Boosting defence quickly and cheaply

South Pacific Nations including Australia and New Zealand have a variety of coastal commercial vessels 50-90 metres. Smart experienced people with "war wounds" suggest their governments should incentivise operators to ensure that all new coastal vessels have:-

An extra 6 x 2 berth cabins for military personnel

Extra dry and reefer stores

1 separate communications centre

Helipad with manned drone capability

Beach landing capability and axle loadings for Himars and heavy fuel trucks, bulldozers and emergency response equipment.

These dormant charters could easily be incentivised by the government providing the loan guarantee and the capital cost of the extra requirements. Treasury would easily ascertain that this is a very economic way to boost border protection capability and active training facilities.

Most coastal vessels often work on a schedule visiting several ports and include 3-4 berthings/sailings a day in different weather conditions, which is perfect training for navigators and deck officers. With diesel electric multi-screw propulsion, bow thrusters and automated cargo handling equipment these would be engineering and electrical training centres that any Navy would envy. The helipad is an ideal aviation training platform for helicopter and manned drone operations.

Most coastal vessels have sizeable underdeck tank capacity to carry fuel to remote communities. In the event of conflict, this extra fuel would be of key importance.

The ability to provide shore power to first responders is another key requirement.

These dormant charter support vessels have two significant advantages in not requiring Defence capital budget expenditure, and not having to run the painfully slow and costly gauntlet of the naval vessel acquisition process.