{"id":17131,"date":"2018-12-13T01:09:40","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T01:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/13\/shadowy-special-ops-sea-bases-are-a-gap-we-know-we-have-and-were-working-on-navy-secretary-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:56:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:56:34","slug":"shadowy-special-ops-sea-bases-are-a-gap-we-know-we-have-and-were-working-on-navy-secretary-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/12\/13\/shadowy-special-ops-sea-bases-are-a-gap-we-know-we-have-and-were-working-on-navy-secretary-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadowy special ops sea bases are a \u2018gap we know we have and we\u2019re working on,\u2019 Navy secretary says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The struggle between managing resources for the United States\u2019 counterterrorism fight and an emerging great power competition has quietly begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the U.S. Navy is building up the fleet<\/a>, the focus on peer-level adversaries like Russia and China<\/a> is at contention with the responsibility to provide off-shore staging areas for special operations forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue was put forward by Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst at a hearing on Navy and Marine Corps readiness<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEspecially with our renewed focus on great power competition, naval resources will be strained as we continue to build up the fleet,\u201d Ernst said. \u201cThe demands in the Pacific and in Europe mean that the Navy and SOCOM [Special Operations Command] will be required to find intuitive ways to supply capabilities to our SOF warriors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way the Navy has explored bringing sea basing to SOCOM in the past is through afloat forward-staging bases<\/a>, which offer littoral mobility, support and refueling of small boats and special rotary-wing aircraft. Military Sealift Command has also acquired commercial container ships, and outfitted their bays with special dive lockers, armories and surgical suites, according to federal contracts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maritime Support Vessel Ocean Trader, for instance, was chartered for SOCOM. The ship has been known to be in service since at least 2016, when it was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea by French media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these solutions, Ernst, who chairs the Senate\u2019s Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, said some SOF representatives have voiced concern to her that they don\u2019t have access to enough sea-basing assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou address a topic that is a gap we know we have and that we\u2019re working on,\u201d Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer said during the hearing. \u201cWe\u2019ll come to you with some requests going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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141106-N-EW716-001) \rSAN DIEGO (Nov. 6, 2014) The mobile landing platform Lewis B. Puller (T-MLP-3\/T-AFSB-1) successfully completed launch and float-off at the General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO) shipyard. Lewis B. Puller is the first afloat forward staging base (AFSB) variant of the MLP and is optimized to\rsupport a variety of maritime missions. (Photo courtesy of NASSCO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf, in a perfect world, I had the ability to go out and buy used ships on the market with very little constraint, we could close this gap quite rapidly,\u201d Spencer added, hinting at the legal nature of that future request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ernst also asked how the Navy plans to balance sea-basing support between SOF counterterrorism missions and potential state-on-state conflicts, \u201cwhere we cannot use those leased vehicles?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I could get some more restraint lifted, I would have the ability to manage that,\u201d Spencer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he didn\u2019t go into what specifically that restraint was on leased vehicles, Spencer said that it dealt with policy limitations that could be addressed within the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\t