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Congressional Research Service News

25 Mar 2024

US Dredging: Plenty of Issues, New WRDA on the Way

(Photo: Janet Meredith / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

2024 marks another year for development of a biennial WRDA bill—Water Resources Development Act, critical legislation for the Nation’s waterways, ports and harbors. WRDA encompasses a range of issues, from environmental regs to energy use to agriculture and, of course, a focus on projects critical for economic growth.Because these are dynamic and timely issues, Congress and the maritime sector like to keep WRDA on a two-year reauthorization timeline. Indeed, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, December and January, held three WRDA information hearings.

28 Dec 2023

USCG's New Cutters Can’t Arrive Soon Enough

(Photo: Brandon Giles / U.S. Coast Guard)

The much-needed replacement for the U.S. Coast Guard’s long-serving medium endurance cutters (WMEC) took a giant step closer to joining the fleet as the first Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) was launched and christened at Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG) in Panama City, Fla. on October 27, 2023.The future USCGC Argus (WMSM 915) was christened by the ship’s sponsor, Captain (Ret.) Beverly Kelley, the first woman to command a U.S. military vessel, the 95-foot patrol boat, USCGC Cape Newagen (WPB 95318).

24 Jul 2023

The Need for [U.S. Navy Shipbuilding] Speed

The world's largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) steams in the Adriatic Sea, June 23, 2023.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jackson Adkins)

The Navy wants, and needs, more ships; but it can’t build them fast enough.While the U.S. Navy aims to achieve a 355-ship fleet, it is decommissioning older (and some not so old) ships at about the same rate it's adding new ones.A Congressional Research Service report stated that, as of April 17, 2023, the Navy included 296 battle force ships. "The Navy projects that under its FY2024 budget submission, the Navy would include 293 battle force ships at the end of FY2024 and 291 battle force ships at the end of FY2028."But there is progress…

05 May 2023

China's Aircraft Carriers Play 'theatrical' Role But Pose Little Threat Yet

©PictMotion/AdobeStock

When China sailed one of its two active aircraft carriers, the Shandong, east of Taiwan last month as part of military drills surrounding the island, it was showcasing a capability that it has yet to master and could take years to perfect.As Beijing modernizes its military, its formidable missile forces and other naval vessels, such as cutting-edge cruisers, are posing a concern for the U.S. and its allies. But it could be more than a decade before China can mount a credible carrier threat far from its shores…

04 Jan 2023

Putin Sends Frigate Armed with Hypersonic Missiles to Atlantic Ocean

Admiral Gorshkov frigate - Credit: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (file photo) - CC BY 4.0

President Vladimir Putin sent a frigate to the Atlantic Ocean armed with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles on Wednesday, a signal to the West that Russia will not back down over the war in Ukraine.Russia, China, and the United States are in a race to develop hypersonic weapons, which are seen as a way to gain an edge over any adversary because of their speeds - above five times the speed of sound - and maneuverability.In a video conference with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Igor Krokhmal…

11 Nov 2021

U.S. Navy: Constellation-class Brings Frigates Back to the U.S. Fleet

Artist’s concept of the new Constellation class of guided missile frigates.  (Fincantieri Marinette Marine)

Introducing a new class of warship can be fraught with pain, and the first ship is always the hardest – almost always behind schedule and over budget. And trying something new and transformational is even harder.The U.S. Navy knows this from experience. That’s one reason why the Navy is opting for a lower risk design for its next class of guided missile frigates (FFGs).Just about every new class has experienced a rough start. Although the USS Arleigh Burke-class of guided missile destroyers (DDGs) today represent the largest and most successful class of warships…

30 Aug 2021

Infrastructure Update: An Earmark By Any Other Name

Photo: Lee Roberts / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

After years of much talk but little action, major infrastructure funding from Congress now looks like it might actually happen. This in turn has prompted a restoration of the availability of earmarks, which had been, until about a decade ago, part and parcel of the congressional funding process. Within our nation’s inland waterways industry, hopes have been high that the rejuvenation of our country’s transportation infrastructure will include our inland waterborne commerce, and that…

10 May 2021

Dredging: Important Developments Will Impact Business

(Photo: Georgia Ports Authority)

For dredging company officials, the first quarter of 2021 was a pretty good start to a new year. In a tough business, challenges and pitfalls are always expected. But from a bigger picture perspective—markets, regulations and policies—company officials couldn’t be faulted if a bit of optimism infused their worldview.There are a number of reasons for this. Many are well known and don’t need to be detailed here. Just quickly, though, WRDA 2020 would be at the top of the list. WRDA…

15 Feb 2021

Subsea Defense: Navy Deepens Commitment to Underwater Vehicles

Senior Chief Mineman Abraham Garcia (left) and Aerographer's Mate 1st Class Joshua Gaskill, members of the Knifefish Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) test team, man tending lines during crane operations as part of an operational test conducted by members from Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR). Knifefish is a medium-class mine countermeasure UUV designed for deployment off the Littoral Combat Ship. OPTEVFOR is the Navy’s sole test and evaluation organization for surface, air, and un

The U.S. Navy uses unmanned and robotic underwater vehicles for a multitude of functions, including environmental sensing, mine hunting, and salvage. The Navy plans to evolve an unmanned systems operating concept that is platform agnostic and capable of operating in highly complex contested environments with minimal operator interaction.The most recent edition of the Navy’s Unmanned Systems (UxS) Roadmap was issued in 2018, and a new version is expected in the near future. The 2018 document states that UxS will operate in every domain…

30 Jul 2020

Congress Responds to COVID19 and Other Challenges for the Maritime Industry

© Sono Creative/AdobeStock

In response to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the Congressional Research Service released a report that stated global economic growth has declined by 3% to 6% in 2020 with a partial recovery predicted for 2021. Also, the GDP of the U.S. has fallen by 5% in the first quarter 2020. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the maritime industry, and seafarers themselves, have not been able to escape the significant effects of this crisis.All sectors of the maritime industry have been adversely affected by the global pandemic.

11 Oct 2019

Flawed CRS Dredging and Jones Act Report Under Fire

Dredging operations underway in U.S. inland rivers (Source: Port NOLA)

Congressional Leaders Rebuke Fatally Flawed Congressional Research Service Reports on Dredging and U.S.-flag Shipping.The Chairman and Ranking Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) and the Chair and Ranking Members of T&I’s Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation sent a letter to the Library of Congress refuting a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the American dredging industry as “filled with misleading…

14 Jun 2017

US Navy: Bigger is Better, but at What Cost?

U.S. Navy forces and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force routinely train together to improve interoperability and readiness to provide stability and security for the Indo-Asia Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Z.A. Landers)

The U.S. Navy has a balanced fleet, but it wants to grow bigger and better. Will the budget allow both? Maritime Reporter's March 2017 cover story on the U.S. Navy was all about the numbers. There exists several plans to grow the fleet beyond the current number of 308 ships, the Mitre recommendation of 414 ships, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment 340-ship proposal, and the Navy’s decision to grow the fleet to 355 ships, and the Trump administration’s 350. With so many numbers being bandied about, there are even more suggestions on how to get there.

04 May 2017

US Navy to Delay Planned Frigate Award

The U.S. Navy has decided to delay by a year until fiscal 2020 the awarding of a design and construction contract for a planned new frigate, according to congressional testimony on Wednesday by two Navy rear admirals. The delay resulted from a decision to set up a frigate evaluation team to look at how to make the vessel more lethal and survivable, Rear Admirals Ron Boxall and John Neagley said in their prepared testimony. Navy analyses have determined that the U.S. fleet needs 53 small surface combat ships to supplement the larger aircraft carriers and destroyers, undertaking tasks like antisubmarine warfare and mine countermeasures.

22 Mar 2017

Trump's Navy: A Look at the Future US Navy

President Donald J. Trump speaks with Sailors in the hangar bay aboard Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Trump visited to meet with Sailors and shipbuilders of the Navy’s first-in-class aircraft carrier during an all-hands call inside the ship’s hangar bay. (U.S. Navy photo by Joshua Sheppard)

It’s still too early to know for certain what the new administration will do about building up the U.S. Navy, as the numbers are a moving target. But with President Trump’s recent pledge to add $54 billion to defense spending, it’s a safe bet to make that the fleet will grow. So let’s start with the numbers. There are different ways to count the fleet size, including whether or not you count auxiliaries, but let’s use this number as the baseline: There are 274 ships in the U.S. Navy now.

15 Sep 2015

Sanctioned Shipyard Hopes for Icebreaker Deals

On a sunny day on the Helsinki seafront, sparks fly from steel welding at the bustling Arctech shipyard, which seems insulated from Finland's economic recession as it strives to meet an order book that stretches into 2017. The world's biggest manufacturer of icebreakers, or ships that can navigate ice-covered waters, Arctech is poised to benefit from an expected flurry of activity in the Arctic, which is being reinforced by U.S. President Barack Obama's Arctic push. As climate change is melting sea ice and opening the Arctic to more shipping, mining and oil drilling, icebreakers will forge waterways for other ships, carry out rescue missions and do stand-by duties for oil platforms in the region.

15 May 2015

South China Sea Dispute Takes to the Skies

When the U.S. navy sent a littoral combat ship on its first patrol of the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea during the past week, it was watching the skies as well. The USS Fort Worth, one of the most modern ships in the U.S. navy, dispatched a reconnaissance drone and a Seahawk helicopter to patrol the airspace, according to a little-noticed statement on the navy's website. While the navy didn't mention China's rapid land reclamation in the Spratlys, the ship's actions were a demonstration of U.S. capabilities in the event Beijing declares an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the area - a move experts and some U.S. military officials see as increasingly likely.

08 Apr 2015

USCG Makes Headway in Challenging Waters

A patrol boat manned by members of Port Security Unit 311 deployed to Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, escorts the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf as it sails into Naval Base Guantanamo Bay.  The Coast Guard Cutter Waesche conducts at-sea refueling operations.  The Alameda-based cutter is named in honor of former Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Russell Waesche.  (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Roache)

Day after day, the U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct its 11 statutory missions with its limited resources. It is challenged to Invest in long-term operational capacity while continuing to carry out its daily missions. “We’re a small service, but as always, we do punch above our weight class,” said Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft during the 2015 Surface Navy Association symposium in Arlington, Virginia. While the Coast Guard may have drifted off course with its ambitious and holistic Deepwater recapitalization effort…

27 May 2014

North American Oil Trains Under Scrutiny

Sheriff Craig Apple assured a room of concerned citizens that county emergency crews were prepared to handle an oil-train accident involving three or four tank cars. Firefighters have been training to combat railcar fires with foam, and evacuation plans are detailed in a 500-page emergency response plan, Apple told residents in a May 12 address. Albany's tracks handle as much as a fourth of the oil pumped from North Dakota's booming Bakken Shale, or up to several 100-car trains per day, each carrying 70,000 barrels. It is one of several spots along North America's new oil-by-rail corridors where residents and officials are restless, following six fiery derailments in the past 10 months.

24 Sep 2014

Is the US Prepared to Protect Its Arctic Interests?

The answer to this question is a resounding “no.” The U.S. is not prepared to protect its interests in the Arctic over the next decade. The primary legal regime that is being relied upon by all members of the Arctic fraternity, the Law of the Sea Convention, has not been adopted by the U.S. The operational resources needed to pursue our interests have not been funded and there is currently little prospect that they will be funded in the near future. U.S. interests in the Arctic are vast.

03 Mar 2014

LNG Foes go to the Mat in Maryland

Maps of Indian and Japanese ports paper the walls of a Dominion Resources Inc conference room in a small Maryland town, population 1,835, known more for crabbing and bird watching than global trade and the U.S. natural gas revolution. Dominion, an American energy company long focused on U.S. markets, hopes to begin an expansion worth billions of dollars at its Cove Point complex on Chesapeake Bay later this year. As part of the plan, compressors fired by a new power plant would cool gas to -260 degrees F (-162 C) until it becomes the hot global commodity known as liquefied natural gas, or LNG. But if environmentalists, including a group that has led the charge against TransCanada Corp's long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline, get their way, Dominion won't soon be shipping anything anywhere.

17 Mar 2014

Arctic Taskings for the Coast Guard

DNV GL

On January 30, 2014, the White House released the Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for the Arctic Region. The purpose of the Implementation Plan is to put flesh on the bones of the May 10, 2013 National Strategy for the Arctic Region. The National Strategy had identified three lines of effort to address challenges posed by the changing Arctic environment. The Implementation Plan sets forth the methodology, process, and approach for executing the Strategy. Most importantly…

18 Mar 2014

USCG: The Fleet Faces Forward

USCG Cutter Sapelo and the Royal Netherlands Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel HNLMS Holland search Caribbean Sea waters for bales of contraband jettisoned by Dominican drug smugglers.

The numerous cutters and craft of the U.S. Coast Guard —from the sail training ship Eagle to the large oceangoing patrol ships; from polar icebrakers to small utility boats — form a formidable fleet to meet the many challenging assignments undertaken by the service. In 2014 the Coast Guard continues its recapitalization program with its National Security Cutter (NSC), Fast Response Cutter (FPC) and Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC). The service plans to procure 91 cutters (8 NSCs, 25 OPCs and 58 FRCs) to replace are 90 aging cutters and patrol boats. According to a Feb.

22 Apr 2014

Obama Stalls Drilling On Federal Lands: Kemp

The White House likes to claim a share of the credit for the drilling revolution that has transformed North America's energy production and security. Except the revolution has largely taken place on private rather than public land, and energy producers feel frustrated about the numerous obstacles and long delays in obtaining permission to drill in areas directly controlled by the administration. "Crude oil production has grown each year President Barack Obama has been in office to its highest level in 17 years," the Council of Economic Advisors wrote back in the summer of 2013. "Government-funded research supplemented private industry's work to develop the technology that sparked the boom," the council explained ("Reducing America's dependence on foreign oil", Aug. 29, 2013).