National Defense Reserve Fleet

The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) was established under Section 11 of the Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946 to serve as a reserve of ships for national defense and national emergency purposes. It is a different entity than the United States Navy reserve fleets—the NDRF consists primarily of merchant ships, while the Navy version consists of warships, however the NDRF does maintain under federal contract, a flotilla of warships in reserve status for the Navy.
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