TheUnited States Navymaintains a number of itsships as part of areserve 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 theKorean 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 forscrapping 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 asmuseum ships, memorials, orartificial reefs.
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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]
Merchant ships held in reserve are managed as part of the separateNational Defense Reserve Fleet within MARAD (US Maritime Administration). Several of its sites, such as atSuisun Bay inCalifornia, are also used to store regular Navy ships.
Ships placed in the reserve fleets are categorized depending on priority, funding and the planned disposition.[3]
Category BShips 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 CThese 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 DTemporary state pending planned usage by the Navy, will be maintained as-is.
Category XShips stricken from the Naval Vessel Register awaiting disposal. Receives no maintenance except ships on donation hold, which undergo dehumidification andcathodic protection.
Category ZThis category is for nuclear-powered ships and related support ships pending disposal.
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 theSecond 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 forGreen Cove Springs,Florida, on 11 April 1946.Brock arrived there on 13 April 1946, 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 calledLiberty 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.
Vice AdmiralsHerbert F. Leary andThomas C. Kinkaid served as Commanders, Sixteenth Fleet, after World War II. Sixteenth Fleet later became the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
The groups of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet were atBoston,Charleston,Green Cove Springs, Florida,New London,MOTBY/New York Harbor,Norfolk,Philadelphia, andTexas.
The Nineteenth Fleet became the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
The groups of the Pacific Reserve Fleet were atAlameda,Bremerton,Columbia River,Long Beach,Mare Island,San Diego,San Francisco,Stockton,Tacoma, andOlympia, Washington (Budd Inlet).
TheJames River Reserve Fleet consists of a small number of decommissionedU.S. Navy auxiliaries andwarships anchored inVirginia'sJames River nearNewport News.The fleet originally comprised approximately 60 ships, most of which were gradually towed away for scrapping.From 2012 to 2016, among its few remaining vessels wasMV Freedom Star, previously aNASA recovery ship for theSpace Shuttle'ssolid rocket boosters, which was then loaned out to thePaul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, Maryland, as a training vessel.
A similar fleet, the National Defense Reserve Fleet, is anchored inSuisun Bay nearBenicia, California, and has similarly been reduced. This location is known for hosting theGlomar Explorer after its recovery of portions ofSoviet submarineK-129 during theCold War before its subsequent reactivation as a minerals exploration ship.
TheBeaumont Reserve Fleet, anchored in theNeches River nearBeaumont, Texas, contains a number of transport ships.
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.
ThePhiladelphiaNaval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility holds several dozen inactive warships, including theTiconderoga class cruisers,Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates, and numerous supply ships.
TheNaval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility atPuget Sound Naval Shipyard, located next toBremerton, Washington, hosts, among its other ships[4] two dozen decommissioned submarines, several frigates, and numerous supply ships. It is the former home of the nuclear cruiserUSS Long Beach, which was scrapped.
The Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, holds logistic support ships and amphibious transport dock ships.[5] Several of these ships have served as target ships for Sink Exercises (SINKEX) duringRim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercises.
