As
announced by the Department of Defense, Crowley Jacksonville , Florida
There
is no particular point to this post other than to note the cost of simple
maintenance of the MPF vessels - $7M+ per ship per year. That seems like a lot of maintenance for
vessels that don’t really operate much.
I wonder what all is done that costs that amount of money?
Does the contract cover just the ship or the cargo its carrying as well?
ReplyDeleteThe contract announcement mentions only the ship itself. My reaction would, of course, change if it included all the cargo.
DeleteYacht owners are generally advised to budget around 10% of the purchase price as an annual maintenance cost.
ReplyDeleteA Yachts purchase price is going to include granite worktops, and expertly hand crafted wardrobes which wont be present on a military vessel,
So even a 65ft yacht is realistically going to cost its owner in the hundreds of thousands per year, on average
Yes, I can see how daily hand polishing of the mahogany and silver trim and periodic replacement of the gold fleck inlays could get expensive!
DeleteYou forgot the cost of keeping it in one of a few nice berths, and the cost of crews, I can believe that would add up, and depreciation. I can maybe believe then that, that would perhaps cost up to 10%.
DeleteBut commercial ships probably don't depreciate the same as a yacht, just as commercial vehicles don't depreciate in the same way as personal auto-mobiles.
I'm very much not in the yachting community but I have friends in the wealth management community, which intersects quite heavily, berthing, crewing, depreciation were items to be added on top.
DeleteLook at it this way
For long term storage, aircraft are flown in to the deep dry desert, boats live in the cold wet damp salty ocean.
I was told these ships have funded steaming days per quarter and since a Navy officer is in charge he insists on getting underway a lot and cruising around and to other ports for no sane reason. Same issue with the Amphibs, once deployed they should spend most time in port, but their "surface warfare" officers insist on steaming about burning fuel and causing more wear and tear.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right. There is very little reason for the Amphibs to transit to different basses or cruise around on patrols. Just burning money. If they want to use them for 'sea control' they should build smaller 'sea-control carriers'.
Delete"Prepositioning" sounds like painting a big fat target for someone...
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like prepositioning, which lets you get a brigade in place in less than 2 weeks, then you better re-read the previous posts discussing issues with amphibious assaults.
ReplyDeleteIf you let an enemy get dug in it is a lot harder to dislodge him. It is ~30 days steaming time from West/East Costs to the Gulf. That is a lot of time to dig in.