Military Sealift Command Characteristics

Total workforce about 8,500 Civilian workforce at-sea about 7,000 Civilian workforce ashore about 1,000 Navy personnel (military) about 500 Average daily active ship count about 115 Headquarters Washington, D.C. Subordinate Command Military Sealift Fleet Support Command, Norfolk, Va. Area Commands Military Sealift Command Atlantic, Norfolk, VA Military Sealift Command Pacific, San Diego, Calif. Military Sealift Command Europe and Africa, Naples, Italy Military Sealift Command Far East, Singapore Military Sealift Command Central, Manama, Bahrain Established October 1949

The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command is the premiere provider of ocean transportation for the Department of Defense in peacetime and in war. During a war, more than 90 percent of all the equipment, fuel and supplies needed to sustain the U.S. military is carried by sea. MSC ships, unlike the rest of the Navy fleet, are crewed by civilian mariners.

MSC's Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force ships directly support Navy combatants, enabling the fleet to stay at sea, on station and combat ready. NFAF ships replenish ships underway providing food, fuel, spare parts and ammunition. NFAF also operates the Navy's two hospital ships, which each contain 12 operating rooms and a 1,000-bed hospital facility. The hospital ships are kept in reduced operating status, but can be ready to deploy within five days.

MSC's Special Mission ships provide a wide variety of highly specialized ocean-going platforms for missions that include oceanographic and coastal surveying, ocean surveillance, missile-tracking, cable-laying and repair and deep submergence recovery. Military and civilian scientists and technicians carry out the unique missions of these various ships, which are operated by MSC employees and contract mariners.

MSC's Afloat Prepositioning Force allows U.S. military forces to deploy rapidly anywhere in the world to meet fast-breaking contingencies. These ships, strategically prepositioned around the globe, are laden with equipment and supplies for the U.S. Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency.

MSC operates Sealift ships that include government-owned and short- and long-term charter tankers and dry cargo ships that transport Department of Defense cargo during peacetime and war. During contingencies, MSC uses her surge sealift fleet, which can be rapidly loaded with equipment and supplies and deployed where needed.

MSC also employs the Ready Reserve Force. These ships, owned and maintained in reduced operating status by the U.S. Maritime Administration, come under MSC control when activated.

MSC operates the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force, the special mission ships and the Navy and Marine Corps prepositioning ships for the Commander, Fleet Forces Command. MSC operates the Army, Air Force and Defense Logistics Agency prepositioning ships and the Sealift ships for the U.S. Transportation Command, a joint command with headquarters at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

MSC was founded on October 1, 1949, in response to lessons learned from World War II. Originally named Military Sea Transportation Service, MSC was created to consolidate the Department of Defense's sealift assets and ensure that the U.S. military would be able to rapidly deploy troops, equipment and supplies by sea to any location in the world. The MSC mission has evolved subtly over time - for instance moving away from troop transport and moving toward combat logistics support and humanitarian relief. Through all this, MSC has proven her value again and again from the Korean War to the Vietnam War to the events following the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks on the United States to tsunami relief efforts in Indonesian and hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast of the United States.

In recent years, MSC has been at the forefront of the global war on terrorism, delivering more than 92.3 million square feet of combat power and 9.7 billion gallons of fuel to U.S. war fighters around the globe, as of November 2006.

Fact Sheet Index...