MSC PAO 97-3
January 16, 1997
For more information, contact:
Marge Holtz or Nancy Breen
(202) 685-5055

MSC awards contracts to Central Gulf Lines

The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command has awarded a time charter contract to Central Gulf Lines of New Orleans, La., for the charter of the MV Green Ridge beginning July 1997. The base charter period is 17 months, and the contract has two 17-month options. If both options are exercised, the total value of the contract will be $31.7 million.

MV Green Ridge is a multipurpose vessel that will be used to preposition a 500-bed U.S. Navy fleet hospital in the Indian Ocean off the island of Diego Garcia. Periodically part of the MSC fleet since 1988, Green Ridge will carry containerized, breakbulk and vehicular cargo. Green Ridge is a self-sustaining vessel that can load and unload cargo alongside a pier with minimal shore support.

While in service to MSC, Green Ridge will be part of the command's Afloat Prepositioning Force, a group of 37 ships that serve as at-sea warehouses--stationed in key ocean areas of the world and laden with war stocks and other supplies that are needed quickly when U.S. troops are called to respond to an overseas crisis.