Strategic Mobility - Does the United States Have the Strategic Lift to Get to Our Next War and Remain for the Duration.

摘要

Strategic mobility has evolved for hundreds of years. Not until the application of the railroad to military needs, did any large scale improvement occur in what to carry and how much. Today, technology has made available a variety of means to transport armed forces around the world and to resupply them to remain in a theater for an indeterminate length of time. This document examines the capacity of the United States Armed Forces to be projected into foreign areas of conflict. This monograph reviews how strategic mobility has been used in the past during peace and war as a demonstration of how much this war fighting capacity helped or hindered the forces it supported. Napoleon, during his preparation for his Russian campaign, and the Allies of World War II, preparing for the Normandy invasion, provide excellent examples of the value of being able to move large bodies of forces and material over multiple routes. A special application of mobility, the Berlin Airlift, offers an example of the strengths and weakness of the fastest but most expensive form of mobility. The state of the United States strategic fleets is also examined to provide the reader an assessment of this country's ability to execute its national policy and these fleets' readiness in future years. The monograph concludes that, despite some long-term improvement in our ability to project our military power to foreign wars and that what ability we do possess is seriously eroding. Keywords: Combat support; Logistics planning; Transportation. (kt)