Sealift, Sealift Imperatives and the Operational Commander.

摘要

The U.S. merchant marine is absolutely critical to the ability of the services to project force globally, and it is in serious trouble. Contained within its history, the economic and cultural structure in which it operates, and its commercial and defense organizational lines are imperatives, or absolutes, with which the strategist/operational commander/planner must be familiar and upon which he must base decisions which will affect how U.S. power will be projected in the future. It is postulated that (1) strategic sealift can no longer depend on the merchant marine to supply or man the vessels needed in a crisis; thus, foreign flag vessels must be used more willingly and the Naval Reserve should supply manpower to the organic fleet; (2) that defense sealift needs one master, USTRANSCOM; and (3) that, in the likeliest future conflict scenarios, we will have sufficient sealift if we plan properly now.