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s p a c e s 4 l e a rn i n g MILITARY EDUCATION
ONE IF BY LAND
& TWO IF BY SEA
Next-Gen Training Ships Doubling America’s
Maritime Academies’ Infrastructure Needs
By Kevin Kikola, Michael Wilkins, and Andrew Hay
THE UNITED STATES’ five State Maritime Academies are responsible for edu-
cating the next generation of officers in the merchant marine. Graduates are not
only integral to national security and maritime defense readiness, but are well
known for their resilience, discipline, and technical capabilities, making them
extremely valuable candidates in the job market post-grad. Each of the five acade-
mies—California, Maine, Massachusetts, State University of New York (SUNY),
and Texas A&M University at Galveston—are independently respected and laud-
ed both for their academic rigor and hands-on pedagogical approach to preparing
students to become world-class mariners, as well as building the leadership and
interpersonal skills needed for professional success.
To better equip those five institutions to provide that critical educational foun-
dation, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) has been gradually work-
ing to decommission and replace their current fleet of training ships—which were
originally designed for the use of steam power and have begun to age beyond their
viability. The new vessel program—known as National Security Multi-Mission Ves-
sels (NSMVs)—will completely modernize the academies’ training abilities, better
reflecting current trends and operations in the shipping industry and strengthening
the depth of real-world experience that will be expected of graduates.
The Challenge
RMF Engineering has been working with four of the five academies, bringing
both a technical background in complex higher education infrastructure proj-
ects and experience in utility distribution to bridge the gap with these maritime
needs. Three of the five campuses will be discussed in this article, SUNY Mar-
itime, Massachusetts Maritime, and Maine Maritime, and each campus has an
existing training vessel the Empire State, the USTS Kennedy, and the State of
Maine, respectively. As with any new campus addition, all three institutions have
required significant infrastructure overhauls to support the NSMV’s arrival—a
delicate balancing act, given the need to equalize current conditions on land with
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