Climate Change Will Keep the U.S. Navy Busy With Disaster Relief

Rising sea levels and bigger storms mean more humanitarian missions

by MICHAEL PECK

Climate change means the U.S. Navy needs to prepare to respond to a wave of natural disasters. That was the warning of a National Research Council report in 2011, which foresaw global warming taxing the Navy's ability to help.

That warning sounds prescient in light of Typhoon Haiyan's devastation of The Philippines, which saw the Navy dispatch the carrier USS George Washington and the hospital ship USNS Mercy to assist survivors.

The scientist who co-chaired that committee says the Navy has the capacity to handle humanitarian relief needs, but only at present.

“Over the course of the next 30 to 40 years, future force structure requirements will need to be examined and the unique capability of USN hospital ships will become more important," Antonio Busalacchi, director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland, told War is Boring. “Thus it will also be important to explore a range of plans to retain this medical relief capability."

The report, entitled “National Security Implications of Climate Change for U.S. Naval Forces,” notes that climate projections “suggest damaging impacts in developing and developed nations that may be destabilizing in many parts of the world.” It goes on to add:

These projections would affect U.S. national security and stress naval resources. In particular, naval forces will likely be required to carry out more frequent humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR)-related missions. At the same time, U.S. naval forces would be expected to execute their ongoing national security military missions and to position themselves for supporting missions in destabilized regions around the globe. It is also expected that the demand for U.S. Naval Construction Force and Marine Expeditionary Unit capabilities will increase in proportion to the operational tempo of U.S.-sponsored international HA/DR missions.

In other words, on top of declining defense budgets and a growing Chinese naval threat, the Navy can look forward to a future of scurrying from one disaster zone to another.

One problem is the Navy's two aging hospital ships. The Mercy and Comfort were converted from supertankers into medical vessels in the 1980s, making them 30 years old and ripe for retirement by conservative measures. They also steam at a rather sedate 17 knots, about half the speed of a carrier like the George Washington.

The National Resource Council report urged the Navy to consider adopting the new Mobile Landing Platform ship as a floating hospital to replace the two existing vessels. The study also suggested the possibility of leasing commercial vessels and crews.