Strategic Military Intermodal Transportation Essay

Strategic Military Intermodal Transportation - Essay Example These are all geared towards providing the Command's clients with excellent and time-effective service. USTRANSCOM provides a daily service to American warfighters. As such, it strives towards providing an integrated and synchronized deployment and distribution system under unified command. As such, it is the Command's role to work closely with the Department of Defense (DOD) in order to provide warfighter support. The DOD transformations towards integration and unification are part of the USTRANSCOM Distribution Process Owner initiatives. Specifically, according to the Transcom.mil Web site, military assets are valued in excess of $52 billion; these include 87 ships, 1,269 aircraft, 2,150 railcars and other equipment. Infrastructure is in the range of $1.4 billion. Its wartime human resources comprise 51,853 soldiers on active duty, 88,089 of reserve force and Guard, and 16,606 of civilian personnel. Commercial partners provide equipment such as aircraft and vessels in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF). The Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement also provides access to various resources controlled by civilian entities. These are used to provide 88 percent of U.S. land transport, 50 percent global air transport, and 64 percent of global sea transport. As mentioned, the Command conducts its operations on a worldwide scale, on a daily basis. According to Transcom.mil, an average week sees more than 1,900 air missions and 10,000 ground shipments across 75% of the world. B. USTRANSCOM Component Parts USTRANSCOM operates by means of various component commands, each focused on a specific aspect of the Command's operations. These include the Air Mobility Command, The Military Sealift Command, and the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command. The first is located at the Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, the second in Washington, D.C., and the third in Alexandria, Virginia. Specifically, the function of the Air Mobility Command (AMC) is to provide services such as strategic and tactical airlift, refuelling, and aeromedical evacuation. In this way, the AMC enables the deployment, sustenance, and redeployment of U.S. forces. Because of its wide reach via commercial contracts through programs such as CRAF, the AMC is able to provide swift response. Special duty and operational support aircraft, such as Air Force One, also function under this component of the Command. The Military Sealift Command (MSC) provides sealift transportation for the same purpose as those of the AMC: to sustain and deploy U.S. forces where these are needed, and where they are most easily reachable by sea. The MSC comprises both government-owned and chartered ships under VISA contracts. The main function of these ships is to move unit equipment from the United States to operation posts throughout the world. In addition to these, the MSC also commands prepositioned ships throughout the world. These are placed in strategic locations in order to provide equipment and supplies to the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and the Defense Logistics Agency. In order to provide fast and efficient service, these ships remain at sea. This reduces response time, especially for urgent needs. The function of the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) is to provide ocean terminal, commercial ocean liner and traffic management services to U.S. forces on a global basis. As such, the SDDC is mainly