MSC PAO 02-40
September 09, 2002
For more information, contact:
Marge Holtz or B.J. Talley
(202) 685-5055

Military Sealift Command Charters
Ice-Strengthened Ship

Military Sealift Command has awarded a $12,339,300, 17-month, firm-fixed-price contract to American Automar, Inc. of Bethesda, Md., for the time charter of MV Kariba, a 521 foot-long ice-classed cargo ship. The contract would total $36 million should the two additional 17-month options be exercised.

The ship will be used primarily to support Operation Deep Freeze, the annual resupply of McMurdo Base in Antarctica, and Operation Pacer Goose, the annual resupply of Thule Air Force Base in Greenland. In the interim between missions, the ship will also move ammunition, general cargo and fleet hospitals. MSC-chartered operations are scheduled to begin in December 2002, when the ship reports to Port Hueneme, Calif.

MV Kariba, currently under a Liberian flag, will be renamed and reflagged as a U.S. ship before reporting to MSC. The ship will replace MV Green Wave, which has been under charter by MSC since 1984.

Military Sealift Command, the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense, operates about 115 civilian-crewed, noncombatant active ships around the world. MSC ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo; to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea; to at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies.