Report
Issues in Materiel Distribution: A Background Note
Jan 1, 1989
Format | File Size | Notes |
---|---|---|
PDF file | 2.9 MB | Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. |
Format | List Price | Price | |
---|---|---|---|
Add to Cart | Paperback75 pages | $15.00 | $12.00 20% Web Discount |
This Note, based on research conducted between January 1988 and March 1990, considers (1) the extent to which future U.S. flag merchant ships and existing government and sealift programs can support potential future force deployments and (2) the kinds of ships that should be built if additional sealift capabilities are required. Existing civil shipping trends suggest that by the year 2010, the U.S. dry-cargo fleet may decrease to fewer than 100 ships, and that most of these will be container ships, which are not as useful as older ship designs for carrying military equipment. If this is the case, additional government-controlled ships may be needed. The authors examined three fast sealift and three alternative maritime prepositioning ships for carrying Army equipment, and evaluated their initial delivery and throughput capabilities to Europe, Southwest Asia, Zaire, and Thailand. No dominant candidate emerged from the analysis. A 33-knot large roll-on-roll-off ship delivered the most cargo over time, while a 33-knot maritime prepositioning ship provided the earliest deliveries. Policy decisions are required before a choice among the candidates can be made.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation Note series. The note was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1979 to 1993 that reported other outputs of sponsored research for general distribution.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.