Reserve fleet

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USS Iowa (right) and USS Wisconsin mothballed. Electronic systems are missing, bow numbers have been painted over

A reserve fleet or colloquially Mothball Fleet ( mothballed fleet ) refers to the fleet of all warships in a navy that are kept operational but are not actively in service.

These mothballed ships are completely ready for use, but may have a different appearance (e.g. due to covering or sealing of important parts of the ship). Each There is a skeleton crew ( skeleton crew ) on board, which ensures the operational capability of the ship, by performing maintenance work on it, pay attention that the bilge pumps in the bilges work.

The point of a reserve fleet lies in the savings for the marine concerned: The personnel costs are reduced as well as the expenses for maintenance, repair and overhaul. On the other hand, ships that are not needed in peacetime are preserved for later use. In the event of war, these units can be reintegrated into the active fleet relatively cheaply and quickly. Mothballed units are usually anchored near naval shipyards so that reactivation can be accelerated in the event of war. After the time as a reserve, ships are converted into museum ships , sold, dismantled or sunk as target ships .

For example, two were to March 2006 battleships of the Iowa Class in the reserve fleet of the US Navy since the Congress had demanded from the Navy, the big guns in support of a possible landing operations held in readiness. These were later preserved as museum ships.

In historical times there was also the problem that wooden ships rotted relatively quickly in the water. On the other hand, they shouldn't dry out either, otherwise the load-bearing parts would warp and the planking would leak. To prevent this, z. B. in Carthage around 200 BC BC or in late medieval Venice, the main parts of the combat fleets were stored dry on land and in buildings. There were also extensive arsenals from which the fleets could be launched again within a few weeks.

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