National security interests require US-flag ships be dismantled at home

At the TradeWinds Shipowners Forum USA in New York last month, Maritime Administration (MarAd) administrator Paul Jaenichen urged attendees to support the US flag fleet. It’s in our national security interest, he argued, to ensure that the country has a fleet built by American workers and crewed by US mariners.

Agreed. But it is also in our national security interest to mandate that these vessels be dismantled in the US at the end of their lives.