Maritime War Risk Insurance

The Department of Transportation Maritime Administration operates the Maritime War Risk Insurance program (CFDA 20.803) to provide war risk insurance coverage to U.S.-flag and foreign vessels when adequate commercial insurance cannot be obtained on reasonable terms, with the most recent grant award issued on June 12, 2026.

Program activity is minimal and highly specialized. The portfolio shows only two awards issued in the past year, both in June 2026, totaling $500 thousand in federal dollars obligated. The program is inherently episodic—it activates only when war or geopolitical crisis makes commercial maritime insurance unavailable or prohibitively expensive and remains dormant in peacetime. Insurance binders are issued within five to fifteen working days to qualifying applicants only. Eligible recipients include U.S.-flag vessel owners, certain foreign-flag vessel owners meeting specific criteria set by the Maritime Administrator, third-party liability carriers, and designated beneficiaries of merchant mariners.

Both recent awards were structured as Cooperative Agreements. The June 2026 awards funded operational research and technical assessment projects to modernize the war risk insurance program itself—specifically, to design a structural, operational, and statutory blueprint for transitioning the current standby framework into a permanent, self-sustaining public-private underwriting entity called the U.S. War Risk Corporation. The funded work included empirical underwriting baseline data gathering from domestic commercial insurance leaders (the American Club, Berkley Offshore, Arthur J. Gallagher), financial risk architecture modeling based on the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund structure, and standardized government handoff protocols to authorize rapid state-backed coverage when commercial markets withdraw or premiums spike. Completion is scheduled for June 15, 2027.

No open grant opportunities are present in the source. Pursuit of this program is practical only when active maritime conflict or severe geopolitical instability triggers federal demand for war risk coverage. Organizations with underwriting capability, maritime insurance expertise, or vessel-owner representation may position for rapid response if conditions change, but the program does not accept applications during peacetime.