Subscribe

This story has been corrected.

TOKYO — The Army and Navy this week signed a Memorandum of Agreement for the Army to transfer all five of its Joint High Speed Vessels to the Navy, according to a Navy release.

The original plan of the JHSV program was for the Navy and Army to each have five JHSVs. The two services agreed to the transfer in December at the Army/Navy Warfighter Talks, giving the Navy all 10 of the vessels, the release said. The vessels will be used for fast intra-theater transportation of troops, military vehicles and equipment.

According to the release, the purpose of signing the MOA is to identify roles and responsibilities and to delineate “the management, leadership, and requirements sponsorship roles required to deliver the capability encompassed by the JHSV to the combatant commanders.”

“The transfer of the JHSV is about aligning our core competencies, while at the same time realizing a measure of managerial efficiency,” Army Secretary John McHugh is quoted in the release.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus added that the agreement shows a commitment to reducing redundancies and saving money for taxpayers.

The Military Sealift Command will crew the JHSVs with civil service mariners or civilian contract mariners, the Navy said.

Sign Up for Daily Headlines

Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets from around the world.

Sign Up Now