American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier

ARC is the largest US-flag roll-on roll-off carrier and one of the larger American-flag lines operating in international trade. It was founded in 1990, is crewed by US citizen merchant mariners, and is part of the Wilhelmsen group of shipping companies alongside Wallenius Wilhelmsen, EUKOR and United European Car Carriers. After more than three decades based in northern New Jersey it relocated its headquarters to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and it keeps a European office in Bremerhaven, Germany.

The reason ARC matters to defense is structural rather than technological. US law and US sealift policy reserve certain government cargo for US-flag vessels with American crews, and maintaining that capability in peacetime is what makes it available in a crisis. ARC participates in the Maritime Security Program, which retains a fleet of militarily useful US-flag ships in international commerce, and in the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement, under which carriers commit ships and intermodal capacity to the Department of Defense when required. The commercial liner business and the government business use the same ships.

The fleet is built for cargo that cannot be containerized. Vessels handle thousands of automobiles and trucks, military wheeled and tracked vehicles, helicopters and break-bulk freight, with 100 percent under-deck stowage, heavy lift capacity to 320 tons, door clearances up to 21 feet and drive widths up to 77 feet. The M/V Endurance is described by the company as one of the largest roll-on roll-off vessels afloat, and the M/V Liberty and M/V Patriot also run in the fleet. Specialized handling gear includes heavy-lift trailers, 12-axle jack-up trailers and rubber tire bogies for moving rail cars aboard.

Ocean services split between a scheduled US-flag liner run to and from Europe, referred to as the P1 service, a second service covering other regions, and charter and tramp work for shipments that do not fit a schedule. Transshipment arrangements extend reach into the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Beyond military cargo the company carries preference cargo for other government shippers, agricultural and construction equipment, household goods and privately owned vehicles for relocating service members and government civilians.

The land-based side is what turns a shipping line into a logistics provider. ARC offers stevedoring and terminal services, port-to-port and end-to-end intermodal transport, personnel transport and life support, and expeditionary and humanitarian logistics support for overseas operations. That combination lets a customer hand over a movement at origin rather than at a pier, which is the practical difference between a carrier and a deployment partner.

The company does not build or design equipment and does not compete for development programs. Its value is capacity, US-flag status, a crew base that can be mobilized, and the terminal and inland network that surrounds the ships. In a sealift environment where the US-flag fleet has been shrinking for decades and where the Maritime Administration has repeatedly flagged mariner shortfalls, that combination has become more rather than less strategically relevant.