With senior military officers calling the national debt a major national security issue, budgetary constraints at the Department of the Navy make a case for revamping the way the Navy does business.
A large part of that business is logistics, the coordinated movement of men, supplies and equipment from Point A to Point B.
According to the Naval Sea Logistics Center, budget planning is based on standardization, equipment reliability, planned obsolescence and recycling and re-use of parts.
While standardization and re-use of parts makes sense, stamping an "expiration date" on a working ship may not, and may be one way Navy logistics responds to the new, tighter budgetary environment.
Navy logistics isn't just for the Navy.
The Navy provides the seagoing transportation for all U.
S.
Forces, using the Navy-owned, civilian-crewed ships of the Military Sealift Command.
These ships provide support services to the fleet, ranging from hospital ships, such as USNS Comfort, to ships that resupply and refuel warships that are under way.
Some, called pre-positioning ships, are stationed, fully loaded with a U.
S.
Marine Expeditionary Force, near the world's hotspots, ready to go where needed to protect U.
S.
interests.
Part of the Navy's logistics process is based on the service life of ships used to move men and material.
When delivered to the Navy, ships have an effective "expiration date.
" When retired from naval service, these ships may move to the "bone yard" of the Reserve Fleet at James River, Virginia, to be replaced by a newly ordered and constructed ship.
Others go on to long and profitable careers in civilian shipping.
This planned obsolescence removes ships from the inventory.
One response to the new budgetary environment may lie with the U.
S.
Maritime Administration.
The U.
S.
Maritime Administration, or MARAD, guarantees loans for shipbuilding in the U.
S.
One ship built using this process was USNS Bob Hope, built specifically for the Military Sealift Command with funds guaranteed by MARAD.
The owner, Danish shipping giant Maersk Lines, leases the ship to the Navy to repay the construction loan.
When the lease agreement expires, USNS Bob Hope will leave the Navy's inventory and continue its career at sea as part of the Maersk fleet.
The Navy will incur no costs for mothballing an old ship.
The Navy can plan for a new, replacement ship and there will be no effective cost to the Navy to build that replacement.