would need 500 ships. Four ships serve no useful purpose.
Please tell me why China, Russia, and Iran need to worry about four cargo vessels trapped in Baltimore - that would be sunk without proper escort forces (which do not exist) before they got 200 miles off shore if they sailed out to war with any of those nations.
...and people here thought I was joking when I said Putin took down that bridge. I wasn’t joking, because PUTIN IS EVERYWHERE!!!!
Reminds me of the collapse of the Taggart Bridge in Atlas Shrugged.
“Why are zero of these ships US flagged?”
Because Congress REFUSES to shut down private sector unions.
if it became necessary re a strategic national emergency, they could clear the bridge debris from the entire channel in a matter of minutes using explosives.
“Watching all this happen, the collapse of infrastructure and now failing military capability... it’s like I’m back in college reading Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
It had to happen, just as it happening in South Africa. This country’s infrastructure was built up WITHOUT DEI and it cannot be maintained by DEI. Whichever countries don’t allow DEI will move ahead of us, and we’ll collapse.
On drilling rigs we could lift in excess of 500,000 pounds out of the hole. Send divers down to cut the sunken parts in the channel into pieces. Demolition charges will cut it in pieces. Attach the same things we used in the oil and drag it out of the channel. This could be done in weeks. The harbor is now functional and rebuild the bridge at your leisure.
Actually we have done 2 million pounds of casing but this was floated into the hole.
HOUSTON, December 16, 2015 – Weatherford achieved a new world record by landing a 1,180-ton (2,360,700-lb) casing string at a total depth of 26,805 ft (8,170 m). The job was performed on a deepwater rig in the Gulf of Mexico this fall.
The operator of a deepwater rig in the Green Canyon required installation of a heavy, 14-in., 112.6 lb/ft casing string. The total weight of the casing and landing string needed to reach total depth was 1,180 tons. The operator contracted with Weatherford to install the landing-string slips 1250 (”LSS 1250”), which acts as a spider to safely and efficiently grip tubulars and has a maximum load capacity of 1,250 tons (2,500,000 lb).
“Hell, they did that on a regular basis during WWII clearing Italian and French ports.”
Hard to see how a DEI could clear the passage, even given a year.
Damn good thing these butt-sucking scum leaders weren’t around when the japs attacked Pearl Harbor...
In fact, it’s a good thing that today’s pussified so-called Americans weren’t around either...
Uh-huh.
Absolutely not terrorism. Nothing to see here.
/s/s/s/s/s
“ Anyone hear the adage of all eggs in one basket.”
Look at all the ones that could be just as easily trapped in San Francisco.
Awful but true.
Blame eco-nuts who would punish U.S. companies with U.S. “environmental laws” - because of the exhaust from the giant, very-high torque, very low RPM, diesel engines.
The foreign flags - thru a maze of international “free trade” agreements - get away with using low-priced fuel (low, because of the quality of the oil, also being low) that have high carbon emissions . . . for the high seas legs of very heavy transportation.
That the public generally does not know about; as the public gets the bill from the eco-nuts, because the public “must compensate” for the container ship emissions, by being forced to use EV’s.
It’s called:
Books that Matter: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
with Prof. Leo Damrosch
It was streaming free a while back, but the whole 24 episodes will run you $50 now.
Sure beats having the read the whole darn thing :)
Thanks for your excellent history lesson re the damaged
Yorktown and how the superb code cracking by Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort and his intelligence team, enabled Admiral Nimitz to plan and execute the ambush of the Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway.
Pearl Harbor in slow-motion. Could work.
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