Military Surface Transportation: Some Questions for Our High Command.

Abstract

This paper examines the major surface transportation problems currently facing the Department of Defense. The five areas investigated are limited to those contemporary aspects of the marine industry directly affecting national defense capabilities: (1) the causes of the present-day decay and shrinkage of the commercial merchant fleet; (2) the recent 'Container Revolution,' and its resulting problems; (3) the current status of the Military Sealift Command nucleus fleet, along with recommendations for a ship replacement program; (4) the ability of both current and programmed sealift assets to support their strategic mobility role in future conflicts (and again the author presents his proposals to improve obvious deficiencies in this critical area); and (5) the organizational, administrative and personnel manning problems presently affecting the efficiency of the Defense transportation agencies themselves. The final section discusses the often proposed centralization of the three Defense transportation agencies; the dangers of peacetime efficiency standards as the sole criteria in the management of these agencies; interservice rivalry; desire of a greater role; and MSC officer manning problems.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 19, 1972
Accession Number
ADA053590

Entities

People

  • Michael G. Clarity

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Commerce
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Logistics
  • Marine Transportation
  • Materials Handling Equipment
  • Military Equipment
  • Navy
  • Shipbuilding
  • Shipping
  • Students
  • Tanker Aircraft
  • Transport Ships
  • United States
  • Universities
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Economics
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design