📝 usncan Note: America’s Ocean Research Fleet Is In Trouble. Here’s How To Help
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USNS Bowditch pier side during a visit to India.
U.S. Navy
At sea, research vessels are tools of maritime power. America’s ocean research fleet is in flux, with Trump Administration cuts hitting an aged fleet hard. If trends continue, a long-planned recapitalization of the U.S. research fleet is at risk, all while rivals rush to build big research fleets and deploy them in sensitive waters throughout the globe.
A pulse of international scientific deployments to Antarctica, the deep Pacific or the Indian Ocean would not be a big deal if these ships—and the information they collected—were just used for science. But oceanographic research vessels are easy ways impose sovereignty or challenge control of poorly-secured waters. And, more often than not, oceanographic information has military utility.
While America has not hesitated to use oceanographic ships to send messages by transiting the Taiwan Strait or probing interesting waters near rivals, China has been far more adept at employing research ships to challenge status quo. Chinese research ships often trespass into Exclusive Economic Zones, and are now seen as a herald to a sovereignty challenge. In 2024, CSIS identified 64 active Chinese research vessels, with over 80 percent demonstrating “suspect behavior” associated with military or other aggressive activities. Concerned U.S. observers are recording Chinese research fleets everywhere—prowling American waters off Alaska, while also challenging American security across the Pacific and Antarctic.
Since 2020, at least 13 Chinese “research” vessels patrolled the Indian Ocean, hoovering up critical data, and essentially preparing for conflict at sea. The expansionist country is focusing on undersea surveillance, setting up secure safe and secure sea routes to Antarctica, and is readying for China’s next strategic grabs of otherwise unclaimed seas.
In contrast, America’s research fleet is fragmented, lacks strategic direction and is in poor physical shape. From a once thriving fleet, only 17 vessels remain in America’s University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System. At the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a raggedy fleet of 15 research vessels are, on average, over 30 years old. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has two ships. Five of the Navy’s six Pathfinder Class oceanographic survey vessels are approaching 30 years of service, joined by an aged fleet of seven old ocean surveillance ships. America’s largely rented polar research fleet is suffering a series of cuts.
Unless there’s a radical rejiggering of America’s scientific work at sea, not much help on the way from American shipyards.
Stop Ocean Research Vessels From Sinking U.S. Shipyards:
Research vessels are hard to build. They are dense, complex, and often require customized solutions. They can kill unready shipbuilders, but, due to their low public profile, few notice. Take Bollinger Shipyards. While Bollinger’s struggle to make progress with the Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter has made headlines, few realize that the shipyard is also having trouble building four research ships—two entirely different classes of research vessel for different users.
The Navy’s future Robert Ballard (the future T-AGS 67), a Pathfinder Class survey vessel, shouldn’t be a tough ship to build. America has fabricated a lot of Pathfinders. The original six Pathfinders were delivered between 1994 and 2001, going from “keel laying” to “launch” after about a year of work. America has continued to build these ships over the decades; about a decade ago, an updated variant of the original Pathfinder, the USNS Marie Tharp (T-AGS 66), went from keel laying to launch in two years, entering service in 2016.
But something has gone woefully wrong at Bollinger’s research vessel programs. Robert Ballard’s keel was laid in 2022, a month before Bollinger took over the original builder, VT Halter shipyard. At the time, the future Robert Ballard was expected to be christened in 2024, but Bollinger Shipyards, struggling over the past several years to absorb two new shipyards, has yet to launch the vessel. Reportedly set to deliver in 2026, and the Robert Ballard’s hull still sitting in the dirt, hard ashore (and in pieces in late 2024), Bollinger may need even more time to get this long-overdue ship ready for delivery.
In another Bollinger-owned yard, Bollinger Shipyards is struggling to complete Oregon State University’s 3-ship Regional Class Research Vessel program. When contracted in 2013, the whole program was expected to be completed in 2023, but Bollinger has repeatedly let the schedule slide.
These problems—problems that have ensnared at least four of Bollinger’s high-profile government projects—suggest a trend. Bollinger seems to have bitten off more complex work than it can currently chew.
There are troubling signs the company is either unaware of construction challenges or, in the worst case, hiding problems that lead to schedule slippage. Expected completion dates for some vessels are sliding by the month. According to a May, 2023 issue of Ocean News and Technology, the first Regional Class ship was expected to embark on it’s first research expedition in 2025. The schedule has continued to decay. As of late 2024, this the vessel won’t be ready for researchers until 2027 at the earliest.
It’s not all bad news. Research vessel construction seems to be going more smoothly at Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors LLC in Houma, Louisiana. After NOAA awarded the shipyard two new general oceanographic research ships, the future Oceanographer and Discoverer, in 2020, the shipyard got to work, laying the keels of both ships promptly, in 2022. Oceanographer hit the water in late 2024, and was closely followed by Discoverer. While the two ships appear to be running a bit behind schedule—with one originally expected to enter service in 2025 and the next following in 2026–as of August, the first ship has been delayed and they are not expected to deliver until 2026. For a new class of ship, that’s not bad.
Up to now, Thoma-Sea’s steady performance has been rewarded. In 2023, the shipyard got another contract for two survey ships, the future Surveyor and the Navigator. These more pricey and complex ships are expected to arrive in 2027 and 2028. It suggests that rather than shower cash onto troubled-but-politically-well-connected shipyards, government customers may do better by rewarding well-performing ship manufacturers with new challenges.
How To Move Ocean Research Vessels Forward:
Ironically, Thoma-Sea will likely get sunk by their own steady handiwork. By focusing on research vessels, and quietly getting the job done, the shipyard is at risk. With budget cuts to NOAA, additional follow-on “option” vessels may never materialize, while Bollinger, despite what appears to be a grim record with the Pathfinder Class, the Regional Class, as well as the Navy’s Navajo Class salvage tugs and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutters, is, by prioritizing political power in Washington, DC, projecting as-yet unmerited confidence. Ironically, Bollinger may well get more shipbuilding contracts.
It is probably too optimistic, but, to get better shipbuiling, Washington needs to reward performance on the waterfront rather than reward performance in Washington, DC. The idea that a seemingly competent builder like Thoma-Sea is going to need to scramble, while Bollinger seems set to get Arctic Security Cutters goes against the spirit of President Trump’s smart and long-standing call for maritime investment. It also pushes against President Trump’s obvious impatience with poor-performing contractors.
In the meantime, America’s fragmented research fleet continues to age, and, with the Administration uneager to fund scientific research, America’s ocean research fleet seems set for continued decay. Rather than to let America’s research vessels fall through the cracks, it might be time to consolidate America’s research fleet under a single administrator, where research vessels and other available platforms can be more efficiently utilized.
If, for example, the U.S. Coast Guard managed America’s ocean research fleet, research could be spread across more “dual-use” platforms. The research icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) offers a good template, and the Coast Guard’s big buoy tender fleet can certainly take on more scientific work, while scientific craft can easily take on some of the Coast Guard’s long list of statutory missions. It might be a win-win, and the best possible alternative what may end up being a “lost generation” of American ocean research vessel fabrication.
