Maritime Administration officials said that Maersk Lines, Limited, a U.S.-flag vessel operator and Maritime Security Program (MSP) contractor for the U.S. government, are in the process of replacing nine of its militarily-useful, U.S.-flag containerships in the MSP with nine newer and more efficient ships.
The Maritime Administration manages the MSP, which leverages commercially viable, militarily-useful, privately-owned vessels and inter-modal assets to meet national defense and other security requirements.
Maersk’s 2008 request for the change was approved and coordinated with the Department of Defense’s U.S. Transportation Command after the Maritime Administration found that the proposed replacement vessels met or exceeded the eligibility requirements of the Maritime Security Program.
The nine ships leaving the MSP are Sea-Land Pride, Sea-Land Motivator, Sea-Land Commitment, Sea-Land Florida, Sea-Land Atlantic, Sea-Land Achiever, Sea-Land Performance, Sea-Land Quality, and the Maersk Arizona. Maersk expects to reflag all of those to foreign registry in the next few months.
The ships replacing them are as follows: the Sea-Land Champion, Maersk Utah, Sea-Land Eagle, Sea-Land Mercury, Maersk Wisconsin, Maersk Wyoming, Sea-Land Racer, Maersk Kentucky, and the Maersk Idaho. Those ships will be re-flagged into the U.S. fleet.