by Craig Hooper on March 26, 2018
As a staunch advocate for the Navy’s tug and salvage fleet, I am thrilled to see the drama-filled T-ATS(X) program head towards production (some history here). It has been a long road for this important but low-profile and oft-ignored vessel–the T-ATS(X) wallowed under multiple RFIs for years. It nearly foundered after several efforts to privatize […]
by admin on April 14, 2016
As the oil industry races to put modern platform support vessels and anchor handling ships into layup, the eight-ship “tug and salvage” T-ATS(X) program is getting kinda tough to justify. Why build new ships if the Navy can buy suitable hulls for far less? Right now there’s plenty of ships on the market that would make […]
by admin on January 13, 2015
As the U.S. Navy strives to become a lean-and-mean “warfighting-first” fleet, Pentagon cost-cutters will, by FY 16, reduce the American Navy’s modest rescue, salvage and tug fleet by half–and the mad warrior-accountants may even go farther, entirely eliminating the tug and salvage/rescue fleet and privatizing the whole tug and rescue/salvage mission. Eliminating half the Military […]
by Craig Hooper on December 24, 2009
Divers operating off the USNS Safeguard (T-ARS-50) are quietly getting Saipan’s channel to the point where that delightful isle will be able to host deep-draft vessels. After this visit–the latest of at least two–the main channel will be clear to at least 36 feet, say the divers: “… the main priority of this mission is the removal of five […]