MARAD training ship programme held up as model for US commercial shipbuilding

The US Maritime Administration’s use of third-party construction management for a new fleet of academy training ships was presented as a model for wider commercial shipbuilding at a conference in New York, gCaptain reported. TOTE Services, MARAD’s contractor for the programme, has delivered four of the five vessels ordered for state maritime academies.

Speakers at the Shipbuilding in America conference, held at the State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx, highlighted the vessel construction management (VCM) approach. Under this arrangement, an outside manager represents the owner and oversees the project from design through delivery. Its responsibilities extend to sourcing materials and conducting tests before the vessel is handed over.

Charlie Papavizas, an attorney with Winston Taylor in Washington, described the objective as keeping newbuild deliveries on schedule and within budget by limiting direct government involvement with the shipyard. According to gCaptain’s account, the approach seeks to make construction resemble commercial procurement more closely than a conventional government purchasing process.

MARAD adopted the model to acquire replacement training vessels for five of the six state maritime academies. SUNY Maritime College’s Empire State VII was the first ship in the series delivered by TOTE, arriving in September 2023 on schedule and within budget. At the conference, TOTE Services vice president of new construction Chris Clark identified extending VCM into commercial shipbuilding as the next challenge.

TOTE Services is also applying the approach to two further government programmes: missile range instrumentation vessels and a new class of medium landing ships for the Navy. Several vessel operators and ship management businesses offer construction management services, although their coverage varies with their expertise. gCaptain reported that VCM draws on commercial construction practices and off-the-shelf components rather than military-specification equipment, potentially lowering costs and shortening delivery times. The model also aims to limit avoidable design revisions and associated change orders, which can lead to expensive contractual disputes.