Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: ab3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Allan Bourdius) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Sealift for Desert Shield Message-ID: <1991Jan18.004525.9276@cbnews.att.com> Date: 18 Jan 91 00:45:25 GMT References: <1991Jan16.013547.10502@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 40 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Allan Bourdius >To supply the current force level in the Gulf for combat operations >will require 100 to 150 shiploads of dry cargo per month, plus 10 >to 15 tankers per month (yes, really - to meet naval and aircraft >fuel needs). This breaks down to the arrival of 25 to 30 cargo ships >per day in SA to sustain combat operations. The tankers probably won't be as necessary as you think. The way I remember it, Saudi Arabia pledged to supply all the fuel for Operation Desert Shield, most of which is refined in Saudi Arabia itself. The supply problem isn't as grave either. There was enough equipment and supplies on Diego Garcia to support a corps-sized unit for 180 days (again, that's the way I remember it). All of that hardware would be in Saudi Arabia by now. Relatively light supplies, like ammunition and pre-packaged food, can be brought in by airlift. With the arrival of M1A1's from NATO war stocks, all the M1's that they replaced have remained in Saudi Arabia as replacements. I would expect that if we still had to conduct a major sealift (as if we haven't already) of the kind you describe, what would be done is equipment/supplies could be taken to a base of operations like Diego Garcia, the Phillipines, Guam, Ascension, Gibraltar, etc. in traditional (non-RO-RO) ships and then crossdecked to the SL-7's, other AKR's and T-AKR's, and the MPS Ships--all of which *are* RO-RO, and can land their cargo without any port facilities except for the pontoon piers that the Seabees put together. If any praise for Desert Shield is to be given out now, it should be bestowed on the logisticians--they've done a damn fine job. Allan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allan Bourdius [MIDN 3/C (Marine Option)/Brother, Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity] ab3o+@andrew.cmu.edu or Box 4719, 5125 Margaret Morrison St., Pgh., PA 15213 "Give, expecting nothing thereof." "Phi Kappa Theta, just the best." "An unwarlike Marine is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar." Nothing that I have written is the opinion of anyone but myself. So there!