Strategic Sealift Funding Policy: Will It Keep Our Defense Policy Afloat

摘要

The fall of communism throughout most of the world, and particularly the collapseof the Soviet Union, marked the end of the cold war. These dramatic events have given rise to a new National Military Strategy. This new strategy has a regional focus and has as key components the concepts of 'Forward Presence' and 'Power Projection'. With the United States defense establishment retrenching due to a reduced global threat environment and austere fiscal resources, we will have far less forces stationed overseas with a greater need to reinforce those forces with strategic mobility assets. To meet the objectives of the new strategy, we must now place a greater reliance on the strategic mobility triad consisting of airlift, sealift and prepositioning.