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Sep 30, 2024 | 
usni.org | Sonha Gomez |Joe Greco |Salvatore R. Mercogliano
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called the U.S. Merchant Marine the nation’s “fourth arm of defense,” reflecting its critical contributions during peace and war—from enabling U.S. seaborne trade to providing logistics support for military contingencies to steaming into harm’s way. Unfortunately, today’s Merchant Marine is underfunded and undermanned. The current state of the U.S. Merchant Marine fleet is a vulnerability.
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Sep 30, 2024 | 
usni.org | Sonha Gomez |Salvatore R. Mercogliano |Matt Forti
The recent Houthi-led attacks on commercial shipping have again highlighted a reality of war at sea: Merchant mariners are on the same frontline as their naval cousins—except without defensive weapon systems, extensive compartmentalization, and abundant manpower for damage control. Operation Prosperity Guardian, the multinational security initiative in the Red Sea, provides an excellent opportunity to consider what future awaits the U.S. Merchant Marine in contested waters.
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May 6, 2024 | 
usni.org | Gerard Roncolato |Salvatore R. Mercogliano
1. Commander C. Theo. Vogelgesang, USN, “Logistics—Its Bearing Upon the Art of War,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol 39/1/145, March 1913. 2. Robert Work, “To Take and Keep the Lead: A Naval Fleet Platform Architecture for Enduring Maritime Supremacy,” (Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, 2005), pp. 49-50. 3. Timothy A.
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Mar 29, 2024 | 
news.lee.net | Salvatore R. Mercogliano
(CNN) — The allision between the container ship MV Dali and the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday has prompted numerous questions — not only about how this tragedy occurred, but also about our global shipping processes.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
cnn.com | Salvatore R. Mercogliano
Editor’s Note: Salvatore R. Mercogliano, Ph.D., is an associate professor of history at Campbell University, a former merchant mariner, the host of “What’s Going on With Shipping” on YouTube and contributor to gCaptain maritime. The views expressed here are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.
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Feb 29, 2024 | 
usni.org | Charles A. Flynn |Salvatore R. Mercogliano |Scott Smith
Dr. Anderson is the former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and a twice confirmed presidential appointee. He also served as vice president for academic affairs at the Marine Corps University and dean of academics at the Marine Corps War College. Earlier in his career, he served three years on active duty as an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
usni.org | Joe Greco |Shashi Kant Kumar |Salvatore R. Mercogliano
The Container RevolutionThe process of containerization fundamentally changed global markets and port infrastructure since it began in the 1970s. Before then, a small number of high-value goods such as textiles, machinery, and chemicals dominated global trade. Prized cargo such as machinery and chemicals would make the precarious journey across the sea, exposed to the elements, often facing damage and requiring a battalion of dock workers for loading and unloading.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
usni.org | Salvatore R. Mercogliano |George Avery |Lee Wahler
In our last major Pacific naval war, the US won because, unlike the IJN, we paid attention to logistics - mastering UNREPS, being able to rapidly create major forward expeditionary naval bases at places like Ulithi, Espiritu Santo, Manus, Noumea, Eniwitok, Saipan, etc. We did so because we had a strong "tail" afloat - repair ships, tenders, transports, oilers, aircraft transports, personnel transports, stores ships, ammunition ships, floating drydocks, etc.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
usni.org | Charles E Flynn |Bill Hamblet |Salvatore R. Mercogliano
1. Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, Red Star Over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy, 2nd Edition (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018), 32. 2. Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, “Asymmetric Warfare, American Style,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 138, no. 4 (April 2012). 3. John Keegan, The Mask of Command (New York: Penguin, 1988), 42. 4. CAPT Wayne P. Hughes, USN (Ret.), Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1986), 30.
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Dec 27, 2023 | 
gcaptain.com | Salvatore R. Mercogliano |Sal Mercogliano
By Salvatore R. Mercogliano, Ph.D. (Opinion) – Maersk Gibraltar is not a remarkable containership for 2023. She pales at 10,100 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) compared to the ultra-large container vessels (ULCVs) of nearly 24,000 TEUs. Built in 2016 at Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding, the ship is Hong Kong-flagged, owned by Greater China Intermodal Investments, and operated by Maersk Lines of Denmark.
