Full fleet of T-AKEs, new JHSVs boost role of civilian mariners in U.S. Navy

摘要

Three significant deliveries in the last 12 months - USNS Cesar Chavez, the 14th and final replenishment vessel in the Lewis and Clark class, and USNS Spearhead and USNS Choctaw County, the first two Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSVs) -have underlined the growing number of civilian professional mariners operating vessels in the service of the nation's defense. Both classes of vessels are civilian crewed, and the number of civil service mariners employed by the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command has grown steadily by 40 percent over the last 10 years, from 4,026 at the end of fiscal year 2003 to 5,652 at the end of fiscal 2012.