Leasing as a Strategic Financing Option: The Navy's Maritime Prepositioned Ships Experience

Abstract

Recently, leasing has been prominent in the press due to the Air Force’s recent ill-fated attempt to obtain the use of Boeing re-fueling tankers. Forgotten is that, in the early 1980’s, a highly controversial Navy long-term leasing program of Maritime Prepositioned Ships had a different result. However, an unintended consequence of the Navy’s success was that future government leases were practically eliminated. This research examines the issues and parties involved in this unprecedented creative and innovative leasing program for ships used by the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. While the analysis concludes that the Navy’s leasing program was successful and cost effective, laws and policies were changed so that long-term leasing is no longer viable for the strategic financing of military requirements. The case is presented here that existing laws and regulations should be reconsidered so that leased military resources can once again be used to provide and maintain national security.