09/25/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/25/2024 11:55
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement in response to pressreports that the Navy's fleet oiler USNS Big Horn was damaged off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea:
"I am troubled about reports that the Navy's sole fleet oiler in the CENTCOM region has been rendered temporarily inoperable. If we cannot fuel our ships, our capabilities will be greatly diminished," Senator Wicker. "The Big Horn's problems also speak to a larger challenge - we are woefully in need of a larger logistics fleet, which is the lifeline for our global military presence. I hope this incident serves as a wake-up call that it is high time to fix our shipbuilding industrial base and support our merchant mariners."
Senator Wicker posed the following questions to the Department of Defense:
Senator Wicker noted the following facts related to shortfalls in the U.S. Navy's logistics fleet: