Success of Sea Basing Concept Hinges on Effective Logistics Management Systems

Major Surgery Required on Processes, Hardware to Make the Scheme a Reality

With Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF) ships at its heart, and protective strike groups at its perimeter, the sea base is envisioned as the operational corpus for U.S. tactical forces of the future. Its various parts will be bound together by the major arteries of the sea base; the logistics management systems that will make the difference between success and failure of the entire concept.

However, those arteries now are filled with unsuitable processes and hardware, and major surgery will be required to make the sea basing scheme a reality. Vice Adm Charles W. Moore Jr., the Navy's logistics chief, said during an April presentation on sea basing during the Navy League's SeaAir-Space Exposition in Washington, D.C., "We believe that in order to be as responsive and capable as we need to be in the long run for sea basing, we're going to have to get serious about enhancing our logistics capability."

The supply systems of the four services are incompatible, for example, and much of the military's logistics hardware would not function well as part of a sea base. The landing craft, air cushion (LCAC), a hovercraft that moves people and equipment from ship to shore, was not designed to take on cargo in sea state 4 with waves of 4 to 8 feet, a prime criterion for sea base operations. In Iraq, Marine logistics information systems - some 30 years old - could not keep track of requests from dispersed and fast-moving fighting units.