Civilian ships can be converted for military use (tip to Defense Industry Daily), noting a recent American contract with Maersk Line Ltd. to lease a maritime support vessel converted from a civilian ship:
Military Sealift Command (MSC) requests a U.S. flagged vessel which shall function as a Maritime Support Vessel (MSV). The vessel shall serve host to fifty (50) Sponsor personnel with the ability to surge to an additional one hundred and fifty-seven (157) support personnel, for a total of two hundred and seven (207) Sponsor personnel, within twenty-four (24) hour notice.
The vessel shall support launch, recovery, refueling, and resupply of small crafts, provide organic force protection and perform stowing, transport, launch/recovery, re-fueling of manned and unmanned rotary wing aircraft.
The vessel shall provide equipment stowage, messing, berthing, administrative/operational space, maintenance space, emergency towing, and logistics services in support of operations. The Contractor shall independently operate all deck equipment to include the craft handling/launching systems.
Indeed. This concept could be useful:
Our Navy defends our nation within the incompatible and unforgiving boundaries formed by the tyrannies of distance and numbers. We struggle to build enough ships both capable of deploying globally and powerful enough for fighting first-rate opponents. Operating within a network-centric Navy, auxiliary cruisers could once again play a valuable role in projecting naval power. Using modular systems installed on civilian hulls, auxiliary cruisers could handle many peacetime roles; free scarce warships for more demanding environments; add combat power within a networked force; and promote the global maritime partnership.
Our Navy is surely superior to any conceivable combination of potential foes, alarmism notwithstanding. Yet as a global power, our sea power cannot be narrowly defined by our superb warships able to win conventional sea-control campaigns. We have many objectives at sea. Modularized Auxiliary Cruisers could provide the numbers we need to achieve our maritime objectives. The tyranny of numbers matters to the United States Navy.
My main intent was for wartime supplements. But Africa seemed a good region for a low-profile vessel like a Modularized Auxiliary Cruiser pairing container ships with mission modules built on standard shipping container building blocks.
Or South America.
Sixth Fleet would have some use for such vessels to hold cruise missiles, recon drones, or special forces units.
But the South China Sea could be a very useful area for such ships. A big Modularized Auxiliary Cruiser could conduct freedom of navigation and observation missions during Chinese military exercises without worrying that a Chinese ship will ram them. It would look bad. It wouldn't harm one of our expensive warships.
And would a big ship like that even be in danger of sinking? Remember, in the Tanker War, when Iran first planted mines in the Persian Gulf when we started escorting civilian ships, we ended up putting a tanker in the lead rather than risk one of our "escorting" warships! Until we could get mine clearing assets into action, the big bulk of the civilian ship made it safer to risk.
The Persian Gulf would be a good place, too, for that matter.
If we want numbers, we need to think of naval power differently.
