Navy to sideline 17 vessels due to manpower shortage, operating crews will be redistributed: report [Video]

The Navy will reportedly sideline 17 vessels due to a manpower shortage that makes it difficult to properly crew and operate ships across the fleet. 

There just aren’t enough Merchant Marines to keep all the ships going at once, according to Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation for the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told Fox News Digital. Merchant Marines operate the many support vessels needed to keep the Navy running. 

“The problem, of course, is the ships are at sea, away from home port 12 months of the year,” Montgomery said. “So you need two crews … we’re desperately short of the number of people.”

“There’s a lack of experienced merchant mariners to crew the ships, and this is really a clear danger to national security,” Montgomery added. 

MOVEMENT OF CARRIER STRIKE GROUP INTO MIDDLE EAST SENDS A ‘HUGE MESSAGE OF DETERRENCE’: SABRINA SINGH

The Military Sealift Command drafted a plan to put …