Collections of inactive naval vessels of the US Navy
Mothballed ships in Suisun Bay, California (2010). The battleship USS Iowa at the right-side end of the group has since become a restored museum ship in San Pedro, Los Angeles.
The United States Navymaintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and sufficiently working as to be reactivated quickly in an emergency.
In some cases (for instance, at the outset of the Korean War), many ships were successfully reactivated at a considerable savings in time and money. The usual fate of ships in the reserve fleet, though, is to become too old and obsolete to be of any use, at which point they are sold for scrapping or are scuttled in weapons tests.
In rare cases, the general public may intercede for ships from the reserve fleet that are about to be scrapped – usually asking for the Navy to donate them for use as museum ships, memorials, or artificial reefs.
Administration
View of the reserve fleet laid up at Naval Station San Diego, circa in the 1950sShips in the US Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay in 1972Aerial view of the US Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay in 1995Some US reserve fleet ships at Suisun Bay in 2014
In November 1976, the controlling organization was the Inactive Ship Division of the Naval Ship Systems Command.[1] As of 2011, the controlling organization actually appears to be the Inactive Ships Management Office of the Program Executive Officer - Ships, Naval Sea Systems Command, Portsmouth, Virginia.[2]
Ships placed in the reserve fleets are categorized depending on priority, funding and the planned disposition.[3]
Category B
Ships in this category are prioritized over the other categories when it comes to maintenance and funding. They are retained for possible future mobilization and will receive updates and upgrades as funding permits.
Category C
These are ships that will be maintained as-is; meaning no updates or improvements unless funding becomes available after that assigned for category B ships has been exhausted.
Category D
Temporary state pending planned usage by the Navy, will be maintained as-is.
Category X
Ships stricken from the Naval Vessel Register awaiting disposal. Receives no maintenance except ships on donation hold, which undergo dehumidification and cathodic protection.
Category Z
This category is for nuclear-powered ships and related support ships pending disposal.
History
Around 1912, the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and the Pacific Reserve Fleet were established as reserve units with still operating ships, but on a greatly reduced schedule.
After the Second World War, with hundreds of ships no longer needed by a peacetime navy, each fleet consisted of a number of groups corresponding to storage sites, each adjacent to a shipyard for easier reactivation. For example, USS Brock (APD-93) was underway for Green Cove Springs, Florida, on 11 April 1945. Brock arrived there on 13 April 1945, and joined the Florida Group, 16th Fleet, which later became the Florida Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Many of the deactivated World War II merchant vessels were of a class called Liberty ships which were mass-produced ocean-going transports used primarily in the convoys going to/from the U.S., Europe, and Russia. Liberty ships were also used as the navy's support vessels for its fleet of warships and to ferry forces across the Pacific and Atlantic.
Most Liberty ships when deactivated were put into "mothball fleets" strategically located around the coasts of the U.S., or sold into commercial service. They began to be deactivated and scrapped in the early 1970s.
Atlantic Reserve Fleet
Vice Admirals Herbert F. Leary and Thomas C. Kinkaid served as Commanders, Sixteenth Fleet, after World War II. Sixteenth Fleet later became the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
A similar fleet, the National Defense Reserve Fleet, is anchored in Suisun Bay near Benicia, California, and has similarly been reduced. This location is known for hosting the Glomar Explorer after its recovery of portions of Soviet submarine K-129 during the Cold War before its subsequent reactivation as a minerals exploration ship.
A Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) is a facility owned by the U.S. Navy as a holding facility for decommissioned naval vessels, pending determination of their final fate. All ships in these facilities are inactive, but some are still on the Naval Vessel Register, while others have been struck from that Register.
The Ready Reserve Force (RRF) is a subset of ships in MARAD's National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF). Ready Reserve Force supports the rapid worldwide deployment of U.S. military forces.[6]
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