Navy announces 'Next Generation Logistics Ship' program with June 25 industry day

The Navy today announced a virtual industry day for a new class of vessels meant to complement its logistics forces, dubbing them a "Next Generation Logistics Ship."

The new vessels are expected to be "commercial ship designs tailored for military applications to conduct logistics missions," according to a Navy notice.

The Navy will divide the June 25 industry day into two sessions, the notice said. The first session will include a brief provided by the NGLS program, while the second session will answer industry's questions.

"The NGLS will enable refueling, rearming, and resupply of naval assets -- afloat and ashore -- in support of Distributed Maritime Operations, Littoral Operations Contested Environment, and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations," according to the notice.

"The NGLS is envisioned to be smaller than existing ships in the Combat Logistics Force, and will operate near contested environments, sustaining afloat (Surface Action Group) and ashore (Expeditionary Advanced Base) requirements," the notice continued.

To build the new class of logistics ship, the service is considering platform supply vessels, fast supply vessels and "other types" of offshore support vessels.

"The Navy is considering conversion of existing vessels, new construction, or a combination of conversions and new construction in order to acquire the required number of Next Generation Logistics Ships," the notice said.

The notice did not provide additional details about how many vessels the service will look to purchase or requirements for the ship.

The service is requesting $30 million in research and development funding in fiscal year 2021 for a "next-generation medium logistics ship."

"The Navy established the Intra-Theater Small Auxiliary Logistics Platform Task Force in support of the Integrated Naval Force Structure Assessment to evaluate next generation medium platform solutions for logistics mission requirements in support" of the service's concepts of operations, according to the Navy's FY-21 budget justification documents.

"This includes a family of vessels with commercial designs tailored for military applications," the budget documents continued.