Military Railroading: A New Look

Abstract

The basic question is whether or not to retain a rail capability in the U.S. Army for logistical planning in the next decade. The future use of military railroading has been studied by examining its most useful characteristics and capabilities through available literature, opinions of railroad experts, and forecasts of specialists in the transportation field. Experience in Vietnam demonstrated an ability to supply fighting forces without railroads. However, in an expanded declared war and lengthened logistical supply lines it has not been demonstrated as yet, that a war could be fought without the dependence on rail transport. This essay takes a new look at rail capabilities in formulating the proper contingency planning for future force structures and concepts of operations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 20, 1974
Accession Number
ADA005551

Entities

People

  • William G. Lehn

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Automobiles
  • Civil War
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Control Systems
  • Force Structure
  • Land Transportation
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Rail Transportation
  • Railroads
  • Resilience
  • Transportation
  • United States
  • Vans
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Systems Analysis and Design