Life-Cycle Management - Army Logistics University - U.S. Army

sometimes directly onto a trailer chassis. Gantry
cranes also are used to load containerships.
Floating cranes are used to load and unload
non-self-sustaining containerships at ports that do
not have gantry cranes. The Department of Defense
(DOD) owns 10 auxiliary crane ships that can be
used to augment the capability of existing cranes at
SPOEs and SPODs.
The newest commercial, non-self-sustaining ships
are over 900 feet long, 125 feet wide, and have drafts
in excess of 43 feet. Containers are stored both above
and below deck, normally without trailer chassis.
Containerships can carry the equivalent of 4,000
20-foot containers. A select few ships are even larger
and can carry 6,000 20-foot-equivalent units.
In contrast, containerships that are self-sustaining
have onboard cranes that load and offload containers.
Therefore, they are not as dependent on sophisticated
seaports. Combination containerships are vessels that
can offload a portion of their containerized cargo but
depend on seaport equipment or floating cranes to
offload the rest.
FSSs, the fastest cargo ships in the world, have a
top speed of 33 knots. They have onboard cranes for
lifting containers and ramps for uploading or offloading
roll-on-roll-off (RORO) vehicles or containers
atop trailer chassis. Combined, MSC’s eight
FSSs can carry nearly all the equipment needed to
outfit a heavy Army division.
MSC’s 19 LMSRs, like civilian container vessels,
are designed to offload at established SPODs that have
developed infrastructure. Each LMSR can carry an
entire Army battalion task force, including 58 tanks,
48 other tracked vehicles, and more than 900 trucks
and other wheeled vehicles. The preferred vessels for
sea transport of unit equipment and military rolling
stock are FSSs and RORO ships, while containerships
are preferred for sustainment cargo.
One of the newest vessels used in DOD is the
Army’s theater support vessel, also known as a
high-speed vessel. Its shallow draft frees it from
reliance on deepwater entry ports. Therefore, it can
18
FSSs, the fastest cargo ships
in the world, have a top speed
of 33 knots. They have onboard
cranes for lifting containers and
ramps for uploading or offloading
roll-on-roll-off (RORO) vehicles
or containers atop trailer chassis.
bypass predictable entry points and access locations
unreachable by FSSs, LMSRs, or commercial containerships.
One theater support vessel has the
capacity of 23 C–17 sorties. It can travel at an average
speed of 40 knots, self-deploy over 4,726 nautical
miles, and carry 350 fully equipped soldiers. It
has a helicopter flight deck and can load or discharge
its cargo in less than 20 minutes. TRANSCOM manages
the theater support vessels for the Army.
Management of Containers
TRANSCOM, which has the broad mission of
managing intermodal containers as they move
through the Defense Transportation System, oversees
the MSC, the Air Mobility Command, and the Military
Surface Deployment and Distribution Command
(SDDC). SDDC coordinates the movement of containerized
sustainment and unit equipment. It also
provides oversight of commercial CHE and commercial
surface transportation used to move empty containers
from storage lots to military installations for
stuffing. SDDC also oversees the highway or rail
movement of containers to SPOEs and the movement
of containers on vessels from SPOEs to the SPODs.
Except for the stuffing of the containers by deploying
units or DOD wholesale suppliers, most of the physical
work involved in moving containers from
CONUS locations to overseas sites is performed by
commercial enterprises.
The use of standardized, intermodal containers is
simplifying and expediting the movement of sustainment
cargo over strategic distances. However, the
efficient use of containers requires developed ports,
specialized vessels, and CHE that can lift loads that
are four to six times heavier than the capacity of the
standard 10,000-pound forklift. Properly used, standardized
containers can dramatically improve the
speed of deployment, employment, and sustainment
of joint forces. ALOG
LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES C. BATES, USA (RET.),
WORKS FOR ALION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND
SERVES AS A SUSTAINMENT PLANNER FOR THE U.S. JOINT
FORCES COMMAND, J–9 TRANSFORMATION, DISTRIB-
UTED CONTINUOUS EXPERIMENTATION ENVIRONMENT, IN
SUFFOLK, VIRGINIA. HE IS A CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL
LOGISTICIAN AND A GRADUATE OF THE ARMY COMMAND
AND GENERAL STAFF COLLEGE AND HOLDS AN M.B.A.
DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII. HE CAN BE
CONTACTED BY EMAIL AT JAMES.BATES@JE.JFCOM.MIL.
MARCH–APRIL 2005