BUDGET MATTERS: Military Sealift Considered 'Black Sheep' of Shipbuilding Family.

• Author: Harper, Jon

The U.S. military's sealift capabilities are key enablers of expeditionary operations and would be critical in a future great power war. However, these types of assets are a relatively low priority when it comes to funding for shipbuilding and conversion, experts say.

Sealift vessels transport approximately 90 percent of Army and Marine Corps combat unit equipment and supplies in support of major combat operations, according to the Navy.

However, when it comes to funding, the systems are the "black sheep" of the sea service's family of platforms, said Eric Labs, senior analyst for naval forces and weapons at the Congressional Budget Office.

"In terms of the priorities within the shipbuilding budget, military sealift is going to be way, way down there," he said in February at the National Defense Industrial Association's Expeditionary Warfare Conference. "They're going to want to fund carriers, surface combatants, submarines, even the regular L-class ships before you start spending money on military sealift."

Today's military sealift assets are aging and need to be replaced, officials are warning.

"Our ships are 46 years old in the reserve fleet," Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, said at a recent event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We have steam ships. You can't even find engineers that work on steam ships. We have to keep ... 60-, 70-year-old engineers around to keep running them. We must recapitalize that."

Vice Adm. Ricky Williamson, deputy chief of naval operations for fleet readiness and logistics, N4, said: "We've got to sustain [U.S. forces]. You do that through logistics. I need platforms."

The Defense Department's strategy is to buy used commercial vessels and convert them for military use, rather than building brand new ships.

"There are commercial platforms out there which are much younger than the platforms we have," Williamson said. "We can go buy them. The market is very good right now."

After they are purchased, the vessels are brought to U.S. shipyards and refitted, refurbished and reflagged.

For fiscal year 2022, the Biden administration requested $300...