National Maritime Response Platforms (NMRPs)
We will establish a global fleet of cargo ships purposefully designed and built to carry tens of thousands of tons of disaster relief supplies and heavy equipment - delivering Disaster Relief from the Sea.
Modeled on the U.S. Navy’s highly versatile BOBO-class ships, the National Maritime Response Platforms will be fully crewed, fully loaded with tens of thousands of tons of U.S.-manufactured supplies and equipment, and able to get underway within 24 hours.
The specific supplies and equipment carried will be determined by the supporting and supported government and non-governmental organizations.
Partner organizations will be featured here with highlight information and links to their websites.
How Will We Do It?
USNRFF will achieve this goal through three overlapping phases:
Phase 1 – Recruiting: A national marketing campaign will promote careers in the merchant marine and maritime industry to attract and train the workforce needed to build, operate, and maintain the ships.
Phase 2 – Pilot Program: To gather data and feedback to evaluate its success before a full-scale launch, in partnership with government and nongovernmental organizations, we will conduct a pilot program using currently idle, underutilized ships.
Phase 3 – Build the Ships: Applying those lessons, we will construct a fleet of ships modeled on the U.S. Navy’s highly capable and BOBO-class ships, purposefully designed and built for crisis response … National Maritime Response Platforms (NMRPs) - America’s New Global Force for Good.
Operational Concept
We will have notionally 24 ships in the fleet divided into 6 groups. Each group of 4 ships will be assigned to cover one of the three U.S. coasts and one of six geographic areas of the world. Each of the four ships in the group will remain in an assigned phase for a specified period of time, notionally 4 months. At the end of each phase, ships will move to the next phase so that each group always has one ship in each phase.
Phase 0 (Planning). “Ship A” is in pre-load planning and repair availability, fully crewed, not loaded, conducting ship visits and planning meetings, on call and ready to get underway in 96 hours.
Phase 1 (Domestic Standby). “Ship B” is on domestic standby, fully crewed, fully loaded, in and out of ports up and down the East (or Gulf or West) Coast, supporting public relations engagements, education, training and other functions, if not underway - ready to get underway in 24 hours to respond to a domestic crisis.
Phase 2 (Regional Standby). “Ship C” is on regional standby, fully crewed, fully loaded, in and out of ports in the region, supporting diplomacy, public relations engagements, education, training, and other functions, if not underway - ready to get underway in 24 hours to respond to a regional crisis.
Phase 3 (Development Engagement). “Ship D” is on a pre-planned foreign development engagement, fully crewed, fully loaded, offloading cargo at a predetermined site in a slow, methodical, training evolution with the cargo owners (U.S. businesses and nonprofits) there to receive the cargo and hand-deliver it to the intended recipient(s). When this engagement is completed, Ship D returns to its homeport to enter Phase 0. Ship A moves from Phase 0 (Planning) to Phase 1 (Domestic Standby) and so on with all ships in the group moving to next phase.
Partners, students, and visitors to our site will be able to track each ship as it moves through the phases. Partners (cargo owners) will be able to track individual pieces of cargo on ship and ashore.
What About the Hospital Ships and Training Ships?
Though highly capable, these ships are limited by their design to perform a specific primary mission. The Navy’s hospital ships are “floating field hospitals” designed for treating combat casualties, young Sailors and Marines. The State maritime academies’ training ships are “floating boarding schools” designed to teach and house young students. Similarly, the National Maritime Response Platforms (NMRPs) are “floating warehouses,” able to move - at will - directly toward disaster. However, several aspects of the NMRP program set it apart.
NMRPs are designed specifically for crisis response. NMRPs are fully crewed, fully loaded, and if not underway already, able to get underway in 24 hours. Primary missions are not interrupted and personnel are not taken from other requirements.
The NMRPs’ impact does not sail away with the ship. While the NMRPs themselves provide significant support - such as care and feeding for 100+ responders - their real power lies in what they deliver: tens of thousands of tons of supplies and heavy equipment - permanently put ashore, continuing to serve well into the future. When the NMRP departs - as all ships and all responders must - the capabilities remain, permanently ashore continuing to serve well into the future. This makes the NMRP program both unique and enduringly effective.
NMRPs are continuously active - in and out of port, underway, visible, and engaging with the public - not waiting for crises but working year-round with government, nongovernmental, and private partners to link disaster relief with long-term development. By delivering U.S.-manufactured goods to partner nations, NMRPs help to permanently strengthen infrastructure, improve quality of life, build resilience, and create future markets for American products. NMRPs are literally “exporting national security” ensuring strength at home and strength abroad.