The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) is a fleet of merchant vessels operated by MARAD for national defense. Fewer than 300 vessels are held in reserve, with less than a hundred in Ready Reserve. Ships are maintained by bare-bones crews and critics argue that most ships simply rot, while proponents argue that maintaining the fleet is critical.
The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) is a fleet of militarily serviceable merchant vessels operated by the United States Maritime Administration, known as MARAD. These vessels are designed to be ready to deploy between three weeks and three months from the time they are ordered and can be used for a variety of tasks ranging from transporting troops to shipping materials vital to national defense.
In the 1950s, when the National Defense Reserve Fleet was at its peak, nearly three thousand ships were held in reserve; today, generally, fewer than 300 vessels are held in reserve, with less than a hundred in Ready Reserve, meaning they are ready for immediate use. Most ships in the National Defense Reserve Fleet are broken up for long-term storage and maintained by bare-bones crews, who focus primarily on keeping humidity low to prevent rusting and damage to ships.
The National Defense Reserve Fleet was created in 1946, under Section 11 of the Merchant Ship Sales Act. Under the Act, ownership of merchant ships proposed for sale or retirement can be transferred to MARAD if they are deemed potentially serviceable and the ships must be periodically evaluated to determine how useful they are. When ships become obsolete or so old that they are structurally unsound, they can be scrapped or donated to individual states for use in building artificial reefs.
Today ships of the National Defense Reserve Fleet are moored in California at Suisan Bay, in Texas at Beaumont and in Virginia at Fort Eustis. At any given time, even some ships in the fleet are actively sailing, either because they’re being used on missions or because they’re being tested to confirm they’re still useful and valuable. MARAD invests approximately US$19,000 each year in the maintenance of each vessel in the National Defense Reserve Fleet.
Critics of the National Defense Reserve Fleet point out that most ships simply rot, sucking up cash until MARAD finally decides to scrap or donate them. However, proponents argue that the National Defense Reserve Fleet could potentially be extremely useful, and since there is no way to predict when the fleet would be needed, maintaining it is critical, despite the fact that maintenance can be very costly. The NDRF setup was seen by both sides as a good idea, as maintaining a fleet of thousands of vessels was both impractical and extremely expensive.
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