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Cargo Afloat Rig Team
Cargo Afloat Rig Team, (CART) is a group of about 200 Navy reservists specializing in seamanship skills needed for replenishments-at-sea. CART Sailors embark aboard Military Sealift Command (MSC) commercial oilers and provide support to the crew by delivering fuel, ammunition, and stores to U.S. Navy warships. CART members come from all over the world, playing their part in keeping the U.S. Navy in the fight.

They are usually assigned to ships that have been outfitted with a Modular Cargo Delivery System (MCDS). The MCDS is a 46 1/2-foot tower placed on the main deck of a ship that allows a cable to run between the supplying ship and the customer ship. When the cable is connected, the supply ship can transfer cargo to the customer ship across the connecting cable. Ships that have the MCDS on board become doubly useful to Military Sealift Command because they can function both as point-to-point cargo carriers and as fleet auxiliary ships that take supplies directly to war ships, allowing the combatant fleet to remain on station for longer periods.

Mission
To provide qualified and experienced underway replenishment rig teams to augment U.S. government civil service crews aboard combat logistics force ships which transfer food, fuel, ammunition and other critical supplies to Navy combatant ships at sea. CARTs are composed of reservists who are highly trained at the MSC resupplied via underway replenishment (UNREP) Training Center in underway replenishment operations, both by connected replenishment and by using military or commercial helicopters during vertical replenishments.

History
In 2005 there were seven CARTs assigned to RRF ships with MCDSs on board and two units assigned to work aboard MSC ammunition ships USNS Santa Barbara and USNS Kilauea. Each unit receives its specialized training at the MSC Underway Replenishment Training Center at Naval Weapons Station Earle, NJ, aboard ships during annual exercises and at reserve centers with materiel provided by MSC.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the fleet still needed to be UNREP. MSC’s civil service mariner (CIVMAR) centric workforce continually provides support keeping our warfighters on-station, but the COVID-19 quarantines and lockdowns resulted in underway manning challenges. As the fiscal year 2020 missions wrapped up, The CART team had deployed onboard eight separate MSC ships. Working alongside the CIVMAR crews they had contributed more than 4,000 days of operational support, performed over 200 UNREPS; completed the safe STREAM transfer of more than 22 million gallons of fuel, 7,000 pallets of consumables, ordnance, and materiel; and the in-port transfer of more than 80 vertical launch systems.

As of 2021, MSC now has four CART units providing 12 rig teams.