Cover

Preparations for evening flight operations

on board the aircraft carrier USS Harry

S. Truman (CVN 75) in March 2005.

U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate

Airman Ryan O’Connor.

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Reposturing the Force

U.S. Overseas Presence in the Twenty-first Century

NAVAL WAR COLLEGE PRESS

Newport, Rhode Island

Carnes Lord, Editor

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Naval War College

Newport, Rhode Island

Center for Naval Warfare Studies

Newport Paper Twenty-six

February 2006

President, Naval War College

Rear Admiral Jacob L. Shuford, U.S. Navy

Provost/Dean of Academics

Professor James F. Giblin, Jr.

Dean of Naval Warfare Studies

Dr. Kenneth H. Watman

Naval War College Press

Editor: Dr. Carnes Lord

Managing Editor: Pelham G. Boyer

Telephone: 401.841.2236

Fax: 401.841.1071

DSN exchange: 948

E-mail: press@nwc.navy.mil

Web: www.nwc.navy.mil/press

Printed in the United States of America

The Newport Papers are extended research projects that the

Editor, the Dean of Naval Warfare Studies, and the

President of the Naval War College consider of particular

interest to policy makers, scholars, and analysts.

The views expressed in the Newport Papers are those of the

authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the

Naval War College or the Department of the Navy.

Correspondence concerning the Newport Papers may be

addressed to the Editor of the Naval War College Press. To

request additional copies, back copies, or subscriptions to

the series, please either write the President (Code 32S),

Naval War College, 686 Cushing Road, Newport, RI

02841-1207, or contact the Press staff at the telephone, fax,

or e-mail addresses given.

Reproduction and printing is subject to the Copyright Act

of 1976 and applicable treaties of the United States. This

document may be freely reproduced for academic or other

noncommercial use; however, it is requested that

reproductions credit the author and Newport Papers series

and that the Press editorial office be informed. To obtain

permission to reproduce this publication for commercial

purposes, contact the Press editorial office.

ISSN 1544-6824

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Contents

Foreword, by Carnes Lord 

Introduction, by Carnes Lord 

CHAPTER ONE Thinking about Basing 

by Robert E. Harkavy

CHAPTER TWO Transforming the

U.S. Global Defense Posture 

by Ryan Henry

CHAPTER THREE Politics and Diplomacy of the

Global Defense Posture Review 

by Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr.

CHAPTER FOUR A Place and a Base:

Guam and the American Presence

in East Asia 

by Andrew S. Erickson

and Justin D. Mikolay

CHAPTER FIVE On Sea Basing 

by Robert O. Work

List of Abbreviations 

Contributors 

The Newport Papers 

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Foreword

The present volume, Reposturing the Force: U.S. Overseas Presence in the Twenty-f

Century, is the twenty-sixth in the Newport Papers monograph series, published 

1991 by the Naval War College Press. Its primary aim is to provide a snapshot of 

cess—the ongoing reconfiguration of America’s foreign military “footprint” abro

that is likely to prove of the most fundamental importance for the long-term sec

of the United States, yet has so far received little if any systematic attention from 

tional security specialists and still less from the wider public. As such, it serves w

broad mission of the Newport Papers series—to provide rigorous and authoritat

analysis, of a sort not readily available in the world of academic or commercial p

lishing, of issues of strategic salience to the U.S. Navy and the national security c

munity generally.

Reposturing the Force is, however, unusual in the manner in which it combines ri

and authoritativeness, for several of its authors are or recently were senior U.S. g

ment officials. Ryan Henry and Lincoln Bloomfield, Jr., have been central figures 

Global Defense Posture Review (initiated by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsf

2002 as the key mechanism for forcing transformation of the U.S. overseas prese

while serving as, respectively, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for P

and Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. As such, they are un

positioned to comment on the unfolding of this vast, complex, and extremely sen

undertaking, many of the details of which are still in flux or are (and likely will rem

classified. For additional perspective on the subject, however, we have felt it impo

to include also papers by several independent scholars and policy analysts. Rober

Harkavy’s opening essay helps to place current developments in the American glo

posture in a larger historical and strategic framework. Andrew Erickson and Just

Mikolay provide an in-depth analysis of the role of Guam in recent thinking and 

sions about the posture of the U.S. military in the western Pacific. Finally, Robert 

examines the emerging concept of “sea basing” in Navy and Marine Corps doctri

and force planning, an integral yet so far largely neglected dimension of the Ame

military presence abroad.

The papers by Henry and Bloomfield were specially commissioned for this volum

the editor would like to thank both authors for their eager and responsive partici

in this project. Also instrumental in supporting this effort within the Office of th

retary of Defense were Barry Pavel; Captain Randall Hendrickson, USN; Lesley Y

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preciation to Robert Work for making available portions of a larger manuscript on

Navy/Marine Corps force structure, as well as to Henry Kamradt of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies for his editorial work on this material.

Ryan Henry’s paper has been formally reviewed and cleared for publication by the Department of Defense. The remaining papers reflect the opinions of the authors and

should not be assumed to coincide with the official views of the Department of the

Navy, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government generally.

CARNES LORD

Director, Naval War College Press

Newport, Rhode Island

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Introduction

CARNES LORD

Perhaps because American theorizing about war and strategy has in recent times 

heavily influenced by the land-power orientation of our chief adversaries, the sub

of overseas bases and the necessity of reliance on them for the projection of pow

across maritime theaters of operations has remained very much at the margins o

tegic analysis in the United States. The revival of the thought of the nineteenth-c

Prussian theorist of war Carl von Clausewitz within the American armed forces b

ning in the late 1970s has not been matched by a rediscovery of our own Alfred T

Mahan, the late-Victorian apostle of a navy with global reach as the chief enabler 

national power. Mahan’s classic work The Influence of Seapower upon History 16

1783 (1890) made a convincing case that the rise of Britain in modern times w

cisively aided by its ability to dominate the world’s sea lines of communication 

formidable navy, supported, on the one hand, by a robust foreign commerce and

the other, by a network of strategically positioned overseas bases. In the contemp

world, the immense technological advantages enjoyed by American ground and a

forces too often lead us to take for granted the continuing importance for the Un

States of command of the sea—and its corollary, ready access to the territory of d

friends and adversaries throughout the world.1

The long series of conflicts between Britain and France and their various respect

lies that culminated in the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 were the first truly global 

The strategic competition they engendered gave a powerful impetus to the develo

ment of the great European overseas empires and helps explain the shape those e

pires took. Now-forgotten battles over remote places such as Mauritius, Réunion

Trincomalee helped decide which power would control India and the China trad

World War I is commonly remembered only as a land war in Europe. Yet the wea

of the Central Powers beyond their own shores (German colonies in Africa and t

cific were occupied in short order, while the main German fleet remained bottled 

its home port throughout most of the war) made it difficult for them to use effec

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options.2

When the United States defeated Spain in a brief war in 1898, it acquired a

minor overseas empire of its own, most notably the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto

Rico; the earlier acquisition of Hawaii, however, had already established it as a Pacific

power. Following World War I and Japan’s occupation of the former German territorie

in the western Pacific, the U.S. Navy became increasingly preoccupied with the prospect of a trans-Pacific war with the Japanese. However, during the 1930s Washington

was reluctant to provoke Japan by strengthening U.S. Pacific outposts, and it turned a

blind eye to Japanese efforts to fortify militarily the former German territories Japan

held under a League of Nations mandate. As a result, the United States was initially ill

prepared to meet the Japanese onslaught in 1941. Only by a prodigious and unprecedented effort to mobilize and project military power essentially “from the sea” against

the garrisoned Japanese island chains was the United States able to overcome these disadvantages and bring the war eventually to Japan itself and victory.

Following World War II, the United States made it clear that it would not repeat the

mistakes of its isolationist policy of the interwar years. It remained firmly ensconced in

the Pacific islands for which it had paid so much in blood, and it installed large permanent garrisons in both Germany and Japan. Moreover, it soon gained access as well to a

vast array of bases and facilities of all kinds in the territories (and colonial possessions)

of its NATO allies as it remobilized to contain the global threat posed by the Soviet Union and communism. American troops remain in Germany and Japan today, in spite of

the disappearance of the Soviet threat some fifteen years ago.

Over the last several decades, to be sure, the United States has made substantial adjustments in its overseas presence. Even before the fall of the Soviet Union, it abandoned

major bases in Panama and the Philippines in response to political pressure from host

governments or regional opinion. It greatly reduced American ground and air forces in

western Germany in recognition of the radically improved security situation in the

heart of Europe following the departure of Soviet troops and the reunification of Germany. At the same time, after the Gulf war of 1990–91, it expanded its presence in the

Persian Gulf region, especially in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait but also in the territory of

such new allies as Qatar, in order to enforce the postwar “no fly” regime over Iraq and

deter further adventurism by Saddam Hussein, still firmly in power there. Apart from

this case, the American basing infrastructure abroad—and for that matter, within the

continental United States—may be said to have contracted incrementally and opportunistically after the end of the Cold War. The events of 11 September 2001, however,

changed all that. In the new security environment that has since developed, it soon

became clear that nothing short of a fundamental rethinking of America’s global

posture was needed.

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fense Posture Review (GDPR). Initiated in 2001 at the direction of Secretary of D

Donald Rumsfeld, this unprecedented review has involved the uniformed militar

nior civilians in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and not least, the Departm

of State in an extraordinary exercise in strategic planning and interagency coope

Though many details remain classified or are not yet fully worked out, the genera

rection of American policy is now relatively clear.3

It is time to begin to assess the 

tegic meaning of these changes. To do so is the purpose of the present volume.

It needs to be stated at the outset that the scope of this subject extends well beyo

“bases” in the traditional sense in which we have been using the term. In the first 

because of the political sensitivity attaching to the presence of foreign military fo

within a state’s sovereign territory, the word “base” itself is today often avoided in 

of the more ambiguous “facility” (suggesting a more temporary and controlled s

However, what is at issue here is a much more complex set of interactions betwee

United States and its overseas partners. It includes the overall political and milita

lationship between the United States and the host government, activities conduct

foreign soil by U.S. forces, legal arrangements governing military access (overflight 

for example), the prepositioning of equipment overseas, and the global manageme

U.S. forces in deployments within or across theaters of operations. “Global presenc

haps best encompasses these dimensions of American military activity abroad.

This volume does not attempt to provide a detailed survey of the current state of 

in the American global posture in different regions of the world; its purpose is ra

to stimulate critical and strategic thinking on a neglected subject and contribute 

formed debate and analysis throughout the national security policy community. 

Harkavy’s essay “Thinking about Bases” is thus an appropriate prelude. Harkavy, 

author of two comprehensive scholarly studies of basing during the Cold War, ex

the long prehistory of basing during the creation of the European empires of the 

modern era and its enduring geopolitical dimensions.4

He provides a useful remi

that basing today is not only about the stationing of forces but about a global net

of technologies for intelligence, warning, and communications. Further, he calls 

attention to what might be called the embeddedness of bases or presence in Ame

political and economic relationships with foreign countries, focusing particularly 

the relationship between basing and security assistance. He concludes with some 

ulation concerning future trends in basing and access for other countries as well 

United States.

The Global Defense Posture Review is presented and analyzed in two papers. Rya

Henry, currently Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, traces t

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tion” pursued by the Rumsfeld Pentagon and its analysis of the current global threat

environment. He points out, among other things, that basing in the past was conceptualized and conducted primarily with a view to traditional major power warfare,

whereas the current security environment poses novel challenges in the areas of what

are now commonly called “irregular,” “disruptive,” and “catastrophic” threats as well.

Formerly, U.S. forces abroad were essentially expected to fight where they were based

(for example, on the North German Plain). By contrast, today the requirement is for

flexibility and mobility to deploy quickly to sudden flashpoints virtually anywhere in

the world. In this context, Henry develops five key themes that make up the strategy of

fered by the GDPR: to improve flexibility to deal with uncertainty; to strengthen allied

roles and build new partnerships for cooperative security; to create the capacity to act

both within and across regions; to develop rapidly deployable capabilities; and to focus

on effective military capabilities, not simply numbers. After a discussion of the important new typology of bases now envisioned by the United States, Henry concludes with

a brief overview of the posture changes already achieved or under way in key regions o

the world.

Lincoln Bloomfield, Jr., who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military

Affairs and was the lead State Department official for the GDPR through 2004, focuses

on the very significant diplomatic and political aspects of the GDPR. Bloomfield begins by sketching the history of the GDPR, with particular reference to coordinating

the effort with (and selling it to) the traditional allies of the United States. He then addresses some of the deeper issues and concerns that emerged during this process. Principal among these were concerns that reduced U.S. troop deployments would translate

into reduced commitments to partners; that such reductions were indicators of a larger

shift in American policy away from its traditional alliances and toward unilateralism;

that the movement of American bases and forces in Europe eastward suggested a calcu

lated anti-Russian agenda; and that the new emphasis on the global management of

U.S. forces stationed abroad would complicate bilateral relationships with host countries. Ultimately, however, the overriding issue for America’s allies, according to

Bloomfield, was simply how they “fit in” to the new picture created by the GDPR. He

concludes by urging the United States and its allies to pursue a dialogue on legal and

doctrinal issues relating to the use of force in the context of the changed security environment we face today.

If allies and partners are critical to maintaining a robust American overseas military

presence, however, they are not the whole story. Very recent experience—notably, the

Turkish denial of access to U.S. ground forces in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in

2003, and the closing of the American air base at Karshi-Khanabad in Uzbekistan in

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clearly enough that there will always be uncertainties in the conditions attaching to 

use of American forces stationed or operating on allied or friendly territory. It is th

fore essential to consider other alternatives. There are three such alternatives: basin

the continental United States (CONUS), in sovereign U.S. territories overseas, and 

As regards the first, the United States has been engaged since the end of the Cold 

in a major effort to review, reduce, realign, and otherwise rationalize the large an

complex military basing infrastructure within the continental United States. Tho

motivated largely by the Pentagon’s desire to achieve efficiencies and cut costs, th

fort (the Base Closure and Realignment process—known as BRAC) has also take

count of new strategic realities and capabilities. Improvements in sea- and airlift

notably, make it possible to relocate some ground forces from overseas to CONU

bases without great sacrifice in terms of our ability to deploy them rapidly and fl

to likely theaters of operations. Long-range strike aircraft will continue to operat

CONUS bases against targets throughout the world. Still, the tyranny of distance 

continue to impose severe constraints on what CONUS-based forces can accomp

An alternative that has not been discussed as much as it deserves is the use for m

purposes of sovereign U.S. territory overseas. There are two prime candidates he

waii and Guam. (In essentially the same category is the small British-owned islan

Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, a key logistics hub and strategic bomber base 

by the United States since the 1960s under a long-term agreement with the Unite

Kingdom.) Since the late 1990s, there has been growing interest in Guam within 

U.S. military, given the island’s unique strategic position in the western Pacific; a 

redeployment of American air and naval assets there is in fact currently under 

Andrew Erickson and Justin Mikolay offer a comprehensive survey and analysis o

these developments in the context of the overall American military presence in E

Asia. They conclude that the case for more extensive exploitation of Guam as a b

compared with other alternatives in the region is very strong, and they make spe

recommendations for additional capabilities the United States might consider lo

there in the future, as well as for improvements in Guam’s military infrastructure

Finally, there is the alternative—if indeed it is one—of “sea basing.” Sea basing as 

doctrinal term of art has gained currency over the last several years as one of the 

“pillars” of the U.S. Navy’s vision document “Seapower 21.”5

As suggested earlier

idea of sea basing is not altogether new; it has its roots in the amphibious warfar

trine of the Marine Corps and in the Navy’s feats of power projection and sea-b

logistics support across the Pacific in World War II. Much remains unclear about 

current sea-basing concept, particularly its overall scope and its implications for 

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ever, is the (implicit or explicit) claim that it will radically increase the ability of U.S.

naval and joint forces to operate, and to project power to considerable distances ashore

independently of land bases in friendly countries.

Robert Work provides a detailed analysis of sea basing as currently understood, both in

a broad strategic context and with reference to the evolution of recent thinking within

the Navy and Marine Corps on this subject. While supportive in general of the rediscovery of the sea-basing concept, Work is critical of some of the arguments that have

been used in its behalf—for example, the virtually axiomatic claim that a sea base

would be less vulnerable than land bases to a competently armed adversary. He is also

critical of many of the features of the emerging sea-basing construct, with its emphasis

on rapidity of deployment and support of major combat operations, and he cautions

about potential costs. According to Work, the utility of sea basing in smaller-scale, irregular conflict scenarios, especially those associated with counterterrorist missions,

has been unduly neglected. Work provides a vision for a “sea-based power projection

fleet” designed to contribute to both major combat operations and global irregular war

and he sketches a comprehensive, fiscally constrained architecture for such a fleet. In

doing so, he breaks much new ground and opens a wide-ranging, long-overdue debate

on these issues.

Several additional remarks may be appropriate in concluding this introduction. Whatever the exact configuration of future “sea based” American military capabilities, there

can be little question that there are several fundamental dimensions to the sea-basing

question that its advocates have scarcely begun to address. The first has to do with the

relationship between sea basing and jointness. Although some efforts have been made

to develop a joint doctrine for sea basing, the fact remains that sea basing continues to

be seen by the other services as something that primarily serves the interests of the

Navy and the Marine Corps. A second has to do with the interrelationships between se

basing and land basing, in particular the ways in which land bases can facilitate sea bas

ing and potentially affect how it is configured and scaled. In the Pacific theater, for example, any discussion of the composition and employment of sea bases in particular

conflict scenarios should certainly begin with a discussion of the contributions actually

or potentially provided by Hawaii and Guam, and then by major bases/facilities on the

territory of regional partners such as Japan, Singapore, or Australia. A further level of

analysis might consider possible cost trade-offs between sea basing and investments in

new land-based facilities in friendly countries (for example, the Philippines, should its

government rethink its policy banning a permanent U.S. naval presence at Subic Bay).

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can defense establishment have proceeded in sublime disregard of their implicati

for traditional U.S. alliance relationships or security cooperation activities more

broadly.6

On the face of it, the sea-basing concept implies a devaluation of the U.

land-based overseas presence and raises uncomfortable questions about the exten

character of American alliance commitments and tendencies toward unilateralism 

political and military decision making. Recently, the Navy has shown signs of rec

ing this problem by popularizing the notion of a “Thousand-Ship Navy” leveragi

lied maritime capabilities to meet the transnational security challenges of the cur

environment.7

What this means in practical terms, however, remains quite unclea

More generally, it is plain that a major disconnect persists between what might fo

venience be called the “global posture” perspective on U.S. overseas presence on t

one hand and the “sea basing” perspective on the other, reflecting the dominant 

the former of the Army and Air Force, and in the latter of the Navy and Marine C

The United States needs a vision and strategy for overseas presence that is both f

“joint” and genuinely “combined.” While impressive progress has indeed been m

is clear that we are not yet at the end of that road.

Notes

1. For seminal thinking on the role of bases in

American naval strategy, see Alfred Thayer

Mahan, “Considerations Governing the Disposition of Navies,” National Review 39 (July

1902), pp. 701–19, reprinted in John B.

Hattendorf, ed., Mahan on Naval Strategy

(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press,

1991), pp. 281–318; and Stephen B. Luce,

“The Navy and Its Needs,” North American

Review 193 (April 1911), pp. 494–507, reprinted in John D. Hayes and John B.

Hattendorf, eds., The Writings of Stephen B.

Luce (Newport, R.I.: Naval War College

Press, 1975), pp. 147–62.

2. Consider Wolfgang Wegener, Naval Strategy

of the World War (1929), trans. and ed.

Holger Herwig (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1989).

3. The principal official document is U.S. Defense Dept., Strengthening U.S. Global Defense

Posture, Report to Congress (Washington,

D.C.: September 2004). For further details as

well as some criticisms and caveats, see

Commission on Review of the Overseas Military Facility Structure of the United States,

Report to the President and Congress

(Arlington, Va.: August 2005).

4. See Robert E. Harkavy, Great Power C

tion for Overseas Bases: The Geopoliti

cess Diplomacy (New York: Pergamon

and Bases Abroad: The Global Foreign 

tary Presence (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford U

Press, 1989).

5. For an authoritative statement, see C

W. Moore, Jr. [VAdm., USN], and Ed

Hanlon, Jr. [Lt. Gen., USMC], “Sea-B

Operational Independence for a New 

tury,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 

ary 2003).

6. An exception is John J. Klein [Lt. Cdr

and Rich Morales [Maj., USA], “Sea-

Isn’t Just about the Sea,” U.S. Naval In

Proceedings (January 2004).

7. John G. Morgan, Jr. [VAdm., USN], 

Charles W. Martoglio [RAdm., USN

1,000 Ship Navy Global Maritime N

work,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedi

(November 2005).

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Thinking about Basing

ROBERT E. HARKAVY

Recent U.S. military engagements—1990–91 against Iraq, in Bosnia, Kosovo, and 

in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq again (2003)—have highlighted the complexities 

uncertainties of basing access in the post–Cold War period. They have involved q

tions of access to (including overhead transit rights for) a variety of nations: Egy

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Tadzhikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Djibouti, many European 

tries, and others. They have also highlighted the crucial importance of the future 

American basing access at a time of shifting alliances, friendships, and enmities a

wholesale changes in the structure of the international system, and of the movem

the forefront of the issues of terrorism, radical Islam, proliferation of weapons o

destruction, and a looming hegemonic challenge by China.

In relation to these events and trends, there has been almost nothing published 

general vein in the scholarly literature about bases, perhaps in part because the 

ject does not easily lend itself to quantitative analysis or theorizing. However, o

the last several years the Department of Defense has undertaken a major review 

the American global basing structure—the first such comprehensive policy rev

since the period of NSC-68 in the early 1950s. That review has run in tandem w

review of the military base structure in the continental United States (CONUS

the presidentially appointed Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRA

excess capacity at home opens up possibilities for bringing some forces and ins

tions back to the United States from overseas. These reviews, moreover, have ta

place in the context of the ongoing trend toward “transformation” of the milita

the direction of a posture characterized by smaller, more mobile forces suited t

newer threat environment. Finally, the Navy and the Marine Corps have under

extensive studies of the possible advantages for joint warfare of what has come 

known as “sea basing.” Thus far, however, there seems to have been little effort 

think through the implications of the sea-basing concept for the ongoing realig

ment of the American global posture.

CHAPTER ONE

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The United States is not the only major power involved in external basing access,

though it is by far the most prominent. China, on the move militarily and seeking ever

more necessary sources of oil, has taken the first steps toward establishing basing acces

en route to the Persian Gulf area in the Indian Ocean—specifically, in Pakistan, Bangla

desh, and Myanmar. And Russia, perhaps loath to abandon entirely the basing structure of the former USSR, has maintained facilities and forces in Kyrgyzstan,

Tadzhikistan, Georgia, and Armenia; likewise, it has shown considerable sensitivity to

the growing U.S. presence in the former Soviet space and in Afghanistan.

There are some initial points to be made regarding definitions. One may speak variously of bases, facilities, host-nation support, installations, strategic access, forward

presence, global posture, and FMP (foreign military presence). During the latter part o

the Cold War, common usage dictated the use of “facilities” rather than “bases” becaus

of the negative political overtones of the latter term. The U.S. Defense Department

compilation of domestic and foreign bases is organized according to discrete installations. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute uses the basic concept of

“FMP” in a way roughly synonymous with others’ use of “base.”1

The concept of “basing access” or “strategic access” is a broader construction, subsuming overflight rights

and perhaps access for intelligence operations. During the 1980s and 1990s, the concept of “power projection” came to be seen as an overarching one.2

More recently,

“global posture” (or “footprint”) has become the dominant definitional concept within

the U.S. defense establishment; more theoretically oriented academic studies have used

the terms “global reach” or, earlier, “subglobal reach.”3

Recent Defense Department publications—notably, a key September 2004 report to

Congress—have taken to defining the American global posture according to five criteria: relationships (interaction with allies and partners at all levels), activities (training,

exercises, and operations), facilities (where forces live, train, and operate, and where

they preposition materiel), legal arrangements (the framework of presence, including

status-of-forces agreements, both bilateral and multilateral), and global sourcing and

surge (a global-force management system for power projection).4

Thus, although the

main focus of this paper will be on bases/facilities, “global posture” does involve a

broader frame of reference that will be kept in view.

Basing in Historical Context

In the centuries-long history of the basing systems of the “great powers,” several major

areas of generalization and trend stand out, each of which is relevant to current problems. These are complex matters, and we can merely summarize them here:

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and the presence or absence of ideological roots of rivalry between contendin

major powers

• The basis for basing access: conquest or colonization versus formal alliances o

alignments versus tangible quid pro quos—that is, security and economic

assistance, arms transfers, and the like

• The impact on basing of ever-evolving technological change—especially for s

propulsion, from sail to oared galleys to sail to coal to oil to nuclear power, bu

the reach and lethality of armaments

• The nexus of the security and economic functions of basing and how that has

shifted over time

• “Heartland” versus “rimland” as a basic pattern of rival basing structures through 

The relationship of system structure and the ideological basis for conflict over m

centuries is a complicated story. The empire of the Mongols, who were predomin

a land power, stretched across most of Eurasia but also exercised maritime and b

dominance in the Far East in the thirteenth century. Subsequently, the Chinese M

dynasty, a regional hegemon, had uncontested access to bases throughout Southe

Asia and around the Indian Ocean. In the Mediterranean, from the thirteenth to 

teenth centuries first Venice and Genoa, then Venice (latterly Spain) and the Otto

Empire were locked in regional competition for maritime dominance and basing 

cales. Their respective bases, especially those of Venice and Genoa, were often ch

jowl, constituting interpenetrating systems. (The Venice-Ottoman rivalry and th

Spain and the Ottomans were somewhat more demarcated between east and wes

Portugal and Spain had rival but formally demarcated basing structures, with Po

acquiring bases all around Africa and the Indian Ocean and in the Far East and B

Spain mostly in Latin America but also in the Philippines and the western Medit

nean. Some scholars do not rate Portugal a great power during the early modern 

it was a maritime power only, standing on the margins of a Europe then domina

the Hapsburg Empire. If so, we have somewhat of a divorce between great-power 

and the facts of basing structure. In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands wa

commercial and maritime hegemon, with the most elaborate basing structure of it

but it existed within a multipolar power structure in Europe, and its bases interpen

etrated the systems of England and France, particularly in India. The British Empir

maritime predominance and an unmatched global basing system, also in the overa

text of European multipolarity, wherein other powers—France, Prussia/Germany, 

and Austria-Hungary—were major land powers in the eighteenth and nineteenth 

turies and on up to World War I.

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saw a global competition for basing access, but an asymmetric one with respect to mar

itime power, in which one side, the United States, was predominant throughout. Only

since the early 1990s, however, has the United States had complete maritime predominance and the only global basing presence, with no rival whatsoever. Generally speaking, basing structures have correlated with the facts of relative national power (with the

exception, as noted, of Portugal).

Over time, bases and access in general have resulted from conquest and colonization,

alliances, or quid pro quos such as security assistance, though these have not been mutually exclusive. The Mongols’ few bases were acquired entirely by conquest. Those of

Ming China seem to have been a mix of “forced entry,” also known as intimidation,

and agreements with local potentates interested in trade. The bases of the Venetian,

Genoese, Ottoman, and Spanish fleets of oared galleys in the Mediterranean were

mostly the results of conquest, but in some cases came of more consensual arrangements. Spain’s basing structure accrued entirely by ruthless conquest and colonization.

Portugal’s involved some military conquest, but also a good deal of alliance building

among more advanced (relative to those of Spain’s domain) societies in India, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. The Dutch took over most of the Portuguese basing structure

by conquest; the British built their empire and its attendant basing structure almost

entirely on the basis of conquest “beyond the line,” in what now is called the Third

World. But many British bases in Europe were acquired, often ad hoc, on the basis of

ever-shifting alliances in a multipolar European system sans ideology.

In the early part of the Cold War, the United States availed itself of a large number of

bases via alliances with the United Kingdom and France, before the possessions and

bases of the latter gradually dwindled as a result of decolonialization. After that, starting in the 1960s, the United States (and also the Soviet Union) built global basing

structures on the basis of alliances with ideologically friendly client states, underpinned by protection and provision of security but also by extensive security assistance

mostly in the form of arms transfers.

Throughout the past half-millennium or more, technological change has been a major

driver of basing requirements. Up to World War I and somewhat beyond, that pattern

pertained almost entirely to naval technology. The Mongols and Ming Chinese built

large sailing vessels that gave them long-range power-projection capability. In the Med

iterranean from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, the contending powers used

oared galleys; their limited ranges and extensive logistical requirements translated into

the need by the Venetians, Genoese, Ottomans, and Spaniards for elaborate basing networks even in that relatively small theater.5

Portugal, on the basis of technological

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move to the forefront of naval power and establish bases in a quasi-global system 

tered on the Indian Ocean.6

But travel was slow and dependent on prevailing win

and currents; warships going from Lisbon to Goa around the Cape of Good Hop

to travel west almost to Brazil to pick up winds favorable for the trip around Afri

The Netherlands, France, and Britain improved the capabilities of sailing ships o

several centuries. In the nineteenth century the advent of coal-fired steam propu

resulted in faster and more direct travel for naval ships, but also in a requirement 

numerous coaling stations—a development of which Britain was able to take par

advantage because of its global empire. The appearance of oil-fired ships (also of 

oilers and colliers) reduced these requirements; later, nuclear propulsion would r

them further.

But after World War I, developments in aviation produced entirely new requirem

for external air bases; as aircraft ranges were short, the number of bases required 

ferrying combat aircraft or troops and materiel was huge. Japan in 1941, for insta

had numerous air bases on Taiwan and Hainan Island; Italy had them in Libya an

Somaliland.7

The submarine produced yet further requirements (for example, Fr

Spain gave German U-boats access to the Canary Islands for refueling). Beginnin

undersea communications cables before 1914, after World War I with radio relay 

intercept stations, a basing requirement arose for technical intelligence, surveillan

and reconnaissance (ISR) purposes. After World War II, that became an importa

matter. The United States constructed elaborate global networks of AUTOVON/

AUTODIN communications; DSP and other satellite downlinks; the DEW Line a

BMEWS; SOSUS; SIGINT (signals intelligence) ground installations; NUDETS; a

much more. Oiler refueling (for transfer to operating forces at sea) and constant 

surveillance produced still other basing requirements. But, paradoxically, oiler re

and increasing aircraft ranges greatly reduced the need for elaborate external net

of air bases.

There had once existed a close nexus between the security and economic functio

overseas bases. The Ming Chinese navy under Admiral Zheng Ho, which roamed 

Indian Ocean littoral, did so mostly with the purpose of advancing trade. Venetia

Genoese bases in the eastern Mediterranean–Black Sea area likewise were colocat

with a variety of economic enterprises, and many of the Venetian and Genoese w

leys were actually armed merchant vessels. Portuguese bases in East Africa, India

elsewhere were also entrepôts—hubs of commercial activity. A number of the 

ish and Dutch bases in Asia were established by semiprivate trading compani

closely tied to and protected by their nations’ fleets and armies. By the heyda

the British Empire, however, this colocation of military bases and entrepôts h

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for military reasons.

During the Cold War, however, the critical issue of Persian Gulf oil became inextricably

linked to basing access. American bases along oil-tanker sea-lanes to Asia and North

America came to be viewed in the context of a possible Soviet effort (from bases in Angola, Guinea, Somalia, South Yemen, and elsewhere) to interdict them in case of war. In

the late 1980s, with the “reflagging” operation on behalf of Kuwait, the United States

established new points of access in the Persian Gulf. Today, the expansion of the U.S.

overseas presence must be viewed in the context of potential struggles over oil resources, not only in and around the Persian Gulf but in places like Azerbaijan, Libya,

Algeria, Gabon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.8

Economics, then, in the form of acces

to oil, has crept back into basing access and global presence.

Over the past five hundred years, the basing networks of the contending great powers

have corresponded closely with the geopolitical imagery of “heartland” and “rimland.”

As noted originally by Alfred Thayer Mahan, the successive maritime hegemons—Portugal, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and the United States—all established a degree of

blue-water sea control based on superior main fleets and a ring of naval bases all

around the Eurasian supercontinent.9

Periodically, they were challenged by land power

attempting to develop equivalent seapower: France under Louis XIV, Germany before

World War I, the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The successive maritime hegemons typically inherited their predecessors’ basing structures, though with modifications.10 The Dutch took the Portuguese bases by force, but

Britain in its turn mostly acquired the Dutch bases peacefully, as did the United States

when it took over the role of rimland naval hegemon from Britain after World War II.

Certain bases or strongpoints astride key “choke points” or adjacent to strategically

important locales, and islands in strategic locations, have risen to importance with

noteworthy frequency over five hundred years: Hormuz, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Malta,

Mauritius, Aden, Trincomalee (in Sri Lanka), the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of

India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan—these places appear again and again in the history of naval warfare.

During the Cold War, the United States, sometimes relying upon the remnants of the

British Empire, established bases or facilities in Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom,

West Germany, the Azores, Morocco, Libya, Spain, Italy, Greece/Crete, Turkey, Iran,

Diego Garcia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere—in a pattern perfectly reflective of a rimland configuration around the periphery of the Sino-Soviet bloc. Now, of course, analysts refer to a newer geopolitical

configuration focused on intersecting “arcs of crisis” from North Africa to South Asia,

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politics and on combating Islamist terror and nuclear proliferation. The rimland 

ing structure has been retained at least in part, but the newer geopolitics spotligh

importance of access to Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Horn of 

and the Sahel (a narrow band of semiarid land south of the Sahara Desert), all ar

the arcs of crisis. Also, of course, in view of U.S. naval dominance and the absenc

maritime peer competitor, there is an emphasis on littoral warfare and control, in 

of Mahanian sea control.

Conflict Typologies, Scenarios, Contingencies: The Context of U.S. Global Presen

Recent Defense Department and other studies have focused on outright interven

scenarios (Iraq, Iran, Korea, Taiwan, plus numerous smaller situations involving 

ous types of low-intensity conflict) as the core of the problem of forward presen

accordingly have emphasized the more ad hoc forms of access. That is appropria

it may be worthwhile to present a more complex framework, with historical exam

and possible future scenarios. Hence, the following analysis refers to both bases a

other forms of access, with a (not always clear-cut) distinction between nuclear d

rence and the various levels of conventional power projection.

Nuclear Deterrence and Defense

During the Cold War, many bases served dual purposes with regard to prospective 

clear and conventional power projection—for instance, forward-based attack aircr

Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea; access for carriers in the M

terranean and East Asia; attack submarine bases at La Maddalena, Faslane, and Sas

aerial tanker bases in places like Thule, Gander, and Keflavik; land-based SIGINT s

all around the Soviet periphery; U-2 and SR-71 surveillance aircraft bases; and oth

But some overseas access had functions that were primarily if not solely nuclear. 

on there were Strategic Air Command B-47 bases in Spain and Morocco; medium

range ballistic-missile bases in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Turkey, as well as o

Okinawa and Taiwan; DSP downlinks in Australia and Germany; SOSUS termina

variety of places near choke points and Soviet submarine transit routes and “bas

ground-launched cruise-missile and Pershing II emplacements in Europe (before 

Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty); BMEWS sites in the United Kingdom and G

land; nuclear detection facilities (seismic arrays) in numerous countries, includin

Norway and Turkey; signals-intelligence stations collecting missile telemetry data 

Iran, and later in China; bases for ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs) at Rota

(Spain) and Holy Loch (Scotland); and the DEW, PINETREE, and North Warnin

tem early-warning radars in Canada and Greenland. Much of this structure wa

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DSP downlink facilities) remains.

Today the future of nuclear deterrence basing is somewhat indeterminate. The SSBNs

are now all based in the continental United States (in Georgia and Washington State).

Nuclear-armed forward-based aircraft, such as the F-111s in the United Kingdom, have

been stood down. But some technical facilities remain—again, for instance, the DSP

downlinks. American nuclear deterrence today has Russia in mind only in part; basing

in the context of nuclear deterrence today has mostly to do with ballistic missile defense vis-à-vis China, North Korea, and Iran.

The main basing issues today have to do with the upgrading of the BMEWS radars in

the United Kingdom at Fylingdale Moor and at Thule, Greenland, under Danish sovereignty. For many years enhanced access to those sites was threatened by political forces

in Europe unhappy in general with U.S. ballistic missile defense schemes. But the exter

nal basing of missile defense should be seen also in the context of the defense of allies.

In that connection, I have developed elsewhere the concept of “triangular” or “indirect

deterrence, whereby nations targeted by a U.S. strategic or preemptive campaign that

are unable to respond against the American homeland or installations overseas may instead threaten U.S. allies.11 The value of the deterrent depends importantly on American concern for the well-being of allies.

The 1991 Iraqi Scud attacks on Israel and Saudi Arabia (Iraq having no capacity to attack the continental United States) constituted an early example. North Korean missile

tests over Japan imply a threat to strike Japan in response to American preemption

against Pyongyang’s nuclear facilities. Iran and perhaps Pakistan could do likewise;

both will be acquiring missiles that can reach throughout their respective regions—to

Israel, to the Central Asian states, etc. As nations acquire still-longer-range missiles, the

threatened area will expand—in the case of Iran, all over Europe. Hence the United

States must think in terms of comprehensive regional ballistic-missile-defense capabili

ties. But some potentially threatened nations, such as Japan, may be wary of acquiring

such defenses as “provocative” (this is a widely held view among the Japanese left) and

may indeed decouple from the United States and withdraw access for U.S. forces.12

States intimidated by Iran or Pakistan could also decline offers of missile defense.

Europe may be less likely to block installation of theater defense systems under intimidation or for fear of provocation, but some similarities may exist. An “old” European nation might now conceive of its grand strategy as one of building a

counterweight to the United States, taking advantage of U.S. support for Israel to

ingratiate itself with the Islamic world so as to attain preferential access to oil and

the greater use of euros to pay for it. That could lead such a nation to decouple

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protect it from “triangular” retaliation.

Poland, in contrast, appears to be negotiating the possibility of basing American 

ater antimissile systems within its borders, missiles that could cover much of Eur

Britain has agreed to allow the United States to upgrade the Fylingdale Moor site 

install missiles. Of course, U.S. warships capable of antimissile defense could be s

tioned in the Mediterranean or Baltic seas, or off Europe’s Atlantic coast.

American antiballistic missiles could conceivably be used to “shut down” nuclear 

changes in progress in the Greater Middle East. That could be done by shipboard 

siles, but the possibility of doing so with land-based missiles somewhere in the re

(Persian Gulf, Central Asia, the Caucasus) cannot be ruled out.

Conventional Conflict

Before World War II, a more or less isolationist America had little in the way o

seas bases, mostly in colonial possessions or protectorates—the Philippines, Gu

Wake Island, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The Lend-Lease 

1940 provided the United States use of a string of British bases reaching from N

foundland to British Guyana. During the war, many other bases or facilities—i

Greenland, Iceland, the Azores, Acapulco, the Galapagos Islands, and Recife an

Fortaleza in Brazil, for example—were provided by a number of countries. Afte

World War II, the new NATO alliance system afforded the United States access 

colonial possessions of Britain, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands, as well a

large number of bases in Europe itself. The use of numerous allied bases all aro

the Eurasian rimland was a virtual given. This made it easy for the United State

operate in conflicts large and small.

In the Korean War, bases in Japan were about all that were needed. In the Vietnam 

the United States relied extensively on air and naval bases in Japan, Taiwan, the P

pines (the major naval base at Subic Bay as well as Clark Air Force Base), and Th

Before and during DESERT STORM, access was available just about everywhere in 

rope and the Middle East. For a variety of contingencies large and small, the Uni

States operated in a permissive environment for access because of numerous stab

ance and other client relationships, all underpinned by security assistance.

Contemporary Conflict Scenarios

At present, and for the future, the security environment is much more ambiguou

are alliance relationships themselves. In place of a set and more or less stable twil

struggle against the Soviet Union and its allies, there is now a multilayered and fl

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ation, nation building, and peacekeeping in a variety of places, as well as a looming

hegemonic rivalry with China, maybe the European Union (EU), and maybe Russia

(again), in combinations and sequences not easily foreseen.

In fact, even with the best analytical work, conflicts—and hence basing or presence requirements—are not always easily envisaged or predicted. Few people in the summer

of 2001 could have predicted the need within months for U.S. access in Central Asian

ex-Soviet republics to enable large-scale military operations in Afghanistan. Earlier, few

British analysts can have foreseen the need for a large-scale invasion of the Falkland Islands, and a critical associated requirement for use of the (British-owned) air base on Ascension Island. The critical role of the Lajes air base in the (Portuguese-owned) Azores

for arms resupply to Israel in 1973 (which arguably averted resort by the latter to nuclear

weapons) had probably also been only dimly perceived by American defense planners.

However elaborate or far-fetched the scenarios considered by planners, then, surprises

may be expected, including some that overwhelm “capabilities-based analysis.”

That said, scenarios for the future can be broken down into two basic categories, generic and specific. Most current open-source Department of Defense analyses rely on

the former, if only to organize the subject. The generic scenario types now commonly

utilized are traditional, irregular, catastrophic, and disruptive. “Traditional” refers to familiar force-on-force, large-scale engagements, such as the two world wars, the Korean

War, DESERT STORM, the Iran-Iraq War, and the 1967 and 1973 Middle Eastern wars. In

the academic literature—for instance, in the research emerging from the “Correlates of

War” project—the relative scale of such conflicts is gauged by the variables of magnitude (number of combatants involved), severity (number of combat deaths), and duration.13 Additionally, one can point to “moving fronts”—that is, an identifiable shifting

demarcation of large-unit forces, analogous to a football line of scrimmage. Some analysts speak of a spectrum running from all-out conventional war to various forms of

“limited” conventional war, Korea being an example of warfare characterized by tacit

geographical limits. Most traditional conflicts are interstate.

“Irregular” conflicts refer to a range of conflict types roughly similar to the spectrum

of low-intensity warfare, a term in vogue in the 1980s and 1990s. It comprises guerrilla

and insurgency warfare, civil wars (ethnic wars over territory and ideological wars over

control of governments), coups, terrorism, border friction, and the like.14 Most of these

wars (the latter example excepted) are of an intrastate nature. Over time, the dominant

frequency of Marxist insurgencies gave way to “Reagan Doctrine” anticommunist insurgencies and then, in the 1990s, to a heyday of ethnic warfare.

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weapons of mass destruction—nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological wa

Hypothetically, some forms of environmental warfare might also be envisaged un

this heading. Catastrophic conflict can involve interstate warfare or terrorism. In 

former case, it could come in the form of “bolts from the blue” (premeditated at

or could come through escalation of a conventional war to the use of tactical, the

or strategic WMDs.

“Disruptive” scenarios are more difficult to categorize than the others. Presumab

could include such things as electromagnetic-pulse attacks that disrupt commun

tions or “cyber warfare,” with or without an identifiable perpetrator. They might 

involve major political changes in nations via elections or significant shifts in for

policy orientation that could heavily impact on U.S. global presence.

In the Cold War, U.S. government studies openly acknowledged expected, possib

actual scenarios, mostly related to the two “base cases”: war in Central Europe an

the Persian Gulf, both expected to involve the USSR. War started in one of these 

aters was thought likely to spread to the other (“horizontal escalation”). Korea w

addition, long an additional “mini–base case.” Specific scenarios, however, are po

cally sensitive in an ambiguous political environment in which the identities of f

and foes are not always as clear as in the (in this respect) halcyon Cold War years

the scenarios considered are far more varied, with respect both to type and locati

Political sensitivities put some within the classified realm, and again, there is a hi

likelihood of the unforeseen, though most can be fitted into the aforementioned 

way typology. Underlined in all of this is the global, diverse, almost open-ended n

of potential problems and the uncertainty of access in the context of shifting, ind

minate, and contingent or ad hoc political relationships.

The Future of Global Presence

The United States has been reshaping its global presence to deal with new threats, e

nating often from new sources, in a very fluid and complex global environment. It 

sitioning itself according to new geopolitical emphases (arcs of crisis, African oil fi

and also in line with its own “transformation”—an emphasis on smaller, lighter, m

mobile forces. There is a clear shift away from the residual Cold War global presenc

marked by heavy forces stationed where they would be expected to fight—in Centr

rope and Korea. In the light of plausible scenarios of future conflict, the comparati

costs involved, the necessity to retain military personnel and attend to their familie

needs, and a desire to lower the intrusiveness of the American presence and infring

on other nations’ sense of sovereignty, the U.S. global presence is increasingly being 

in terms of trade-offs. The traditional option is forward presence/basing; a new op

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creasingly attractive the option of basing military forces in CONUS itself. The latter two

broad options are, of course, linked.

As indicated in recent Defense Department publications, basing access is now officially

viewed along a spectrum embracing three distinct types of facilities: the “main operating base,” “forward operating site,” and “cooperative security location.” Main operating

bases involve “permanently stationed combat forces and robust infrastructure” and

“will be characterized by command and control structures, family support facilities,

and strengthened force protection measures.”15 Long-standing examples in the first category are Ramstein Air Force Base (Germany), Kadena Air Base (Japan), and Camp

Humphreys (Korea). Newer examples that seem to fit the category are the air bases at

al-Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates and al-Udeid in Qatar. Guam and Diego Garcia

are in a category of their own as sovereign territories (British in the case of Diego Garcia) and hence immune to future political threats.

A forward operating site is defined as “an expandable warm [i.e., kept in ready condition] facility maintained with a limited U.S. military support presence and possibly

prepositioned equipment.”16 Further, these sites “will support rotational rather than

permanently stationed forces and be a focus for bilateral and regional training.” Examples include the Sembawang port facility in Singapore and Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras. Other air bases around the world that might qualify are Keflavik in Iceland, Royal

Air Force Stations Lakenheath and Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, Spangdahlem in

Germany, Aviano in Italy, Incirlik in Turkey, Utapao in Thailand, and Naval Air Station

Atsugi in Japan. The newer facilities being expanded and utilized in Bulgaria and Romania also fit this model, as do some in the smaller Persian Gulf countries. The U.S. fa

cility at Sigonella in Sicily (during the Cold War mostly a U.S. Navy P-3 antisubmarine

patrol aircraft base) would presumably also quality as a forward operating site.

Cooperative security locations are facilities with little or no permanent American presence. Instead, they are maintained with periodic service, contractor, or host-nation

support. Cooperative security locations would provide contingency access and serve as

focal points for “security cooperation activities.”17 Dakar (Senegal) is one example;

there the U.S. Air Force has negotiated contingency landing, logistics, and final contracting arrangements, and the facility in fact served as a staging area for the peace sup

port operation in Liberia in 2003.18 Similar security arrangements of this sort are being

worked out with a substantial number of other African countries.19

The evolving trends are clear. Obviously, the main thrust is in the direction of a very

limited number of main operating bases, so as to lessen the American overseas footprint, and an increase in forward operating sites and cooperative security locations to

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first of all, a major drawdown of Cold War–era bases in “old Europe” (mostly in 

many) in favor of forward sites in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland, eithe

limited permanent personnel or forces rotated from Germany or the United Stat

The second trend comprises the maintenance of forward sites, cooperative locati

and prepositioned materiel in the Middle East—in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the U

Arab Emirates, and Oman (concurrent, however, with a dramatic reduction of fo

deployments in Saudi Arabia). A third is the maintenance of bases in and relatin

Afghanistan—and this apparently in the face of mounting pressure from Russia 

China, which fear a permanent U.S. presence in the region. Washington has kept 

bases in Afghanistan at Bagram, Kandahar, and Mazar e Sharif, and has solidified 

to an air base in Kyrgyzstan (Manas); but the government of Uzbekistan has rece

refused to allow the United States continued access to its air field at Khanabad. F

Diego Garcia remains (with British permission) a critical U.S. base for prepositio

refueling, and crew rest for B-2 and B-1 missions. Finally, in East Asia, Australia 

tinues to host important American intelligence and surveillance facilities (Exmou

Pine Gap) as well as offering American planes and ships access. Singapore, as not

hosts a major U.S. naval facility, and the Philippines now is resuming at least lim

military access for the United States after a long hiatus, prodded by the necessitie

cooperation on antiterrorism.

Japan (importantly including Okinawa) has, of course, long been a vital America

ing hub. It was the primary springboard for the conduct of the Korean War. For de

the United States maintained there important air bases (Misawa, Yokota, Kadena,

Atsugi), naval bases (Yokosuka, Sasebo), and a variety of ISR facilities. In recent y

however, with the Cold War over and with increasing Japanese sensitivities about 

ereignty and the conduct of some U.S. forces, there had appeared increasing pressu

the reduction of the American presence, particularly on densely populated Okinaw

Now that Japan faces a seemingly stronger and more hostile China, however, whi

North Korea appears on the verge of testing and deploying nuclear weapons, Jap

creasingly appears ever more reliant on its U.S. security tie; but it has also made c

that closer security cooperation with the United States will require some accomm

tion by the United States to Japanese political sensitivities, particularly concernin

U.S. Marine garrison on Okinawa; protracted negotiations between the two parti

now in their final phase, with a major restructuring of the U.S. presence in Japan 

low over the next several years.

Both Australia and Singapore are vital components of the American posture in th

cific. The latter provides important naval facilities and air staging at a crucial poi

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ISR support and will now be providing additional access for training in northern Australia in the face of possibly increasing Chinese naval activity in Southeast Asia and the

Indian Ocean. Finally, mention should be made of Guam. This sovereign U.S. territory

is currently getting another look as a way both to strengthen the U.S. air and naval

presence in the western Pacific in the face of a continuing Chinese military buildup,

and to lessen the political burdens of the American footprint, particularly in Japan.21

The retention of strong ties to Britain is a cornerstone of U.S. basing policy, not only

with respect to the large U.S. basing structure in the United Kingdom itself (major air

and submarine bases and an elaborate ISR structure) but also to the British-owned islands of Diego Garcia and, to a lesser degree, Ascension and Bermuda. Diego Garcia

has been critical to U.S. military operations in Kuwait/Iraq and Afghanistan, involving

maritime prepositioning ships, refueling for B-1 and B-2 bombers, transporting of

cargo aircraft, etc. Presumably, that is a solid, enduring asset, but the possibility of a

leftward shift in British politics combined with EU pressures on Britain to modify its

security tie with the United States could conceivably change all that. Ascension too

could become critical to possible future military operations in southwest Africa, home

to increasingly important oil fields.

The Basis of Basing

As we have seen, historically speaking nations have acquired basing access in one of

three basic ways: by conquest or colonization, by providing security or protection for

the host via formal alliances or less formal arrangements that still imply protection, or

by tangible quid pro quos—security assistance, arms transfers, subsidies, or what

amount to “rents.” In the current context for the United States, conquest is more or les

irrelevant, precluded by emerging international norms or “laws”—though it seems unlikely that the U.S. military will be abandoning the bases it has seized or created in Afghanistan and Iraq any time soon.

As for bases acquired through the provision of security, during the Cold War a number

of nations provided the United States access at least in part because it provided assurance against Soviet or Chinese aggression. The term “extended deterrence” was often

used to describe such a relationship. It may still be applicable in a number of cases—

for example, Japan, South Korea, perhaps again the Philippines, even Vietnam. Access

in Georgia and some of the ex-Soviet states in Central Asia might be included, in relation to a possibly resurgent and revisionist Russia. Around the Persian Gulf, the security of friendly states is being enhanced by a U.S. presence against both possible Iranian

aggression and an internal Islamist threat. In addition, a growing number of nations—

again, the Philippines, and some in Africa—may see an American presence as deterring

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ture, in response to a rising Chinese threat in its waters, rethink its expulsion of t

United States from its bases there.

All of this represents extrapolation from current problems and scenarios. Perhap

sent here is the broader picture of a changing but indeterminate international sy

structure that may heavily impact future scenarios, formal and informal alliances

hence basing access. Cold War bipolarity based largely on an ideological divide h

given way to a degree of unipolarity heavily influencing the facts of basing domin

mixed with an incipient though asymmetric multipolarity, the poles of which are 

United States, the EU, Russia, China, Japan, India, and perhaps a nascent radical 

lamic world.” Save the remnants of communism and the growing ideological-reli

aspects of Islamic radicalism, the new system is largely devoid of an ideological b

for enmity and friendship, a state of affairs that allows, as was the case in the Eur

the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, rapidly shifting alliances based on short

or medium-term expedience and balance-of-power considerations. Russia’s recen

cillation between China (arms transfers, coalescence vis-à-vis the United Stat

the EU (ganging up on the United States), and the United States (common fr

against Islamic terrorism) may be a harbinger of things to come as well as a r

minder of the past. At another level, nuclear proliferation, juxtaposed to big-

multipolarity, will be critical, and numerous new entrants to the “nuclear clu

likely. North Korea (maybe later a nuclear-armed united Korea), Iran, Egypt, 

key, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and Indonesia are all technically 

fied candidates.

What will be the impact of all of this on basing and, specifically, on the Americ

basing posture? In the past, multipolar systems devoid of long-term stable allia

usually have obviated or limited large-scale basing systems; in such a world tod

“friend” is tomorrow’s rival and someone else’s “friend.” Nuclear proliferation 

to portend the decoupling of alliances because of the intimidation factor—unl

protection/security factor drives cooperative missile defense systems. Will Japa

China, Russia, India, and the EU develop effective ballistic-missile-defense syst

Will some of these powers provide security assistance as quid pro quo for their 

bases or to deny access to the United States? On the whole, decoupling and a ve

constrained environment for American basing—and hence further reliance on 

basing or CONUS-basing schemes—might be predicted, but all of this is uncer

The effective use of security assistance might alter the equation.

The third category, in the current context, relates primarily to the use of security 

tance as a quid pro quo for basing access. During the Cold War, some of the large

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pines—were providers of critically needed access for the United States.

There are several categories of security assistance: the Foreign Military Financing Program, the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, and the

Economic Support Fund.22 Some seventy-four countries receive foreign military financing, some 130 receive IMET money, and some twenty-six accept money from the

Economic Support Fund, which is also used to support multilateral programs concerning regional democracy, regional women’s issues, administration of justice funds, and

other such initiatives.

Several points stand out regarding the current structure of U.S. security assistance. The

first point is the dominance of the numbers by Egypt and Israel. Another is the truly

remarkable number of countries receiving U.S. funds from one or more of these sources,

more than two-thirds of some 190 sovereign nations in the world. Many that now receive

such assistance are former Soviet allies and arms clients (or even former Soviet republics), many of which once provided Moscow basing access and overflight rights.

Regarding the Foreign Military Financing Program, Egypt and Israel are the largest recipients, primarily as a result of supporting the Camp David peace process, though

Egypt has also provided the United States military access in recent times. In 2003–2004

aside from Egypt and Israel, only Jordan, Oman, Morocco, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Georgia, Turkey, Colombia, the Philippines, and Paki

stan received over $20 million, modest sums. The United States once provided large

amounts of security assistance, as much as $500 million annually, to a small number of

key basing hosts: Portugal (the Azores), Spain, Greece, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines. Now, again aside from the billions for Egypt and Israel, as well as nearly $500

million for Jordan, this money is spread out to a much larger number of recipients in

smaller amounts.

Djibouti and the Philippines have the largest accounts in the Economic Support Fund,

each around $25 million, in each case reflecting American military access for the war on

terror. The IMET goes to a number of states, but the amounts are small, only a handful

above a million dollars per year: these include the Philippines, Senegal, Turkey, Oman,

Yemen, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania. The relation to basing access is clear

in many of these cases. Hence, it would appear that in many cases all over the world, relatively small increases in absolute levels of assistance would represent large proportional

jumps. Such increases could be used judiciously in exchange for enhanced access.

What potentially is involved has been illustrated in recent cooperative security and

training exercises in various African states, particularly in and around the Sahara

Desert and the Sahel, where the focus is on counterterrorist training. The amounts of

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sand dollars per year on up to about a million for Senegal.

Access Permissiveness and Scenarios, Past and Present

As previously discussed, basing access has become more ad hoc and situational si

the end of the Cold War and, with it, the weakening of the formal alliance structu

constructed by the United States during that protracted struggle. During the Col

the United States was almost always able to utilize its overseas facilities and the a

of friendly nations. For instance, air bases in Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand 

used to prosecute the war in Vietnam. U-2 aircraft were flown over the USSR fro

bases in Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, and Japan. Germany w

jumping-off point for American intervention in Lebanon in 1958. Various nation

lowed access for satellite downlinks in connection with nuclear early warning an

ellite control: Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Seychelles, even Madag

for a period. The United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy, and Taiwan allowed forward ba

land-based missiles aimed at the Soviet Union and China. There were a few excep

tions—denial of airspace by France and Spain for the raid on Libya in 1986 is on

ample. Also, numerous nations tied in one way or another to the USSR allowed

Moscow access and denied it to Washington.

The keys in this prior period were systems structure (a bipolar struggle with ideo

cement on both sides), shared threats, protection of basing hosts, and perhaps a 

level of the anti-Americanism that is now so common throughout much of the w

After the end of the Cold War, permissiveness persisted at least through the first 

War of 1990–91. There the United States led an effective coalition that was under

pinned by the collective security mandate of the UN and that enjoyed strong sup

from Saudi Arabia, hence also from most of the Middle East. Only Jordan seems 

have denied the United States relevant access, which was provided fully by the Sa

and other Gulf states, Egypt, Turkey, all of the other NATO allies, and even the n

“independent” Eastern bloc countries.23 (Some political problems arose, however

dia and Thailand, as a result of the granting of permission to stage U.S. Air Force 

port planes.)

In Operation ENDURING FREEDOM in Afghanistan, the United States also was prov

access almost everywhere necessary. The ex-Soviet states in Central Asia gave the U

States vital air bases and jumping-off points to the north of Afghanistan. Britain p

vided Diego Garcia. Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and others allowed the United S

to fly missions from their territory into Afghanistan. Nations in Eastern Europe a

the Caucasus granted overhead-transit access. Perhaps the only problem (other t

Iraq and Iran, for obvious reasons) was Pakistan, and even that nation, under pre

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dia), allowed overflights and some access for heliborne ground operations. Intimidation was a factor in that case. But overall, sympathy in the wake of 9/11 and perhaps

fear of an aroused and dangerous United States made for a permissive basing access en

vironment. Enhanced security assistance and the promise of more were important.

In the invasion of Iraq in 2003, however, there was an overall less permissive environment for American access, for reasons of political disagreements with states in “old Europe” and pressure from the “Arab street” in the Middle East. Access to European bases

and overhead airspace was mostly maintained (Switzerland, irrelevantly, denied the lat

ter). But reluctance by Saudi Arabia prompted the moving of air command and contro

operations to Qatar (which, with Kuwait and Oman, was solidly favorable to American

access). Egypt quietly allowed overflights, refueling, Suez Canal transit, and use of a

major military hospital. But permission for the movement of the 4th Infantry Division

across Turkish territory was denied.

For the future, access may be even more situational and ad hoc. The keys are likely to

be alliance and security assistance relationships, the overall global level of support for

American policies on antiterrorism and WMD proliferation, the political specifics of

given situations, and the balance between reliance on U.S. provision of protection and

security and the counterleverage of foes of the United States or states pressured or intimidated by them. Europe’s growing divorce from the United States, and perhaps a

growing competition with the United States over access to Middle Eastern oil, may become a larger factor. Pakistani and Iranian nuclear arsenals may increasingly be intimidating factors. The Muslim “street,” in Africa and Southeast Asia as well as the core

Middle East, may be another. Japan’s fear of nuclear-armed North Korea, not to mention China, may be a strong factor in the Far East. In general, and short of actual crisis,

U.S. access all over Africa, in the Persian Gulf area, and in Eastern Europe and Central

Asia seems to be growing and reasonably assured—but in specific situations things

may be different.

It is difficult to predict the extent to which permissiveness of access may vary by scenario type—traditional, irregular, catastrophic, or disruptive, to cite again the current

Department of Defense terminology. This question involves a spectrum that can be

measured in terms of magnitude or impact—that is, ranging from a nuclear or biologi

cal terrorist event to a peacekeeping operation—but also in technological terms, running from force-on-force military operations to, say, a cyber attack. Again, degrees of

access allowed may be scenario-specific, depending upon the identity of the foe (Islamic

or not, raising the issue of religious identification), fear and intimidation (in both directions), influence afforded by oil politics or other types of leverage (EU admission,

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(perhaps with regional variations). Relatively small “disruptive” scenarios involvi

peacekeeping, responses to coups, and the like would appear to be most permissi

terms of access; likewise, catastrophic scenarios would probably result in sympat

U.S. operations, though perhaps counterbalanced by the fear and intimidation fa

One may note here the extensive granting of access to American military forces e

gaged in the recent tsunami rescue operation in places like Thailand, but also the 

tishness of the Indonesian government about American military activities on Sum

It is worth pointing out that aside from broadly systemic factors and prevailing m

global or regional, the domestic politics in given nations may be a determining fa

with respect either to electoral change or coups and revolutions. There are any nu

of historical examples, even from the period of stable alliances during the Cold W

France, under Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s, canceled U.S. access to air and nava

bases (Villefranche in the latter case) and to crucial petroleum pipelines running 

France’s Atlantic coast to Germany. Iran’s revolution in 1979 cut off important ac

to telemetry intercept facilities in northern Iran (the Iraqi revolution in 1958 had

ended Western access to air bases there). In the latter part of the Cold War, Amer

access to Greek bases was curtailed when anti-American governments came to po

Later, the United States had to withdraw from Spanish air bases, obtaining additi

access to Italian bases to offset the loss. The Turkish situation in 2003 has widely 

reported upon; it came in the wake of the accession to power of an Islamic party

Philippines, post-Marcos politics expelled the United States from its major air an

val bases. On the other side of the coin, in recent years friendly governments in t

United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia have translated into very permissive access.

Shifting political winds could later cause problems in these countries, and in Jap

South Korea as well.

CONUS Basing and Sea Basing

Alternatives to contingent basing access, or perhaps supplements to it, are CONU

ing and sea basing. Their utility will depend greatly on the scenario, both in term

distance and location, and also the sheer scale of operations required.

CONUS Basing. The option of relying more on basing within the continental U

States has been illustrated by, among other things, B-1 and B-2 bomber missions 

Operations DESERT STORM, ENDURING FREEDOM, and IRAQI FREEDOM, mounte

Barksdale and Whiteman Air Force bases, the latter at least making some use of D

Garcia. Also, military transformation, translating into lower force levels and logi

requirements for given operations, has resulted in greater optimism about being 

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particularly applicable to preemptive missile strikes on WMD installations or terrorist

facilities, as well as to long-range air interdiction operations in a “traditional” conflict.

This option might be furthered by technological developments—faster aircraft with longer ranges and more accurate bombing systems, enhanced capabilities for conventional

interdiction by SSBNs, and the like. Also, satellite capabilities and reduced requirements

for overseas downlinks might in the future allow reduced dependence on foreign bases

for intelligence and surveillance. Better and faster sealift and airlift would also help, bu

obviously only within limits, for traditional and disruptive scenarios at least.

Sea Basing. Over the last several years, the Navy and Marine Corps have promoted the

concept of “sea basing” on the argument or assumption that land bases may not so

readily be available for future power projection operations as they have in the recent

past. Much about this concept remains unclear, so that it is difficult to analyze its relationship to or implications for the American global posture generally. Fundamental

questions remain to be answered concerning the scope or scale of sea basing, the technological capabilities required (especially new ship platforms), its relationship to allied

forces as well as its larger impact on U.S. alliance relationships, and not least, its cost.

At a time when questions are being increasingly raised about the Navy’s ability to afford its next-generation destroyer (the DD-X), it is far from clear that money would be

available to support an ambitious program to build what in effect would be support

ships with limited offensive capability.

Recent studies of sea basing have focused almost entirely on force structures and associated budgets, with little reference to conflict scenarios—the possible locations and

sizes of conflicts, impact of coalition alignments, availability of land bases, and so

forth. Likewise missing has been any cross-referencing with the now-standard general

breakdown of conflict scenarios into traditional, irregular, catastrophic, and disruptive

An agenda for further, broader world analysis involves such issues as these:

• The relationship of projected sea-basing capabilities to generic and more specific

scenarios

• Sea-basing capabilities in a variety of regions, littoral scenarios versus inland

scenarios, etc.

• The viability of force structure planning with a long (thirty-year) time frame

• The relative costs of sea basing and of enhanced security assistance to land-base

hosts, to the extent the latter is politically feasible.

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Connecting the Dots

The future of American force-projection capability is, of course, a maddeningly c

plex subject. There are many unknowns—in contrast to the Cold War period, wi

known potential enemies, known and stable system structure and alliances, and a 

ited set of likely scenarios. Now, the enemy or threat may be large or small, a stat

something else, and may or may not have weapons of mass destruction. The iden

of allies or “friends” in myriad possible scenarios are contingent and unclear—h

the confused set of possibilities for basing, ranging from land basing on the terri

of allies to sea basing to greater reliance on bases at home.

Much has been made of the (perhaps overdrawn or nebulous) distinction, in this 

text, between threat-based and capabilities-based planning. Threats, of course, ar

partly predictable, but capabilities and resources have their limits, so planning fo

pabilities to deal with all possible threats would be unrealistic even if all could be

known. Also, at least in peacetime, capabilities can be acquired only over long str

of time. But over the next thirty years, just about anything could happen to alter 

perceptions: terrorist WMD attacks on the homeland could occur; China could o

take the United States as the world’s premier power; Japan could join China in an 

Asia alliance; the European Union could become a hegemonic rival to the United

States; Russia might try to reconstitute the Soviet Union, or orient itself to the EU

China, or parts of the Islamic world; Israel or Pakistan could in desperation use n

weapons. Ever-rising oil prices, propelled by massively rising demand in China a

dia, could cause another worldwide depression, and with it military competition 

oil resources in the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, North Africa, and the Gulf of

Guinea. Then again, a far more benign set of events (which extrapolation from th

present would in fact suggest is more likely) might occur.

Out of all these complex and contingent sets of scenarios and possible policies in 

nection with the future of the U.S. global defense posture, a number of general p

deserve emphasis. The first is that the diverse, uncertain, and global nature of the

emerging threat environment requires a robust global basing and posture strateg

Threats include terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, traditional warfare poss

ties in Iran, Taiwan, and Korea, perhaps hegemonic rivalry with China. But loom

quietly behind them may be a struggle for oil, natural gas, and nonfuel minerals, 

haps to be linked to terrorism, WMD, and great-power hegemonic rivalry.

A second, related to the above, is the uncertainty surrounding the future of the in

tional system, specifically whether the current U.S. unipolar dominance and allia

structure will hold up. In terms of basing, the issue is a continuing permissive en

ment for American basing access and presence versus a far more restrictive one m

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United States, and so forth. Historically, multipolarity has meant less stable alliances

and hence less durable, more contingent, and ad hoc basing access.

A third concerns the present and prospective state of the three historical routes to basing

access: conquest/colonization, alliances and provision of security umbrellas (extended

deterrence), and the quid pro quo of security/economic assistance. Conquest is mostly

now ruled out by prevailing international legal norms. Alliances and security guarantees

may be in jeopardy as sources of access, because of changing international system structure and intimidation related to WMD proliferation. Security and economic assistance,

however, may be at present an underutilized instrument of acquisition and maintenance

of bases—and a less expensive one than sea basing.

Fourth, while sea basing and CONUS basing are serious alternatives to land basing by

virtue of technological improvements in long-range strike systems, there are serious

questions of cost and of feasibility in relation to important categories of scenarios, especially for sea basing.

Perhaps the key point, however, is simply that the time has clearly come to move the

whole question of basing and presence from the periphery toward the center of the

American strategic debate. The Department of Defense has led a quiet revolution in

the global posture of American military forces that is still in the process of working itself out and is bound to have profound and perhaps revolutionary effects. American

strategic analysis has yet to catch up with this development.

Notes

1. For a review of these various concepts and

definitions, see Robert E. Harkavy, Bases

Abroad (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Univ. Press for

the Stockholm International Peace Research

Institute, 1989), chap. 1.

2. See, for example, Jacqueline Davis, Forward

Presence and U.S. Security Policy, National

Security Paper 16 (Cambridge, Mass.: Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, 1995).

3. See Robert E. Harkavy, “Global and SubGlobal Reach: An Initial Effort at Historical

Scope and Definition” (paper presented at

annual meeting of the International Studies

Association [ISA], Montreal, March 2004).

4. U.S. Defense Dept., Strengthening U.S. Global

Defense Posture, Report to Congress (Washington, D.C.: September 2004), pp. 7–8.

5. J. F. Guilmartin, Gunpowder and Galleys:

Changing Technology and Mediterranean

Warfare at Sea in the Sixteenth Century (Lon

don: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1974).

6. C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825 (New York: Knopf, 1969),

introductory chapters, and Jan Glete, Warfare at Sea, 1500–1650: Maritime Conflicts

and the Transformation of Europe (London:

Routledge, 2000).

7. See Robert E. Harkavy, Great Power Competi

tion for Overseas Bases: The Geopolitics of Access Diplomacy (New York: Pergamon, 1982)

chap. 3.

8. U.S. Defense Dept., Strengthening U.S. Globa

Defense Posture; and U.S. Congress, Options

for Changing the Army’s Overseas Basing

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Office, May 2004).

9. A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Seapower upon

History 1600–1783 (Boston: Little, Brown,

1980); and Colin Gray, The Leverage of

Seapower (New York: Free Press, 1992).

10. William Thompson, “Passing the Torch in a

Manner of Speaking: The System Leader

Lineage” (paper presented at a meeting of

the International Studies Association, Toronto, 1997).

11. See Robert E. Harkavy, “Triangular or Indirect Deterrence/Compellence,” Comparative

Strategy 17, no. 1 (January–March 1998),

pp. 63–81.

12. A good discussion of these issues is in Setsuo

Takeda, U.S. Missile Defense and East Asian

Security: A Policy Analysis, forthcoming.

13. J. David Singer and Melvin Small, The Wages

of War, 1816–1965 (New York: Wiley, 1972).

14. For some typologies, see Ernest Evans, Wars

without Splendor: The U.S. Military and Low

Level Conflict (New York: Greenwood, 1987);

and Richard Shultz, “The Low Intensity

Conflict Environment of the 1990s,” Annals,

AAPSS 517 (September 1991), pp. 127–32.

15. U.S. Defense Dept., Strengthening U.S.

Global Defense Posture, p. 10. See also “The

U.S. Global Posture Review,” Strategic

Krepinevich, “The New Pax America

fense News, 20 September 2004; and “

pared Testimony of U.S. Secretary of

Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld before 

Senate Armed Services Committee,” 

Posture, 23 September 2004.

16. U.S. Defense Dept., Strengthening U.S

Defense Posture, p. 10.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.

19. “U.S. Engages Africa in Terror Fight,” 

tian Science Monitor, 17 September 20

20. See, for instannce, “Rumsfeld Eyes Ba

Rent in Romania,” New York Times, 1

ber 2004, p. A8.

21. See Andrew Erickson’s and Justin Mik

chapter in this volume.

22. The data in the following paragraphs 

drawn from DISAM Journal (Spring 

pp. 1–59.

23. See, for information on basing in the 

91 Gulf War, U.S. Defense Dept., Con

the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to 

gress, Pursuant to Title V of the Persia

Conflict Supplemental Authorization a

sonnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public La

25) (Washington, D.C.: April 1992).

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Transforming the U.S. Global Defense Postu

RYAN HENRY

At the end of 2004, the world was witness to an event that no one could have fore

Even more startling than the shock of the Indian Ocean tsunami itself was the sc

its impact. But the very suddenness and speed with which the tsunami struck gav

glimpse of how valuable it is to posture our forces for uncertainty. Had the tsuna

curred in 1985, at the height of the Cold War, it is difficult to imagine that the Un

States could have surged the forces and logistical support needed to deliver food 

water to the areas of the eastern Indian Ocean that were the hardest hit. It is even 

difficult to imagine that the United States could have depended on an extensive n

work of partner nations to assist us in exercising our global responsibility to act. 

through the transformation of the U.S. military’s capabilities and the growing fle

ity of our overseas posture was the United States able to respond as quickly and e

tively as it did during this crisis.

The security environment at the start of the twenty-first century is perhaps the mo

certain it has been in our nation’s history. This chapter focuses on the strategic real

that are driving the transformation of the American global defense posture to cont

with that uncertainty, and the resultant changes the Department of Defense is wor

bring about in our relationships and partnership capabilities around the world.

New Strategic Landscape

The impetus for the transformation that put us in a position to respond quickly 

fectively to the Indian Ocean tsunami was the emergence of a new strategic lands

Since 2002, the U.S. military has been adapting the posture of its forces to addres

key security challenges that our country will face in the twenty-first century. Trad

tional, state-based military challenges—for which our Cold War posture was opt

mized—will remain, but as the 11 September 2001 attacks revealed, a broader ra

security challenges has emerged. The events of 9/11 showed the destructive poten

terrorists and the vulnerability of the United States and of its allies to unwarned 

CHAPTER TWO

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military superiority and sounded an early warning of the approaching confluence of

terrorism, state sponsorship of terrorism, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) enabled by globalization. It focused our attention on a hostile ideology that openly advocates the killing of innocents for political gain, and it proved that

globalization has made failed states and ungoverned areas in the most remote corners

of the world grave dangers to our security.

The Secretary of Defense’s 2005 National Defense Strategy provides a conceptual frame

work for understanding this new strategic landscape, which may be said to span four

types of security challenges: traditional, irregular, catastrophic, and disruptive.

• Traditional: states employing military forces in well-known forms of military

competition and conflict (such as major combat operations employing conventiona

air, sea, and land forces)

• Irregular: nonstate and state actors employing “unconventional” methods to

counter stronger state opponents (for instance, terrorism, insurgency, civil war, and

other methods aimed to erode influence and political will)

• Catastrophic: terrorists or rogue states employing WMD or WMD-like effects

against American interests (for example, massive attacks on the homeland,

collapsing global markets, or loss of key allies that would inflict a state of shock

upon political and commercial activity)

• Disruptive: competitors employing breakout technologies or methods that counter

or cancel our military superiority (e.g., advances in bio-, cyber-, or space war, ultraminiaturization, directed energy).

As recent experience has shown, these challenges often converge and overlap. Our adversaries in Iraq and Afghanistan have employed both traditional and irregular approaches, and terrorist organizations like al-Qa‘ida are posing irregular threats while

actively seeking catastrophic capabilities.

The Broad View of “Transformation”

President Bush came to office in 2001 with an aggressive agenda for defense transformation. He charged Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with transforming the Defense Department for the challenges of the twenty-first century. The administration’s

sense of the changed strategic landscape led to a new assessment of our needed global

defense posture. What is emerging from that assessment is the most profound reordering of U.S. military forces overseas since World War II and the Korean War. The key to

understanding this realignment effort is transformation.

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He understood that the strategic and operational environment today is defined b

certainty, that the world is changing in relation to that environment, and that we 

to view that world as it is and adapt to it as necessary. The threat-based planning 

tem prevalent in the Cold War—through which we could project a seemingly pre

fined and predetermined Soviet threat and how to posture against it—had becom

obsolete. Overcoming our preconceptions of that era, Secretary Rumsfeld led the 

partment in taking the first step of transformation by shifting away from threat-b

planning and toward a capabilities-based approach that addresses the full spectru

feasible threats. This approach posits that unlike in the Cold War, we no longer k

precisely what threats we will face in the future, who will pose them, and where, 

less when. However, we do believe there will be future challengers to American in

and to the interests of our allies and partners, and that we must plan against the 

of capabilities potential adversaries may employ to exploit our vulnerabilities.

Revisiting the framework of the four security challenges, this approach means fir

ognizing that the Defense Department’s (and the nation’s) comfort zone has long 

in the realm of “traditional challenges.” Through transformation, the departmen

moved beyond this traditional focus and begun applying its thinking and capabi

to the other three sets of challenges—irregular, catastrophic, and disruptive. Our 

defense posture realignment will leave us in much better shape to face the uncert

that inheres within these nontraditional challenges.

Our sense of the new strategic landscape—and the opportunities opened up by e

ing technologies—has led to a new way of measuring military effectiveness. Num

of troops and weapon platforms are no longer the key metrics. Rather, military e

tiveness is now a matter of capabilities—speed, stealth, reach, knowledge, precisi

and lethality. Thus, our defense planning should place less emphasis on numbers 

forward forces than upon capabilities and desired effects that can be achieved rap

Transformation also calls for increased effectiveness and efficiency. Within the D

Department, it has strengthened jointness among military services through joint 

ence policy, as well as smarter business practices for managing the day-to-day wo

of the institution. At the interagency level, it has improved transparency and gen

new approaches to problem solving. Transformation has also strengthened mom

for changing the relationship between the department and its people, by keeping 

with their expectations of quality of life in a time of increased operational tempo

If changing relationships is a hallmark of transformation, the greatest impact of 

been on American relationships with allies and partners. The administration und

stands that the United States cannot “go it alone” in world affairs. Among our co

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the benefits of international cooperation in virtually every endeavor we undertake. This

network is the most vital asset we have as a nation in the Global War on Terror. It is instrumental in developing a common understanding of shared threats and in working

jointly to contend with them, particularly through partnership capacity building.

We call the relationships dimension of transformation security cooperation. It is important to understand that this term is not synonymous with “engagement”—or with

showing the U.S. flag overseas as an end in itself. Rather, security cooperation is the

means by which the Department of Defense encourages and enables allies and partners

to work with us to achieve common strategic objectives, thereby building the capability

and capacity of the partnership.

In a sense, security cooperation is capabilities-based planning as applied to relationships with our allies and partners. Whereas during the Cold War we supported our

NATO and Pacific Rim allies against threats to their borders, today we work with allies

and partners who share our sense that security challenges transcend specific borders

and threaten societies on a global scale. Just as capabilities-based planning positions

the United States to contend with adversarial capabilities in an uncertain environment,

security cooperation enables the United States to confront a spectrum of threats to its

own security and that of allies and partners—anywhere, at any time. This invokes an

important, symbiotic relationship between security cooperation and our global defense

posture. Global posture serves as the platform for implementing security cooperation

activities. Conversely, security cooperation activities help develop and maintain the access needed for posturing our forces to contend with future uncertainties.

In sum, transformation is far more dynamic than the common conception of applying

high technology in war. For the Defense Department, it is about:

• A command climate that swept away preconceived notions of strategic affairs and o

the department’s traditional role in those affairs

• The shift from a threat-based to a capabilities-based approach

• The need for increased efficiency and effectiveness

• The shift from engagement to security cooperation.

Transformational thinking respects the facts, rejects fixed ideas, and promotes new and

necessary relationships and capabilities that position us to contend with the uncertainty of the new strategic landscape.

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Before turning to how this transformation has helped drive the strategy for realig

our global defense posture, a bit of history is in order. In 1985, at the height of th

War, the United States had 358,000 military personnel deployed in Europe, 125,0

East Asia, and nine thousand in the Persian Gulf. In Europe, ground, air, and nav

forces were stationed in support of NATO from Iceland in the northwest to Turk

the southeast. In the Pacific region, forces were stationed in Korea, the Philippine

Japan. Our defense posture at that time was the product of the collective legacy o

wars of the mid-twentieth century, but our basing and operating patterns were re

tively well matched to the challenges of the Cold War era. Forces in Europe and A

were primarily designed to fight in place—potent for defensive operations close 

rison, but difficult to deploy outside of the theater where they were stationed. Es

tially, we maintained forward-deployed forces that served as defensive tripwires.

The end of the Cold War dramatically altered the global landscape. As a result, d

the first half of the 1990s the United States closed or turned over to host governm

about 60 percent of its overseas military installations and returned nearly three h

dred thousand military personnel to the United States. During the 1990s the Uni

States also closed large military facilities in the Philippines, Spain, and Panama.

By the mid-1990s, although we had dramatically reduced the overall numbers of forw

stationed military forces, they remained concentrated largely in Western Europe 

Northeast Asia. After the end of the Cold War, however, our operating patterns h

verged from our basing posture. Western Europe and Northeast Asia had become

springboards for operations in the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, and later, Central A

The result was a shift in the rationale for our forward posture—forces were no lo

expected to fight in place. Rather, their purpose was to project into theaters that 

likely to be some distance away from their garrisons. In other words, while a prim

purpose of forward presence was to provide for the direct territorial defense of tr

allies, this could no longer be the sole purpose. Threats to the security of our nat

and that of our allies had begun emerging in unexpected and faraway lands.

However, new necessities of geopolitics and operational flexibility overseas were no

only motivations for transforming our global posture. The other major impetus w

mestic in nature. Stresses on our military forces and their families also dictated tha

review our posture globally. “Accompanied tours” (in which families moved with th

vice members) designed in an era of static deployments had become more of a har

for families as service members deployed more frequently from their forward statio

increasing numbers, accompanying dependents faced “double separation”—separa

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lies back in the United States.

In his 2001 review of our defense strategy and capabilities, Secretary Rumsfeld challenged the Department of Defense to change how it conceptualized and projected

American presence overseas so as to contend with uncertainty and surprise. Some remained unconvinced of the need for change, but the terrorist attacks of 11 September

2001 abruptly dispelled any doubt. No one foresaw this catastrophic event, but our

administration had already made the mental leap—expect uncertainty and surprise—

inherently necessary to respond effectively. The attacks coincided in a tragic manner

with the defense transformation already under way.

The confluence of these transformational factors—the president’s sense of the new strategic landscape, the mandate for change from the 2001 review, and the shock of 9/11—

galvanized the forces of change. In the midst of these coalescing events, the secretary of

defense initiated the Global Defense Posture Review, a comprehensive, strategy-based

reassessment of the size, location, types, and capabilities of our forward military forces

We surveyed the new strategic landscape and developed a global posture strategy that

hinged upon achieving geopolitically sound relationships and a disposition of relevant

capabilities forward to contend with uncertainty. This strategy was developed through

a wide range of consultations—with policy makers and military leaders throughout the

department, within the interagency realm, and with defense intellectuals. The secretary

then turned to his combatant commanders* to devise specific proposals for posture

changes to implement the strategy. This ensured that what seemed strategically sound

could be made operationally feasible. The development of these proposals largely revolved around three general areas of realignment:

• Adjusting our presence in Europe by shifting away from legacy Cold War structures

• Reforming our posture in the Pacific, with increased emphasis on key capabilities to

assure allies more effectively, dissuade potential competitors, deter aggressors, and

defeat adversaries if called upon to do so

• Developing the operational flexibility and diversity in options needed to contend

with uncertainty in the “arc of instability”—the vast region from North Africa

across the Middle East and South Asia to Southeast Asia.

In 2002, the president confirmed the change of direction in defense planning in the

National Security Strategy of the United States: “To contend with uncertainty and to

meet the many security challenges we face, the United States will require bases and

* The combatant commanders, who report through the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to th

secretary of defense, are currently those of the U.S. Central, European, Joint Forces, Northern, Pa

cific, Southern, Special Operations, Strategic, and Transportation commands. See www.jcs.mil.

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access arrangements for the long-distance deployment of U.S. forces.”

The Defense Department’s strategy was exported to the U.S. government as a wh

that the Global Defense Posture Review would not be driven just by military con

ations. The Defense Department collaborated closely with its interagency partne

particularly the State Department—from the start. The National Security Counc

the body overseeing posture changes, provided high-level guidance and input. Th

global defense posture realignment became the strategy of the U.S. government.

The Defense Department also consulted extensively with allies and partners. In N

vember 2003 the president formally announced intensified consultations with all

and partners on the Global Defense Posture Review. Subsequently, senior Defens

State officials held joint consultations in over twenty foreign capitals, many of wh

are still going on in various forms.

Global Posture Strategy Unveiled

On 16 August 2004, in a culminating point for Defense Department planners, th

retary’s new global defense posture strategy, molded by interagency input, was ad

by the president in an announcement of the administration’s intention to move f

ward: “Today I announce a new plan for deploying America’s armed forces.... The 

plan will help us fight and win the wars of the 21st century. It will strengthen our a

ances around the world while we build new partnerships to better preserve the pea

While the global posture strategy does not comprise everything the American de

establishment is doing overseas, its implementation serves as the foundation for ch

U.S. defense policy abroad. It is the department’s vehicle for translating transforma

into relevant and effective defense relationships and capabilities for the emerging s

rity environment. The global defense posture strategy is composed of five key the

which emerged from the review and the evolving transformational thinking of th

partment described earlier. These themes now serve as the measures of effectiven

global posture changes.

Improve Flexibility to Contend with Uncertainty. Much of our existing overseas 

ture was established during the Cold War, when we thought we knew where we w

have to fight. Today, however, we often have to deploy to places that few people, i

one, would have predicted. Thus, we should plan in ways that mitigate surprise. O

goal is to have forces positioned forward on a continual basis, with access and fac

that enable them to reach any potential crisis spot quickly.

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aim to help our allies and friends modernize their own forces, strategies, and doctrines

We are exploring ways in which we can enhance our collective defense capabilities, ensuring that our future alliances and partnerships are capable, affordable, sustainable,

and relevant. At the same time, we seek to tailor our military’s overseas “footprint” to

suit local conditions, reduce friction with host nations, and respect local sensitivities. A

critical precept in our global posture planning is that the United States will place forces

only where those forces are wanted and welcomed by the host government and populace

Create the Capacity to Act Both within and across Regions. During the Cold War, we

focused on threats to specific regions and tailored our military presence to those regions. Now we are dealing with security challenges that are global in nature, relationships that must address those challenges accordingly (e.g., Japan’s involvement in

Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, or NATO’s involvement through the International Security

Assistance Force in Afghanistan), and defense capabilities that must be global in reach.

We need to improve our ability to project power from one region to another and to

manage forces on a global basis.

Develop Rapidly Deployable Capabilities. We no longer expect to have to fight in

place. Our forces need to be able to move smoothly into, through, and out of host nations. This puts a premium on establishing flexible legal and support arrangements

with our allies and partners. It also strengthens the demand for capabilities that provide increasingly global reach, such as the Army’s Stryker brigade combat teams, the

worldwide disposition of key prepositioned materials and equipment, and improvements to global en route infrastructure and strategic lift.

Focus on Effective Military Capabilities—Not Numbers of Personnel, Units, or

Equipment. Our key purpose is to push relevant capabilities forward—capability being

defined as the ability to achieve desired effects under certain standards and conditions.

We now can have far greater capabilities forward than in the past, even with smaller permanently stationed forces. The Cold War practice of “bean counting” numbers of personnel in administrative regions is no longer the case. Capabilities matter, not numbers.

A Complex Undertaking

The implementation process for realigning our global defense posture is an enormously

complex undertaking. These changes are not happening in a static environment. Global

posture is a dynamic, rolling process that incorporates the transformational mind-set

described earlier—continuously assessing the geopolitical environment, incorporating

new ideas into the strategy, and making adjustments as necessary.

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ture is not monolithic—not just a matter of the physical military footprint of ba

and personnel overseas. It includes:

• Our relationships with host nations

• The presence of activities overseas

• The legal arrangements needed to support that presence

• Our capacity to surge forces

• Our prepositioned equipment

• The global sourcing (or “force management”) needed to meet competing dem

The interrelationship among these posture elements is akin to an ecosystem. Thi

system” (see figure) is defined by interdependent layers of political, geographic, a

operational access that enable security cooperation and prompt global military a

when needed. Changes on one level can have secondary and tertiary effects on ot

For example, changes in the legal arrangements (an element of political access) t

have with one host nation can affect our freedom of action (geographic access)

throughout a theater and, consequently, our ability to push relevant capabilities f

ward for operations. Achieving and sustaining good political access through our

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sequently, the desired operational access to rotate forces in theater for security coopera

tion activities or to surge forces when needed in support of contingency operations. The

challenge for global posture, which is akin to adjusting that ecosystem deliberately, is in

striking the right balance between our relationships and capabilities overseas on the one

hand and the dynamics of the complex and changing security environment on the other.

Each of these layers of access deserves a closer look.

Political Access

Building and sustaining the political access—that is, the will of host-nation allies and

partners to support U.S. military action when needed—requires two posture elements:

relationships and legal arrangements. Our ability to act around the world is supported

by key security relationships with allies and partners. These relationships involve interactions at all levels—from heads of state to students studying together in the schoolhouses that we and our allies provide. Changes in global posture seek both to strengthen

our existing relationships and to help cultivate new relationships founded upon common security interests and common values. These are critical to enhancing allied and

partner military capabilities in key areas, such as counterterrorism.

The set of bilateral and multilateral legal arrangements pertaining to our military personnel and activities worldwide constitutes the formal framework for our military

presence, access, and activities in other countries. It defines the rights and obligations

of the parties, sets the terms for military access and activities, and provides protections

for American personnel. Some of our planned posture changes require a foundation of

new and more flexible legal arrangements. Our new legal arrangements tend to be

more concise than the elaborate arrangements we entered into after World War II, addressing only key things the United States needs for an expeditionary (rather than permanent) presence. These include operational flexibility, training, logistics, financial

arrangements, and status coverage for our forces. Critical to our success in this effort

has been close collaboration by the State and Defense departments to develop a solid

interagency team and a good diplomatic structure for consultations and negotiations.

Geographic Access

Geographic access means having the necessary en route infrastructure to maintain our free

dom of action globally; in posture planning it requires considerable versatility in overseas

facilities where our forces live, train, and operate. The realignment of our global defense

posture combines a network of traditional and new facilities to enhance our capacity for

prompt global action. This network consists of three types of facilities—main operating

bases (MOBs), forward operating sites (FOSs), and cooperative security locations (CSLs).

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structures such as family support facilities and strengthened arrangements for fo

protection. Examples include Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Kadena Air Base in 

nawa, and Camp Humphreys in Korea. We are retaining and consolidating many 

MOBs in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere. We a

rely heavily on forward operating sites, expandable “warm facilities” maintained 

limited U.S. military support presence, and, possibly, prepositioned equipment. G

use of prepositioned equipment, strategically located and globally managed, will 

port training with our allies and partners and facilitate the rapid deployment of 

where and when they are needed. FOSs largely support rotational rather than per

nently stationed forces and are focuses for bilateral and regional training. Examp

clude the Sembawang port facility in Singapore and Soto Cano Air Base in Hond

We also will need access to a broader range of facilities with little or no permane

American presence. Relying instead on periodic service, contractor, or host-natio

port, cooperative security locations provide contingency access and serve as focal p

for security cooperation activities. A good example is Dakar, Senegal, where the A

Force has negotiated contingency landing, logistics, and fuel contracting arrange

and which served as a staging area for the 2003 peace operation in Liberia. A Jun

Atlantic Monthly article by Robert Kaplan discusses presence in the Pacific in a w

captures the idea behind CSLs:

We will want unobtrusive bases that benefit the host country much more obviously than the

fit us. Allowing us the use of such a base would ramp up power from a country rather than h

ating it.... Often the key role in managing a CSL is played by a private contractor[,]... [u]

retired American noncom. . . . He rents his facilities at the base from the host country milita

then charges a fee to the U.S. Air Force pilots transiting the base. Officially he is in business 

himself, which the host country likes because it can then claim it is not really working with t

American military.... [T]he very fact that a relationship with the U.S. armed forces is indir

rather than direct eases tensions.

Operational Access

Finally, operational access comprises the presence, global management, and surgin

our forces overseas, all enabled by the political and geographic access we enjoy with 

nation partners. Presence is defined by the permanent and rotational forces that co

military activities (training, exercises, and operations) worldwide, from security co

tion to crisis response. That presence consists of both small units working together 

wide range of capacities and major formations conducting elaborate exercises to ac

proficiency in multinational operations. Second, our posture supports our new app

to force management, which seeks both to relieve stresses on our military forces an

families and to manage our forces on a global, rather than regional, basis. Combata

commanders no longer “own” forces in their theaters; rather, forces are managed

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to surge a greater percentage of the force wherever and whenever necessary.

Tempo of Global Posture Changes

There is another dimension of global posture that underscores its multidimensional

nature: the cycle of interdependent processes at work in the Defense Department—a

cycle that sets the pace for posture changes, including institutional transformation

within the services, the U.S. government’s deliberations with host-nation partners, and

the Base Closure and Realignment (known as BRAC) process. Global posture’s flexible,

rolling decision-making process must ebb and flow with these three processes.

Specifically, the process of consultations and negotiations with allies and partners establishes a tempo for bringing American forces home. Over the next ten years, from

sixty to seventy thousand military personnel (along with approximately a hundred

thousand family members and civilian employees) are to return to the United States

from overseas installations. This realignment will also entail a net reduction of approximately 35 percent in our overseas facilities.

The pace for these changes is set through a deliberative diplomatic process with current and

potential host-nation partners in which we achieve common understandings of the security

environment, develop plans that ensure mutual benefits and reliable defense commitments

and work to reduce any frictions attending upon the U.S. military presence. Multiple variables in negotiations—such as host-nation stability and sensitivity to American presence,

security challenges in the region, and existing levels of host-nation infrastructure and cost

sharing—are weighed across a diverse range of countries and regions.

U.S. forces that relocate as a result of this diplomatic process will be affected by the absorptive capacity of service transformation efforts and by BRAC. The planned posture

changes directly support service initiatives—such as the Army’s modularity and unit

rotation concepts, the Navy’s Fleet Response Plan, and the Air Force’s ongoing force

management improvements—designed to facilitate personnel management, provide

predictability in scheduling, and offer more stability at home. Returning forces meet

the services’ need to refit their units for increased modularity. These transformed units

then provide the combat power for prosecuting operations in the Global War on Terror, including Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM. Of course, the

absorptive capacity of returning units is also directly impacted by BRAC, which sets the

pace for reconstitution of those forces in the continental United States.

Thus, a symbiotic relationship exists among global posture consultations/negotiations

overseas, service transformation, and BRAC, in which each informs and dictates the

pace of the others. Imagine a clock running on three wheels, each wheel’s gears

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thereby impeding the pace of transformation to support the war on terror and en

our long-term realignment effort.

Region-by-Region Synopsis

Europe

Peace in Europe is no longer threatened by an enemy with tens of thousands of a

mored vehicles poised to invade across the North German plain. We no longer ne

heavy maneuver forces as the central element of our defense posture in Europe. A

transformed posture—one that supports NATO’s own transformation goals—req

forward forces that are rapidly deployable for early entry into conflict well beyon

rope. Such forces will continue to train alongside other NATO forces to improve

interoperability for twenty-first-century operations.

There are two basic components to posture changes in Europe: increasing rotation

presence toward the south and east of Europe, and pushing the most effective and 

vant capabilities forward for expeditionary presence and spurring allied transform

Our future posture in Europe will be characterized by lighter, more deployable gro

capabilities (for example, Stryker and airborne forces). Such ground forces will h

leaner command and support structures than they have today. They will rely on e

ing advanced training facilities (such as in Grafenwoehr, Germany) and high-capac

mobility infrastructure (in Ramstein, Germany, for instance). Special Operations f

will play an increasingly important role in our future European posture. They will 

positioned in the theater for training and operational efficiencies and for ease of m

ment. Our naval and air capabilities in the theater will remain very robust and w

enable rapid movement of forces into, through, and from Europe. They too have 

ready undergone transformations to leaner and more deployable command struc

The Asia-Pacific

In the Asia-Pacific region, we seek to strengthen our ability to execute the Nation

fense Strategy and to solidify relationships that can help win the Global War on T

We want to improve our ability to meet our alliance commitments by strengthen

our deterrent against threats such as that posed by North Korea while helping ou

strengthen their own military capabilities. The forward deployment of additiona

ditionary maritime capabilities and long-range strike assets in Alaska, Hawaii, an

Guam will increase both our deterrent effect and our capacity for rapid response

this region—in light of the vast distances that military forces must traverse in cri

deterrence also means increasing our ability to project military forces rapidly and 

long ranges, both to the region and within it. Where appropriate, we also will

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and increased jointness. This facilitates a more expeditionary posture, as is the case

with the transformation of the U.S. Army’s Japan headquarters into a deployable joint

task force–capable headquarters. Finally, we seek to reduce the number of American military forces in host nations where those forces abut large urban populations. We will

strengthen our relationships by reducing the frictions—accidents, incidents, and the

like—associated with normal military activities in urban settings.

In a related initiative, over the past two years we have engaged with our Japanese hosts

in a series of sustained security consultations. These talks were aimed at evolving the

U.S.-Japan security alliance to reflect today’s rapidly changing global security environment. The Defense Posture Review Initiative (DPRI) has focused on alliance transformation at the strategic and operational levels, with particular attention to the posture

of U.S. and Japanese forces in Japan. In the DPRI, we have negotiated several importan

force realignment initiatives designed to relieve stresses in our relationship with Japan

while strengthening our deterrence and global flexibility. Among the more significant of

these initiatives are the consolidation of carrier jet aircraft based on mainland Japan, and

a significant reduction and reorganization of the Marine Corps posture on Okinawa.

Our current ground, air, and naval access throughout the Asia-Pacific region serves as a

basis for a long-term presence that will be better structured for more effective regional

and global action. For example, the Army’s modular transformation will streamline

headquarters elements and strengthen joint capabilities. The forward-deployed Air

Force Strike ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) task force in the Pacific

will also enable greater regional and global reach. We also are establishing a network of

forward operating sites and cooperative security locations to support better the war on

terror and to provide multiple avenues of access for contingency operations. Such facil

ities will serve to expand U.S. and host-nation training opportunities, helping our part

ners build their own capacities in areas such as counterterrorism.

On the Korean Peninsula, our planned enhancements and realignments are intended to

strengthen our overall military effectiveness for the combined defense of the Republic

of Korea. Stationed forces are relocating away from the increasing congestion and

sprawl of the greater Seoul area and consolidating into two major hubs in the central

and southern sections of the country. Rotational and rapidly deployable combat capabilities such as Stryker units and air expeditionary forces will complement these permanently stationed units. We seek to retain a robust prepositioned equipment

capability in Korea to support rapid reinforcement.

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In the Middle East, we seek to maintain a posture of “presence without permane

prosecuting the Global War on Terror and assuring our allies and partners, but w

unduly heavy military footprints. Cooperation and access provided by host nation

ing ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM provide us with a solid basis for lon

term, cooperative relationships in this region. We seek to maintain or upgrade—an

isolated cases establish—forward operating sites and cooperative security locations 

rotational and contingency purposes, along with strategically placed prepositioned

equipment and forward command-and-control elements. Our posture also aims 

strengthen our capabilities on the peripheries of this region, including in the Ho

Africa and in Central and South Asia. In addition, we continue to identify advan

training opportunities with our regional partners for capacity building in such a

counterterrorism and for broader military interoperability.

Africa and the Western Hemisphere

Our aims in Africa and the Western Hemisphere are to broaden relationships, bu

partnership capacity, obtain contingency access, and facilitate practical security c

eration activities, without creation of new bases or permanent military presence.

Ungoverned and undergoverned areas in vast swaths of sub-Saharan Africa and S

America can serve as breeding grounds not just for domestic insurgents but for i

national terrorists and other transnational threats that increasingly find their “ho

bases” disappearing in other regions. We therefore seek an array of CSLs in these 

gions for contingency access into remote areas. Often this access will take the form 

“gas and go” operations, as has been recent practice as formalized in the Air Force’s 

Fuels Initiative. Such CSLs will not require a permanent combat presence. They wi

focal points for combined training with host nations and other allies and partners, 

they will have the capacity to expand and contract on the basis of operational need

Though much work remains, the realignment of the U.S. global defense posture 

under way, particularly through the ongoing strengthening of American military 

bilities in Europe and the Pacific. The 1st Infantry Division has commenced its re

ployment from Germany. A brigade from the 2nd Infantry Division in the Rep

of Korea will redeploy to the United States upon completion of its rotation in I

In Japan, the DPRI process has resulted in an agreement on specific force postur

alignments that will have far-reaching, beneficial impacts for the U.S.-Japanese a

Also, the services are undergoing expansive transformation and consolidation of 

headquarters structures, the better to support expeditionary operations.

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the national defense legacies of this administration. It reflects the American commitment to a global insurance policy for an emerging security landscape. Collectively, proposed posture changes provide a framework for our alliance and defense commitments

overseas and for harmonizing our forces’ skill sets with the shifting uncertainties of

that new landscape. Global, geopolitical circumstances will continue to change, our relationships with allies and partners will evolve, and our capabilities will mature. Well

beyond the tenure of this administration, our new global defense posture will provide a

foundation upon which the U.S. military and its supporting defense establishment can

build adaptively for decades to come.

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Politics and Diplomacy of the Global Defen

Posture Review

LINCOLN P. BLOOMFIELD, JR.

When historians look back on the Defense Department’s biggest undertakings du

its first six decades of existence, they will of course cite the prosecution of wars b

hot and cold, the fielding of powerful and complex weapons systems, and the pro

gation of defense and security strategies to prepare for and deter threats to the n

interest. Rarely to be found among these major tasks will be any large-scale upda

streamlining, or reconfiguration of an organizational empire that includes well o

two million soldiers and civilians, approximately five thousand facilities spread a

the country and the world, and an annual budget now surpassing $400 billion. T

Global Defense Posture Review (GDPR) is such an undertaking.

At the same time, this massive exercise in managerial housekeeping by the secreta

defense cannot be viewed exclusively as one cabinet executive’s effort to make mo

productive use of the people, assets, and funding allotted to his department. For 

calculations of greater efficiency and utility that commend the idea of reconfigur

America’s global military footprint, this initiative is inescapably, indeed overwhe

ingly, political in terms of its effect on the rest of the world. To think otherwise w

be to overlook the belief, resident in allied populations in more than fifty countr

latest count, that America is committed—via the North Atlantic Treaty, the Rio T

and bilateral security treaties with Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and A

lia—to come to their defense in extremis.

These are national commitments, solemnly made, and the sight of U.S. armed fo

standing the watch in almost every latitude and time zone has calmed regional ri

and dissuaded armed escalations for sixty years. A global posture realignment th

volves moving large numbers of those sentries and their weapons inevitably begs 

most urgent of security questions, excites foreign anxieties in many quarters, and

therefore runs the risk, depending on how the matter is handled, of perturbing t

stability that America’s global military presence is meant to ensure.

CHAPTER THREE

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The idea that U.S. military force units, their equipment, their facilities, and their support structure should be physically positioned according to the logic of global geography is very appealing. Conceptually, an efficiently designed, globally managed force

posture would optimize the flow of combat power along sea, air, and land routes from

one region to the next, directly to the point of engagement, without overly taxing the

system. Such a concept would best allow future presidents to position viable military

options to employ anywhere in response to a sudden danger on the shortest of notice,

even when the nature and location of the crisis had not been foreseen.

Of all of Donald Rumsfeld’s actions during his headline-filled second tenure as secretary

of defense, his determination to rethink, redesign, and reposition the U.S. military’s posture at home and abroad according to a rational design reflecting contemporary security

conditions should stand as a positive mark in his legacy. That Mr. Rumsfeld took on

this monumental management task, braving the predictable resistance of settled constituencies from one end of the globe to the other, is noteworthy; certainly none of his

predecessors seriously attempted it. That he did it during wartime is extraordinary.

Over the long term, a well-executed streamlining of the U.S. global defense posture

could profit the nation’s security, if not in monetary terms certainly in the ability of a

finite force structure to deliver the maximum military benefit through the greater efficiencies and capabilities of the new global posture.

Big Change, Big Decision: Getting to “Yes”

What with the profound implications of a posture change for allied countries hosting

U.S. forces and the state of America’s diplomatic relations with them, the decision to

embark on a global realignment was the president’s to make, and it embodied major

foreign policy equities. The Department of State, and the allied governments themselves, would inevitably make their voices heard before the Department of Defense’s

new scheme based on geographic convenience and logistical efficiency could supplant

longstanding basing patterns in foreign localities.

One could well imagine the Pentagon’s potential misgivings about placing this hugely

ambitious venture at the mercy of other departments, never mind foreign policy bureaucrats, whose reaction to any disturbance of the diplomatic status quo might be expected to be one of resistance to change, indeed opposition, even to discussing

prospective force reductions with allied countries. The concern was not imaginary;

there were indeed some in the State Department who wanted nothing more than for

the initiative to go away and who feared damage to alliances if it went forward.

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fense (DoD) officials, by their manner, might aggravate rather than defuse foreig

ieties were also not entirely misplaced. In at least one country DoD doggedly sou

announce and implement a drawdown of military assets against that ally’s wishe

with an evident relish that required diplomatic damage control and led the presi

withhold to himself the withdrawal decision. Within the U.S. policy bureaucracy 

whole, there were varying perceptions about whether the advertised merits of pa

lar changes under the Global Defense Posture Review would indeed redound to t

long-term security benefit of the United States; such concerns were not limited t

perienced regional specialists in the State Department.

Since this large, difficult project was not driven by exigencies of current military 

tions, there was also a temptation, whenever the issue was raised within senior in

agency circles, to ask “Why now?” and put it off for another day. What finally for

the issue was the link between prospective overseas withdrawals of military asset

units and the planned round of the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Com

sion, which developed a final list of recommended domestic base closures during 

Many in Congress, understandably fearful of losing home-district bases under BR

had told the administration not to start that process until it had first scrubbed th

overseas basing system for other ways to streamline the global footprint. By mid-

time was running short if GDPR decisions were to be in hand for the BRAC anal

work that was to commence in early 2004.

By the fall of 2003, with the DoD worldwide realignment plan finally ready for top

interagency consideration, Secretary of State Colin Powell understood DoD’s conc

that the initiative could be subjected to death by a thousand cuts. When the princip

nally engaged at the White House, Secretary Rumsfeld rolled out his map, articulat

concept, and asked his aides to brief the rationale for this transformational initiati

emphasizing the need to move past a World War II–era basing structure. Other a

cies offered their comments, and when they had finished, all eyes turned to the se

tary of state.

Secretary Powell said he thought the briefing had misstated the facts about Europ

bases being obsolete because of their relevance to World War II. A few hearts stop

and silence pervaded the room. The secretary continued, deadpan, that in some l

tions—including German facilities under his command in the 1980s—the bases 

all the way back to the Franco-Prussian War. His point was effectively made—of 

we needed to update and rationalize our force posture. With that pithy intervent

Secretary Powell, the administration found itself in consensus that the GDPR wa

timely, worthy, and deserving of priority support subject to the president’s appro

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Global Defense Posture Review under one condition, one that won quick endorsement

from DoD and the interagency realm—that this initiative had to be conducted in full

consultation with affected governments around the world. It must not be a fait accompli imposed on allies from Washington. From there the issue went to the president,

who approved it to proceed to public rollout and consultation with other governments

Specific force posture changes would require presidential approval at a later stage.

Rolling Out the Initiative

On 25 November 2003, the White House released President George Bush’s statement

announcing the new initiative, which said in part: “Beginning today, the United States

will intensify our consultations with the Congress and our friends, allies, and partners

overseas on our ongoing review of our overseas force posture.” The words were carefully chosen; none of the recommended changes in overseas American presence was ye

decided. From the president’s perspective, this review was “ongoing,” and consultations

were to be integral to his decision process.

Secretaries Powell and Rumsfeld launched diplomatic consultations on the GDPR at

the December 2003 NATO ministerial meetings. This was followed within days by a

joint appearance at the North Atlantic Council by Under Secretary of State for Political

Affairs Marc Grossman and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, following which these two officials, backed by respective interagency delegations, split up

and barnstormed a total of twelve European capitals. In March 2004 Under Secretary

Feith led a delegation (including the author) that briefed this initiative in Beijing, Canberra, and Singapore, while the author made a side trip to Manila for the same purpose.

Major allies Japan and Korea, already undergoing very careful, comprehensive posture

reviews on a bilateral basis, were of course part of the GDPR picture; however, as the

host governments in each case were deeply involved in discussions about potential adjustments, there was no requirement for a special briefing to either. High-level administration visitors to Asian capitals, such as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage,

who visited Canberra, Beijing, and Tokyo during the winter of 2003–2004, readily responded to public and official queries about GDPR. Deputy Secretary Armitage was

able to calm negative foreign press speculation by, for example, assuring the Australian

public that the United States did not seek to base combat units in Australia.

This is not to say, however, that all these consultations in Europe and Asia divulged

specifics on planned movements and locations of units, closure of facilities, or timetables; in fact, none of this was included in the initial briefings. Instead, the approach wa

to explain the merits of rationalizing the global U.S. military network so as to reflect

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and technologies now operated. Persuading allies that military operations had ev

over time was not difficult. The recent examples of relatively lean forces dislod

the Taliban regime from Kabul and then the Saddam Hussein regime from Baghd

spoke volumes about conceptual leaps forward in the military arts by the United 

since World War II, indeed since Vietnam.

As this was truly a global initiative, the administration provided briefing points f

bassadors to scores of countries, and the State Department’s regional assistant se

ies for Near East, South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, respectively, carried to th

regions the message that others had already given to Europe and Asia. Every geog

combatant commander’s area of responsibility was slated to experience change.

Overall, allies and non-allies alike responded positively to the notion of a compre

sive review and streamlining of the U.S. global defense posture. Countries hostin

forces were intensely interested in whether Washington planned to withdraw sign

cant units or assets. The answer, while not discussed initially, could be deduced f

American rhetorical references to the undesirability of maintaining “static, legac

forces” in Europe whose only purpose was to defend against an invading Soviet a

Warsaw Pact army from the east—an army that now, mercifully, was no longer co

Allies understood that the United States would be investing in agile, mobile force

ticular units of which could be deployed in modular form as part of a force tailo

specific missions or tasks.

In a number of capitals, including Berlin, the main concern was whether U.S. po

changes would be managed in full coordination with planned facility closures. A

happened, many allied governments were looking at their own military requirem

and facilities and were contemplating streamlining initiatives of their own. The f

that several defense ministries were doing much the same thing as the Pentagon 

vided further validation of the overall American approach.

As the mid-May deadline for DoD’s initial recommendations to the BRAC panel 

proached in the spring of 2004, the administration sent State-DoD delegations (l

the author) back to the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Russia, a

other European states, as well as to prospective sites of new facilities being arrang

the Caucasus and Central Asia. At these meetings, the more significant specific el

ments of DoD’s proposed posture changes were explicitly addressed. Without qu

there were political sensitivities in some places about closures and departures. In 

places, where the United States hoped to consolidate larger presences or increase 

of facilities, there were local political sensitivities as well. In all cases, the administr

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pique with some allies over Iraq.

On 16 August 2004, President Bush, in a speech before a VFW convention in Cincinnati,

announced plans to bring home “about 60,000 to 70,000 uniformed personnel, and

about 100,000 . . . family members and civilian employees” from overseas bases over th

following ten years. Interagency officials, including the author, provided background

briefings to the Pentagon press corps, the international press corps, and defense expert

regularly seen on network and cable television. The president’s public endorsement of

these goals signaled that he was satisfied that allies had been briefed on the purposes of

the initiative and the changes it would bring over time.

Deeper Political Questions Raised by the GDPR

To have consulted allies about the nature and scope of the initiative and the long-term

reasons for it certainly blunted the negative reaction that could otherwise have greeted

this endeavor. It did not, however, altogether address to the satisfaction of America’s

many allies and partners deeper questions about what these changes might signify for

U.S. security policy. Putting to rest some of these questions will take time, and it will

require the example of American actions tested by events.

Will smaller U.S. forces stationed abroad mean a lessened American commitment to defend allies? The concern arose in Europe, where the majority of force reductions were

proposed. While European officials and press correspondents did not dispute the strategic reality that the threat of military aggression against them had passed with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, some wondered why U.S. forces that were

enjoying substantial host-nation support in first-rate facilities and had not been subjected to constraints in deploying for missions elsewhere should be relocated. What wa

it, they asked, that would cause Washington to spend, in all likelihood, considerable

money to relocate units to the United States after decades of welcome in host nations,

when such a move would lengthen the distances to trouble spots in the Middle East

and beyond?

Some assumed that such a move had to be driven by unhappiness in Washington with

what Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld had famously termed “the old Europe.” Nor was

such speculation dampened by DoD’s plans under the GDPR to create new training

hubs farther to the east, in the territory of new and strongly pro-U.S. allies such as Bulgaria or Romania, since these latter countries lacked the financial wherewithal to provide host-nation support on any comparable scale. This European perception had to be

addressed, but an arguably deeper perceptual challenge lay in Asia. There the Pentagon

had for years maintained a declarative security posture defined by a promise to

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the stability of the region and the defense of five treaty allies.

Central to the new initiative was the idea that capability and commitment could 

longer, and should no longer, be measured in numbers. It was not intuitively obv

to a nonmilitary audience in Asia that, for example, anticipated reductions of for

permanently stationed in the Republic of Korea would coincide with an actual

strengthening of the potential combat power the United States could bring to be

against North Korea (or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the DPRK). 

South Korean newspapers wondered aloud whether Washington was reducing its 

rity commitment to their country, the North certainly grasped that the United St

was increasing its precision-strike power around the Korean Peninsula while redu

its own forces’ exposure to DPRK firepower amassed just north of the Demilitari

Zone, and it denounced the American reconfiguration. If potential adversaries w

quick to recognize the military advantages to the United States of the planned ne

force posture, the larger Asian audience could not be made to think differently o

night. America’s role as the essential stabilizing force in Asia had long encourage

region to equate numerical presence with commitment and capability.

To overcome lingering doubts in Europe and Asia, the United States will have to 

onstrate its commitment to the role of ultimate security guarantor through its ac

over several years as the GDPR posture changes are implemented.

Is the United States devaluing alliances in general, and NATO in particular, as the m

nism of choice for addressing security issues, in favor of a unilateral or “coalition of 

willing” approach? The logic of the Global Defense Posture Review is consistent w

the National Security Strategy (NSS) promulgated in September 2002. This docum

described the changing threats of the new century, underlining the imperative th

fenses be raised against the combination of extremist ideology and destructive te

ogy. Terrorists seeking access to weapons of mass destruction were the new prior

concern, with their ability to evade detection and strike almost anywhere withou

warning. The NSS stated that “as a matter of common sense and self-defense, Am

will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed.”

In Washington, there was little serious resistance to the notion that the transnati

terrorism threat required a faster, more agile defense, able to respond to intellige

warnings in minutes or hours rather than weeks or months. But the idea that the

United States would reserve the right to act preemptively or preventively in respo

such threats, however sensible an idea to many American security experts, create

backlash overseas. The concern was that the United States might be asserting an 

bounded prerogative to use force without respecting traditional norms—that is, 

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international law, and that it be employed preferably with the support of other states,

ideally under an explicit alliance or United Nations mandate. International disagreement surrounding the U.S. decision to launch Operation IRAQI FREEDOM in 2003 further stimulated concern in some capitals about the evolving role of U.S. military power

Even as NATO was undergoing a second round of expansion, the administration understood that questions hung over the future of transatlantic security cooperation. To

American policy makers, the need for a capacity to stop a deadly terror attack through

preemptive action seemed unarguable; indeed, allies readily acknowledged the wisdom

of having the military capability to prevent another 9/11-type attack, if the intelligence

warning time permitted such action. With the spotlight so much on the changing U.S.

security policy, the question of whether America’s allies were rethinking their own poli

cies did not enter the transnational discussion.

The reality for most European members of NATO was and is that they are, by law and

policy, bound by twentieth-century norms regarding the authority to commit military

forces to hostilities. These norms are centered around the exercise of proper authority,

as manifested by a formal mandate from NATO, the European Union (EU), or the UN,

or in the absence of multilateral authorization, a parliamentary vote (which may require more than a simple majority). All of these processes, while conferring unquestionable legitimacy on the use of force, do not account for the scenario of a potentially

imminent and deadly terrorist act. Were intelligence to indicate that a terror group

might be commencing a major attack operation, it is entirely possible that an effective

military interdiction could not wait for a NATO, EU, or UN mandate or for parliamentary authorization.

This is a gap that, as of this writing in 2005, continues to separate U.S. and allied European security doctrines.1

There remains much room for useful introspection within

NATO on the alliance’s ability to act against the most likely and deadly contemporary

security threats on its territory. That said, the question generated within the NATO alli

ance by the GDPR initiative was not whether European constitutions would need to be

revised to make it easier for their militaries to join in preemptive actions against terrorism. Rather, the primary political dynamic was whether Washington was shifting its

reliance away from formal alliance structures in favor of ad hoc “coalitions of the willing.” In this atmosphere, allies looked for signs of American disaffection with the arrangements that had secured the peace in Europe for half a century.

As the Pentagon readied plans to pull heavy forces from Europe and reposition quick,

expeditionary forces close to jump-off points along major Mediterranean transport

routes, senior DoD officials emphasized the “usability” of American forces stationed

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crisis. The Defense Department’s aversion to such constraints was understandabl

rhetoric seemed to equate freedom of action with the degree of “welcome” being 

tended to forces. “We want to have our forces where people want them. We have 

sire to be where we’re not wanted,” said Secretary Rumsfeld in Singapore on 5 Jun

2004. There was no misunderstanding the message—host countries that would im

nettlesome constraints on the out-of-country deployability of U.S. forces should 

expect to be significant hubs in the new American defense posture.

As the GDPR moves toward the implementation phase, it will serve the United S

and its traditional allies best if the sides come to a mutual understanding on how 

meet the needs of all. European governments will do well to revisit their ability to 

immediately on time-sensitive intelligence, even when there is no formal mandat

NATO, the UN, the EU or their parliaments. The United States will do well to wo

with allied governments modalities to satisfy host countries’ legitimate needs for 

mation and consent, regardless of the urgency, as American military power is sta

from their territories in future crises.

Is the United States moving its military power farther “east” from Western Europe, 

its closer relationships with NATO’s new members and countries in the Caucasus an

Central Asia as a check on Russian influence? Russia’s perception of the GDPR wa

derstood from the beginning of policy-level interagency deliberations as deservin

cial attention. Interest on the U.S. side in promoting military-to-military contact 

America’s newest NATO allies among the former Warsaw Pact states was natural, 

cially given an ongoing combat operation in Afghanistan that involved a substan

flow of U.S. forces and supplies through Central Asian bases. Nonetheless, some 

sian government officials found it convenient to paint these activities in a siniste

light—in their parlance, as an effort to encircle Russia within its own traditional 

of influence.

The reality was the very opposite—after half a century of posturing military forc

conventional war against the Soviet army, the threat of such a war was gone. The 

European Command was enthusiastically turning the page with Russia, holding s

thirty military exercise activities per year with its former foes. The only conclusio

could draw from the heavy force reductions, base closures, and consolidations in 

ern Europe was that the United States no longer perceived a need for such comba

power to defend Europe. In fact, Washington had shifted its threat focus away fro

continental Europe and Russia, toward destinations farther to the south and east

Washington officials recognized that dark fulminations by some government and

Duma figures about the GDPR may have had more to do with Moscow politics th

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June 2004 sent State and DoD officials, including the author and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy Andrew Hoehn, to Moscow to brief Russia’s deputy foreign minister, national security adviser, and other officials on the initiative.

This briefing was received cordially; it became evident, however, that Russian officials would be quite concerned about the stationing of U.S. forces in certain sensitive

areas proximate to Russia’s borders, not least because such moves would be taken as

validating the view that encirclement and containment of Russia was the American

purpose. Andrew Hoehn, as Secretary Rumsfeld’s point person on the GDPR project,

gave authoritative responses to specific questions, often with straight “yes or no” answers, and thus went far to advance Moscow’s understanding that the GDPR was not

aimed at Russia.

Further, the administration has publicly and privately made clear its adherence to existing conventional arms control commitments, starting with the NATO-Russia

Founding Act of 1997, which contained specific measures to ensure that NATO and

Russian militaries would no longer be postured as mutual adversaries and could build

relationships of partnership. Additionally, the United States pledged to maintain its

commitments under the Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional

Armed Forces in Europe (the so-called Amended CFE). This instrument referred to

mutual American and Russian numerical restraints in troop and equipment deployments within each state of the NATO alliance and the former Warsaw Pact, and to a requirement for the consent of the host country to any such deployments. The Amended

CFE, agreed at the November 1999 Istanbul Summit of the Organization for Security

and Co-operation in Europe, requires Russian withdrawals from Georgia (some of which

have occurred as of 2005) and Moldova in order for its terms to become binding upon

the United States. The American commitment to adhere to the Amended CFE, despite

being conditional on Russian compliance that remains incomplete, was and is firm.

These policies further reassured Moscow that while the United States will need the infrastructure to train with its new NATO allies and to transit friendly states farther to

the east and southeast en route to the Middle East and Afghanistan, it does not seek to

base combat forces on Russia’s strategically sensitive periphery. Given the continued

American interest in the security of energy supplies from the Caucasus and the Persian

Gulf, Iran’s nuclear activities, and Afghanistan’s emergence as a democracy, Russia will

see regular U.S. military presence and engagement in nearby areas. Even so, the new

posture is solidly based on the premise that Russia is no longer an adversary of the

United States; one hopes this will be Moscow’s understanding as well.

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duties outside their territory as integral parts of a “global” force? Early in his tenure

retary Rumsfeld promulgated the notion that no geographic commander “owns” 

military forces—all American forces belong to the president. This position is con

with the GDPR’s central operating principle that the twenty-first-century U.S. m

will be more productive against more threats if it is managed globally. Capabiliti

brought to bear against any adversary can be, and are today, drawn from whateve

tion represents the optimal use of the asset at the time.

This concept, reflecting as it does an important new reality about information te

ogy and advances in logistics management, is also a sharp departure from the de

tory policy and supporting logic that has underpinned the American overseas de

posture in Europe and Asia for fifty years. The combatant commands are able to 

to change when guidance from the civilian chain of command so directs, and the 

ally managed force can become a functional reality rather quickly. However, the p

cal impact on foreign partners is complex, important, and not to be overlooked.

Very simply, for decades the presence of American “boots on the ground” was th

physical manifestation of the defense commitment extended by the United States 

NATO, Japan, South Korea, and other countries in Europe and the Pacific Rim. In 

cent years, the Pentagon has issued an annual East Asia strategy document forma

security guarantees through the maintenance of a military presence in Asia num

a hundred thousand troops. After the 1991 Gulf War, “one hundred thousand” al

came the benchmark number for fulfilling America’s enduring security commitm

its transatlantic allies. Can the “coin of the realm” of the U.S. security commitme

changed? The answer has to be yes, since what allies in Europe and Asia need mo

from the United States is credible, available combat power to deter and, if necess

defeat those who threaten them. Were it to freeze in place obsolescent patterns of 

ing and employing units, the United States would court higher risks.

Still, a major change in defense doctrine and practice requires a significant publi

plomacy effort if it is to be accepted abroad. European and Asian foreign-policy 

perts, journalists, and officials need to be not simply told but persuaded that Am

commitments to them, and capabilities to fulfill those commitments, are no long

usefully measured by numbers of troops. The foreign press has focused on troop

scheduled to be pulled back to U.S. bases or consolidated in other locales. There 

mains a need for allies, particularly in Asia, to have a clear and compelling vision 

how the new global defense posture—embracing U.S. forces outside as well as wi

their borders—will ensure their security as before. Precision strike, mobility, and

stealth, among other advances, make possible this assurance.

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posture to their own security were not challenging enough, there is a second dimension

that will have to be managed, namely the monetary and in-kind contributions to the

U.S. presence by host governments. Japan and South Korea, for example, each provides

substantial host-nation support in amounts that are painstakingly negotiated on a regular basis, and such arrangements are taken by the U.S. Congress as a critical bellwethe

of the health and strength of these alliance relationships. A reduction in stationed U.S.

forces begs the question of whether host-nation support should be reduced in some

like proportion. The Pentagon’s (correct) answer will be that the American security

commitment and warfighting plans draw more on U.S. assets outside the host’s territory than ever before, and hence that there would no diminution of American security

support meriting a reduction in host-nation support. Yet under the GDPR, American

forces—even those stationed within an ally’s territory, enjoying host-nation support—

are considered available for duty anywhere. It remains to be seen whether allied governments and legislatures are prepared to continue their funding at previous levels

once the size of the American force stationed on their respective territories declines.2

What Security Conclusions Should Allies Draw from the GDPR?

The foregoing touches on political issues that have meant a great deal to the fabric of

international stability since the middle of the twentieth century. The questions and

concerns from allied countries hearing of prospective large changes involving U.S.

troops on their territory had common themes: “Will America still defend us?” “Is

Washington still committed to our alliance as the primary instrument of security?” “Is

the new American posture aimed at hemming in Russia, or perhaps China?” “Should

we continue to provide so much financial support in hosting the residual U.S. presence

once reductions are carried out?” To list these questions is to appreciate the sensitivity

of the changes involved.

One question that was not made explicit is nonetheless perhaps the most consequentia

issue on the minds of allies as they contemplate the picture of a more nimble, agile,

globally managed U.S. military establishment: “Where do we fit in?”

The pronouncements of Secretary Rumsfeld and other top Defense Department officials focus, quite naturally, on getting forces to the fight—wherever that may be—and

doing so fast enough to allow them to succeed in their missions. The threat of terrorism potentially involving weapons of mass destruction has placed a premium on

speedy response to intelligence information.

Just two years prior to 9/11, the United States engaged in combat operations within the

very structured organizational framework of the NATO alliance. For some in the Bush

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broad international coalition approach President George H. W. Bush had pursue

DESERT STORM in 1991—represented an example of how not to respond to the n

threat. The new thinking was that seeking to form coalitions would signal that th

United States lacked confidence that it had the right to use force on its own, unil

ally. After 9/11 the point was made repeatedly by DoD officials in the interagency 

that the nation, having been attacked, had all the authority it needed to conduct 

ever military operations it saw fit to undertake.

The message to the State Department was to resist its allegedly habitual impulse 

for allies to plug into the war effort as American forces began staging toward the 

ghanistan theater. Due to interagency paralysis on this point, allied offers of assis

after 9/11 were acknowledged very belatedly. Only after the need arose to stabiliz

ghanistan and then Iraq following the takedowns of the Taliban and Saddam Hu

regimes did the Pentagon’s senior leadership exhibit an interest in coalitions beyo

the core British and Australian allies and very capable units from a few other cou

So it was that as the GDPR was rolled out in 2003, to a backdrop of admonitions 

Washington about the “usability” of American forces stationed abroad, allies cou

forgiven for wondering what exactly they were expected to do in a future crisis o

than sit tight and allow their facilities, territory, airspace, and waters to be plied a

by the United States.

Since U.S. forces remain on foreign bases at the invitation of host governments, t

activities governed by agreements covering criminal jurisdiction, exposure to for

taxation, conditions for permission to import and carry weaponry, and many oth

sovereign legal issues, a “don’t ask, don’t tell” foreign basing arrangement, while 

ing, was not a realistic basis for a defense posture for the new century. What mak

unrealistic is that governments take an appropriate interest in how their territory is 

and accord special political significance to any scenario in which another country’s 

launch combat operations directly from their territory. There is an implied comp

on the part of the host nation in the military objectives of the forces’ mission. Ho

governments—democracies above all—can be expected to require prior consent

Many of these governments operate under constitutional frameworks that limit t

latitude to commit their own forces in the case of non-NATO, non-UN, and non

military operations. The chances are, then, that a given government will not be c

fortable permitting the American use of its territory to launch operations withou

liamentary approval. Fast-breaking counterterrorism or WMD operations might 

seen as exceptional, and indeed, the United States should urge doctrinal and legis

changes in allied capitals consistent with the practical realities of the war on terro

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equivalent of a political blank check to the United States or anyone else. Particularly

cooperative presidents or prime ministers may be able to deliver for Washington, but

only so long as they remain in office—as was seen when President Jose Maria Aznar’s

Spanish government lost at the polls in March 2004.

If the ability to flow American forces globally in the most economical manner, as envisioned in this initiative, depends on making long-term arrangements only with govern

ments that will reliably provide instant consent or are content to be informed after the

fact of combat operations originating from their territory, the GDPR may encounter

some disappointments before its vision can be fully realized. This is not to suggest that

U.S. forces should be encumbered by bureaucratic processes like those that characterized NATO’s prosecution of the 1999 Kosovo campaign—not when success may requir

effective military action within a very few hours of obtaining actionable intelligence.

However, it would make no more sense to place the U.S. military on an evolutionary

path that separates it farther from longtime allies whose people share America’s values

and security interests, if not in every instance its foreign policy views.

I conclude that the Defense Department was right to harvest the lessons of recent operations and to seek to optimize a military establishment upon which most of the world’s

democracies and key economies ultimately rely for their own security. I further conclude

that America’s European allies, in particular, should seriously revisit the legal frameworks

upon which their own latitude to use military force relies. Similarly, NATO would do wel

to explore new modalities to invoke Article 5 without requiring a unanimous affirmative

vote among its expanded membership. Just as the United States took dramatic steps to

develop a new national security strategy after 9/11, so should its allies make it possible fo

their forces to take immediate action—preemptive action—to intercept illicit WMD in

transit or otherwise protect allied populations against an imminent terrorist attack.

A dialogue aimed at harmonizing the legal and doctrinal basis for the use of force among

the United States and willing allies would go a long way to cementing the political foundations for the new U.S. global posture. Already the United States and its NATO allies

have formally embraced the goals of pursuing transformation together and modernizing

their forces with interoperable weapons systems. The GDPR can advance these and other

military-partnership initiatives in order to give future American presidents the best possible chance of moderating the high price of securing America’s worldwide security inter

ests by bringing more than just American combat forces to bear in a crisis.

An administration whose Defense team, in particular, came into office in 2001 believing that American military power should be less fettered by international norms and

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United States bears the brunt of the most arduous security duties is one in which 

that have not similarly committed “boots on the ground” increasingly view polic

sues differently, as they cannot relate either to the hard responsibilities that come 

military intervention or to the expense in blood and treasure that the American p

experience on a continuous basis.

It is probably an understatement that most Americans and their elected representa

would now like to see future security burdens borne to a greater degree by other co

tries along with the United States. Moreover, they would not consider robust inform

sharing and sensitive security dialogue with other governments too high a price to 

not if it led, five to ten years hence, to an international security architecture with m

and more highly capable, responders closely tied to U.S. command and control sys

In all democracies, the decision to take military action against an external threat 

nothing if not political, as is the decision by allies to support the United States w

the president decides to act. Political solidarity among allied leaders and their pe

is in fact the bedrock of American security, the essential enabler of the success of 

programmatic ventures as the GDPR and transformation initiatives generally.

Aspiration to secure itself against future threats, in close partnership with other c

tries, is a recognition in the United States that influence among nations—even m

than superior weaponry and training—is the source of America’s true power in t

world. A country that sees itself as a leader will do well to bear in mind that the

strength of its leadership is ultimately measured by the readiness of others to foll

By seeking to foster greater solidarity with allies on security issues, and building 

ence within their publics, as President Bush has been doing in foreign capitals du

2005, the United States will find that over time its allies become less resistant to t

of American military power and more inclined to commit their own forces and r

sources alongside those of the United States when serious threats arise. This approach—active security engagement at political as well as military levels—holds 

best prospect of fulfilling the promise of the Global Defense Posture Review.

Notes

1. Australia, by contrast, embraced the same

notion of preemption. As Prime Minister

John Howard said on 31 October 2002, nineteen days after a terrorist bomb in Bali, Indonesia, killed 202 people, including many

Australians, “Imagine a situation where we

in Australia knew that there was a dir

threat to us and that Australian lives 

be lost if we decided for doctrinal rea

would not interfere to try and stop th

threat. The public would say we were 

in our duty.”

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with broad funding estimates for a fully realized GDPR. While it was possible to make a

very rough overall estimate of costs for relocating units and constructing new infrastructure at American facilities to which

units may be moved subject to the BRAC

process, there are some costs that cannot be

estimated: not only potential reductions in

related to any new activities in the new NATO

countries or in strategically situated states in

the Caucasus, Central Asia, Africa, and Asia,

countries whose ability to pay for new facilities or share operating costs may be low.

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A Place and a Base

Guam and the American Presence in East Asia

ANDREW S. ERICKSON AND JUSTIN D. MIKOLAY

Rising threats to American national security in East Asia coincide with growing u

tainty concerning the future of local support for U.S. basing access there. There i

reason to expect this situation to improve substantially in the foreseeable future. 

ican planners have finally recognized the imperative to build up Guam as a sover

anchor of America’s force posture in East Asia, to protect American interests in t

strategically vital region. In what follows, we examine Guam’s potential importan

a forward operating base for the U.S. Navy and Air Force.

We first detail American interests in East Asia, with particular emphasis on the n

tional security strategy and potential sources of regional instability. Second, we c

cally evaluate the 2004 Global Posture Study and the call of the 2001 Quadrennia

Defense Review for “places, not bases.” Third, we review the various political con

straints on U.S. military activities in the region. Finally, we explain the importan

strengthening port facilities in Guam, to transform it into a hub fully capable of 

porting operations throughout East Asia.

America’s Emerging Asian Anchor

The U.S. military is developing Guam as the anchor of its future force posture in 

strategic East Asian region. China’s rising comprehensive national power, couple

political changes in host countries Japan and South Korea, call into question the 

term utility of local American bases. Meanwhile, the ongoing North Korean nucl

crisis, periodic Taiwan Strait tensions, and potential disruption of strategic sea-la

terrorism or conflict in the South China Sea make American interests in East Asi

creasingly vital. But, as assessments of the Chinese military emphasize, “depende

foreign-hosted bases and extended lines of logistical support for sustained comb

erations in the West Pacific” represents a major American vulnerability.1

CHAPTER FOUR

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ward base to anchor an increasingly complex constellation of both allied cooperation

and access rights and American sea basing and crew rotation. Although Guam is farther from some key regional flash points than previous, current, or possible future

bases on foreign territory, it is still close enough to play a critical supporting role. Indeed, it is a strategic hub at the center of the U.S. Pacific Command’s enormous area of

responsibility: 169,000,000 square kilometers over sixteen time zones, encompassing

forty-three nations comprising 60 percent of the world’s population, the six largest

armed forces, five of the seven American mutual defense treaties, and 35 percent of

U.S. trade (over $550 billion).2

“Guam’s geo-strategic importance cannot be overstated,” Admiral Thomas B. Fargo, former commander of the Pacific Command, testified before Congress in 2004.3

Since Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited the

island on 14 November 2002, the military has considered dramatic increases in force

levels on Guam.4

As one of only two sovereign American overseas bases as well as America’s nearest port

to East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, Guam combines foreign proximity with

domestic flexibility.5

It is closer to East Asian flash points than any other U.S.-based facility. Guam also gives the U.S. Navy an excellent deep-water port with room for pier

expansion and a magazine capable of holding a substantial volume of conventional and

nuclear munitions. The 209-square-mile island provides the Air Force with its largest

aviation-fuel storage depot (sixty-six million gallons), its largest Pacific weaponry storage site (a hundred thousand bombs), and the region’s only live-fire bombing range.

Guam’s patriotic population produces the most military recruits per capita of any area

under American jurisdiction;6

further, 80 percent of registered voters support the future homeporting of an aircraft carrier battle group. Clearly, the U.S. military can depend on Guam.7

Enhancing American naval presence in the Pacific Rim means more time on station

without a proportionate rise in operational tempo for an already strained Pacific Fleet.

Therefore, Guam will increasingly be utilized to decrease transit times to strategic areas. Routine deployments of U.S. bombers to Guam since 2004 have allowed Pacific

Command planners to integrate these strategic assets thoroughly into exercises.8

As Ad

miral Fargo emphasizes, Guam is “key to our military operations across the full spectrum of our capability.”9

Guam: A Place and a Base

Guam has long served American strategic interests. After becoming a U.S. territory in

1898 following the Spanish-American War, Guam first served the Navy as a mid-Pacific

coaling station. Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that converting Guam into “a kind of

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lobby” in Washington in an attempt to further this cause, but Congress proved 

willing to invest heavily in fortifying Guam.10 Gradually surrounded over the en

decades by Japanese economic and military expansion, Guam was easily overru

Japanese forces in December 1941. Following its recapture by American forces 

1944, Guam became a critical logistics base, supporting American operations a

Japan in the western Pacific. During the Cold War it was also one of the first Po

missile–support bases and provided a crucial communications and intelligence 

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minesweepers from Guam cleared Haiphong Harbor at the conclusion of that conflict.

Following the Vietnam War—the island having, ironically, given its name to President

Richard Nixon’s 1969 “Guam Doctrine,” calling upon Asian allies to see to their own

defenses—the island’s military presence lessened, and its infrastructure declined.11

As promising as Guam is, it has its inherent problems. As the map on the facing page

shows, Guam is farther from all strategic areas in Northeast Asia than is Japan, Korea

Vietnam, or the Philippines. Guam is three times farther from the Taiwan Strait than

is Okinawa. Ships cruising from Guam at twenty-five knots could reach the Taiwan

Strait in two and a half days, whereas they would need only one day from the Philippines. However, Guam’s distance from East Asia does offer one benefit—proportionately smaller vulnerability to Chinese and North Korean ballistic missiles. In

addition, while the island is often affected by adverse weather, including typhoons,

which sometimes disrupt operations and damage infrastructure, Korea and Japan are

similarly vulnerable in this regard.12

As the result of Guam’s general proximity to East Asian hot spots and of persistent lobbying by Vice Admiral Albert H. Konetzni (as Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet), in September 2002 the Navy transferred two Los Angeles–class attack

submarines from homeports in the continental United States to Guam.13 One result of

this change has been to increase the total number of available in-theater mission days

for these submarines. Navy officials contend that submarines based in Guam will be in

theater from eighty-eight to 123 days per year, three times as long as the thirty-six-day

average of submarines based in the continental United States.14 “Doing more with less”

means that operations tempo will stay the same even while added requirements are

met. This, in turn, reduces the overall number of ships that the Navy requires; in recent

congressional testimony, the former Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Vernon Clark

cited forward basing of ships in Guam as a key factor for maximizing use of naval assets.15 Another benefit from basing ships in Guam is improved response time. Submarines operating from Guam take four days at twenty knots to reach the East Asian

littoral, in contrast to the fifteen days required from San Diego.16 Aside from obvious

utility during crisis, this fact carries peacetime benefits. The shorter distance to East

Asian hot spots reduces fuel consumption, and not inconsiderably, a fact that also help

to prolong the lives of the nuclear cores of submarines.17

Basing ships in Guam also reduces their crew’s personnel tempo, the rate and dura

tion of military deployments. This feature allows ships’ crews to spend more time

with their families, which in turn produces better retention and reduces recruiting

costs. Offsetting this advantage, however, is Guam’s distance from the United States

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results. One former naval officer stationed on

Guam in the 1970s reflects that fewer than

half of his peers chose

to have their families

accompany them on

the island.18 A larger,

better-supported Navy

community on Guam

would encourage more

personnel to bring

their dependents along

and stay on the island

or in the region when

on leave. Enhanced infrastructure ashore for

families will help here

but will bring its own

costs. Guam needs a

complete infrastructure renaissance, with

improvements in the

condition of schools,

barracks, hangars, dry

docks, and maintenance facilities. The

expense would be offset by the resulting decreased personnel

tempo, reduced deployment time, and

more persistent presence. Total infrastructure improvement costs to homepo

to eight additional submarines at the island would probably reach $200 milli

less than 10 percent the cost of one $2.3 billion Virginia-class submarine, thi

ure is far below expected procurement costs for U.S.-based vessels, with their 

access to this critical operating theater.19

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Capricorn

Mongolia

China

North Korea

South Korea Japan

Indonesia

Malaysia

Australia

Vietnam Cambodia

Laos

Thailand

Taiwan Hong Kong

Gu

Philippines

Papua New Guin

Singapore

Brunei

South China Sea

Philippine Sea

Yellow Sea

East China Sea

Sea of Japan

Sea of Okhot

Gulf of Thailand

Lake Baikal

Okinawa

Strategic Area of

Operations

Sasebo

Subic Bay

Cam Rahn Bay

Darwin

Pusan

1612 nm

1440 nm

1548 nm

1379 nm

Access

Alternat

1346 nm

Yokosuka ~3500 nm f

Pearl Harbo

~4800 nm from PH

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strategic advantages. Although unprecedented, it would be possible to base an aircraft carrier at Guam. Together with Hawaii, Guam has been under consideration

as a location for a carrier battle group and its 5,500 personnel.20 Guam has sufficient territory to accommodate additional U.S. forces. Ongoing American troop reductions in South Korea may facilitate the long-term goal of moving U.S. assets

from politically and strategically vulnerable foreign bases to the sovereign territory

of Guam.

Military commanders need airlift capabilities and tankers ready and able to deploy

in-theater quickly. For these missions, America needs a secure airfield from which

it cannot be denied access; political area denial could allow China to push American forces out of the region before or during a crisis. Guam has the advantage of

being American territory, reducing the political difficulty of building and operating assets there.21 Furthermore, Guam, with its pro-military population and 7.7

percent unemployment, is unlikely to offer local opposition to increased military

infrastructure. Indeed, support for additional military presence on Guam is increasing among residents.22 While Guam already boasts a deep-water port, revitalized repair dry dock, and proximity to the region’s only live-fire bombing range,

Apra Harbor is capable of significant physical expansion to support additional naval ships.

The Air Force also has a potentially important role to play in Guam’s future. Andersen

Air Force Base features three-thousand-meter runways and can easily accommodate

any of the Air Force’s planes, making Guam a unique contender to become a main operating base for tactical missions.23 In a provocative article, Robert Kaplan even claims

that “Andersen Air Force Base, on Guam’s northern tip, represents the future of U.S.

strategy in the Pacific. It is the most potent platform anywhere in the world for the

projection of American military power.”24

In addition to operational assets, however, the twenty-one-thousand-acre air base

needs increased support resources. Existing Air Force infrastructure and support personnel will continue to require upgrading to sustain newer-generation bombers or

strike aircraft; stealth aircraft, for instance, require special hangars. Repair and maintenance shelters can be augmented to serve carrier strike groups, and training centers

would allow personnel to remain on station longer. In spring 2005 twelve F-15E fighters were rotated to Andersen from the continental United States for training.25 B-1, B-2

and B-52 bombers are also rotating through;26 further, “Guam-based bombers have car

ried out missions against targets in Iraq.”27

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sance (ISR) and strike, with the potential addition of two tactical aviation squadr

bomber rotations, and a Global Hawk (unmanned aerial vehicle) detachment. Ac

ing to the Overseas Basing Commission, this will provide “critical capabilities for 

operations in the [Pacific Command area of responsibility],” including “a China-Ta

conflict.” Moving assets from the continental United States to Guam “permits mo

persistent ISR coverage, peacetime intelligence gathering/tracking and prompt st

capability.” By contrast, crisis deployment of U.S.-based assets “would not only r

scarce airlift sorties to deploy squadron support packages but could also be viewe

provocative and complicate crisis management.”

Guam’s Impending Infrastructure Renaissance

Guam’s new role will clearly require significant infrastructure and equipment up

grades. Already three nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) have been statio

in Guam.28 Up to six additional submarines may join them;29 these would include 

SSNs and soon-to-be-converted nuclear-powered cruise missile boats.”30 This wo

make Guam home to roughly a fifth of the entire U.S. attack submarine fleet and

would thus give it the platforms “required to track China’s emerging SSBN [balli

missile submarine] capability.”31

Although further asset deployment decisions await consultation with allies on 

basis of the base realignment and closure process completed in December 2005

clear now that major changes are afoot.32 The Air Force is considering the cons

tion of a concrete hangar for two B-2 bombers, in addition to two ongoing con

tion projects: an $85 million air refueling facility and a $12.8 million housing

refurbishment at Andersen Air Force Base.33 In 1999, the Navy selected the Ray

Corporation to upgrade and maintain support facilities, awarding a $324 milli

contract over the following seven years.34 Guam will also receive the III Marine 

ditionary Force from Okinawa, which will necessitate $2.9 billion in infrastruc

development.35 See the sidebars for a list of current assets and additional assets 

ommended by the authors.

American Interests: Why Should the Navy Invest?

Building up Guam is not only an essential component of a long-term strategy to 

tain America’s preeminent position in the global security environment; it also re

to East Asian threats that Washington cannot afford to ignore.

In coming years, military bases on American territory, particularly naval bases, w

come central to America’s force posture.36 Advances in foreign navies’ ability to ta

U.S. surface vessels will make submarines increasingly important platforms for fo

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projection.37 Having sufficient numbers of submarines deploy in a timely fashion to

critical areas will be essential to maintaining a strong American presence in East Asia.

Guam’s sovereign status makes it a vital center for such operations.

Operational considerations as well as future politics could increasingly circumscribe

American deployment options, making it all the more essential to take full advantage

of Guam’s ability to support American military assets without delay. In East Asia, three

regional developments make forward U.S. bases increasingly significant. America faces

economic, political, and potentially military competition from China; political and security challenges associated with the global war on terror; and a clear and present military threat from North Korea.

First, the growing ambitions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) depend on increasingly assertive naval power. As China moves closer to developing blue-water naval

capability, the U.S. Navy finds it necessary to be ready not only to respond quickly to a

contingency in the Taiwan Strait but also to counterbalance growing Chinese regional

military reach. Second, localized Southeast Asian terrorist organizations—Jemaah

USS Frank Cable (AS 40)

USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705)

USS Houston (SSN 713)

Mobile Security Unit Guam

U.S. Naval Forces Marianas Support Activity

Helo Combat Support Squadron 5 (HC 5)

U.S. Naval Hospital Guam

U.S. Naval Computer/Telecomms Station

EOD Mobile Unit 5 (EODMU 5)

EOD 5 Detachment Marianas

Naval Special Warfare Unit 1

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion

Naval Airborne Weapons Maintenance Unit 1

Military Mine Assembly Unit 1 (MOMAU 8)

Command Military Prepositioning Squadron 3

Military Sealift Command Office Guam

Fleet Imaging Center Pacific

Space and Naval Warfare Systems Facility Pacific

Naval Satellite Operations Center Guam Detachment Charlie

B-1, B-2, and B-52 bomber aircraft rotation to Andersen AFB

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violence. These organizations have to be uncovered and pursued, particularly wh

they are actively collaborating with al-Qa‘ida or other terrorist groups with glob

reach. Third, despite the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework by which North Korea 

joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in exchange for U.S. delivery 

heavy fuel oil, Pyongyang recently revealed its clandestine production of nuclear 

ons.38 This flagrant violation has further destabilized an already fragile political s

tion in Northeast Asia.

The Navy has a critical role to play in East Asia, given the region’s extensive coast

islands, land barriers, and consequent susceptibility to maritime force projection

great power engaged in offshore “balancing” (like Britain in Europe during the n

teenth century), the United States does not need the capacity to win land wars in 

Asia in order to maintain its preponderant position. Instead, its preeminence hin

control of the sea.

In East Asia, naval forces play a preventive role that is of equal importance to their 

sive function. These dual processes can be categorized as “shaping” and “respondin

Forward presence enhances American ability not only to respond to regional eve

to shape them before they occur. Ships on station are launch pads for the war on 

platforms for theater missile defense, and barriers to the proliferation of weapon

mass destruction (WMD), and they are stabilizing political forces in themselves. 

Navy plays a special role in safeguarding American interests. As one reporter not

“[Unlike the basing and staging–dependent Air Force or Army,] . . . the Navy can

STRENGTHENING GUAM

Enlarge and deepen Apra Harbor

Widen breakwater entrance to Apra Harbor

Repair and enlarge damaged and unused wharves

Allocate additional resources to dry-dock/repair facilities

(recent efforts have bolstered repair capabilities)

Enlarge Submarine Squadron 15

(two additional attack submarines)

Add Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 4 to Andersen AFB

(currently in NAS North Island, San Diego)

Homeport USS Sacramento (AOE 1) for on-station support

Enlarge Agana Harbor for use as secondary naval port

Preposition theater missile defense ships

Enlarge ammunition site at Kilo Wharf

(maximize use of Military Sealift Command

and USN Prepositioning Squadron 3)

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a pace that allows diplomacy to cool a crisis even as the ships proceed.”40 Naval forces

also enjoy the advantage of operating in international waters, as close as twelve miles to

another nation’s coastline.41

To maximize these naval strengths, the Navy needs to arrange assets for highest availability in times of crisis. Such a strategy calls for forward presence of ships operating

from bases that are not politically constrained. Washington would thus improve its capacity to stabilize the Taiwan Strait by improving its rapid-response capabilities,

thereby deterring Chinese offensive actions in the first place. A strengthened American

position in Guam would also increase American political leverage in that region. Guam

is, for instance, well suited to host joint military exercises. In fact the island was used in

the 1990s as a premier training ground for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit exercise

TRUE (TRaining in an Urban Environment).

American military force planners now work within the framework of a broad new national security strategy calling for proactive responses to unpredictable threats. Because

neutralizing WMD is among Washington’s highest priorities for national defense, the

announcement of an ongoing nuclear weapons program in North Korea has drawn the

renewed attention of American policy makers to Northeast Asia. Current American

priorities in the Middle East make it unwise to provoke North Korea now, but in the

future, building a more credible American deterrent that does not hinge on Japanese o

South Korean participation may be essential in pressuring Pyongyang.

North Korean aggression remains a possibility should détente with the South fail. But a

war with North Korea would likely be far bloodier than has been the war in Iraq, for

several reasons. First, in Iraq a slow diplomatic buildup allowed for massive troop

prepositioning; this would not happen in the Koreas. The North, in a time of rising

tensions, could preempt major troop deployments by threatening Seoul with artillery

or Japan with missiles. Second, the coalition in Iraq had bases in neighboring Kuwait

from which to launch an attack, with no restrictions on their use; public opinion in

South Korea might not permit similar use of U.S. bases there. Third, North Korea has a

far greater potential to inflict a “sea of fire”—unacceptable, even mass casualties

among American troops and allied civilians—than Iraq ever did, a possibility that

greatly constrains U.S. options for applying pressure. Moreover, South Koreans might

well oppose even a defensive American military buildup on the peninsula. Another

place or base, such as Guam, could help alleviate these problems, especially if the

United States was limited for political reasons in its use of bases on Japanese soil.

A conflict on the Korean Peninsula could rapidly escalate into a terrible war that

could well involve the use of chemical, biological, even nuclear weapons. Therefore

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full-scale invasion kept a permanent land force near the Demilitarized Zone. 

the Pentagon is now moving beyond this “tripwire” approach, under which fo

stationed within range of North Korean artillery actually undermine the Am

threat of preemptive strike. Moreover, the more likely contingency of heighte

tensions, as opposed to immediate, full-scale war, suggests the need for a quick-rea

force. A naval quarantine to prevent Pyongyang from exporting missiles (in v

tion of the Missile Technology Control Regime), nuclear material (in violatio

the Non-Proliferation Treaty), or related military technologies could also be 

portant. Naval and air assets stationed in Guam would be well positioned to p

form these roles.

Tension in the Taiwan Strait deserves separate consideration, because it will dr

American basing strategy in the near and middle terms. At present, U.S. militar

sistance is geographically far removed from Taiwan; rapidity of response depen

what forces happen to be nearby. The transit time is approximately sixteen day

carrier strike group stationed on the West Coast, a week from the Indian Ocean

twelve days from Hawaii.42 If an additional carrier were forward deployed to

Yokosuka, Japan, or if a battle group were on station in the Pacific or in port at

Guam, the transit time would be reduced to between three and five days. Amer

ability to respond to a Taiwan Strait crisis is also constrained by political forces 

region. Although many American analysts believe that Taiwan could still defen

in a military engagement against China, calamitous economic damage to the is

would be a virtual certainty. If the United States failed to respond early and eff

tively, Taipei might sue for peace.

Any course of Chinese action against Taiwan would produce a series of ambiguo

dicators that would have to be compared with previous assessments of Chinese n

operations in peace and during crises. The monitoring of such indicators would 

cilitated by a stronger permanent American military presence on Guam.

Implications for U.S. East Asian Presence

Developing Guam as a forward hub is the key to a larger American strategy fo

maintaining influence in East Asia, which in turn will fundamentally affect C

regional position. For this reason, some planners in each nation envision a ze

sum competition for regional status, particularly through naval development

While Guam will become a vital anchor to America’s East Asian force posture

hardly a panacea. China closely follows American military deployments on it

riphery and is observing with “a high degree of attention”43 the American bu

of nuclear submarines44 and other assets45 on Guam.46 Guam is frequently des

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munist Party Central Committee Party School describes Secretary Rumsfeld as ordering a “massive buildup and extension of Guam” as “an important component of

America’s strategic military adjustment.” Such a buildup is part of a larger plan to

“increase strategic pressure against China” and to “increase America’s ability to interfere in the Taiwan problem.”48

Chinese analyses of Guam’s strategic role are typically framed in terms of the “island

chains” concept notably articulated by Admiral Liu Huaqing, former Chinese navy

commander.49 Chinese analysts view the “island chains” as American fortifications; bar

riers that China must continue to penetrate to achieve freedom of military maneuver;50

and demarcations of Chinese progress in naval force projection.51 Liu and others define

the First Island Chain as comprising Japan52 and its northern and southern archipelagos (the latter disputed by China),53 South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. In 2004,

a National Defense University professor, Zhang Zhaozhong, declared on Chinese national television that the United States is building up troops and military assets on

Guam as part of a new focus on strengthening its “forward reserve” on the Second Island Chain (from the Japanese archipelago south to the Bonin and Marshall Islands,

including Guam) to contain China.54

One Chinese source refers to Guam as the “Second Island Chain’s nucleus.”55 Reinforcing this idea, Zhang characterizes Guam as a “springboard” from which America

“can immediately send out aircraft or dispatch submarines, in order to put power into

the war zone,” which he apparently envisions as centering on the Taiwan Strait.56 Some

unofficial Chinese publications refer to a “Third Island Chain” centered on America’s

Hawaiian bases;57 this would be in effect a “strategic rear area” for the U.S. military.58

Perhaps in response to America’s military preponderance in East Asia, Beijing is developing land-attack cruise missiles, which are inherently offensive.59 China views its

antiship-cruise-missile buildup as inherently defensive in nature;60 nonetheless, rapidly

improving capabilities of submarines,61 satellites62 and over-the-horizon radar63

may

afford increasing offensive options. Chinese cruise missiles, particularly submarinelaunched variants, represent a growing threat to U.S. forces in Guam and elsewhere

in the Pacific theater. In support of this effort, China is developing its own rudimentary Beidou satellite navigation system;64 it is also seeking to maximize its

civilian65 and military applications.66 Together with increasing access to Europe’s

developing Galileo system, this may help China avoid overreliance on the Americancontrolled Global Positioning System (GPS) during crises while increasing its ability

to threaten Guam.67 In November 2004, a Han-class nuclear submarine reportedly

transited waters near Guam.68 As China’s maritime and aerospace capabilities

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edented areas.

To prepare for the worst of such contingencies, Guam’s facilities should be pro

from ballistic missiles as well as from submarine- and air-launched cruise miss

Avoiding over-concentration of Guam’s assets, particularly submarines, during 

will be important. Concentration of assets leaves them vulnerable to a decapita

strike; dispersal based on strategic warning and the threat of nuclear retaliation 

to some degree offset that risk. Adequately hardened submarine pens are a pos

if expensive, option. America’s best strategy may be at-sea dispersal, drawing o

War experience.

Although fortifying Guam highlights the key national interests at stake, that outl

obscures the positive-sum benefits from a strong American presence. The U.S.-Ja

alliance helps to prevent destabilizing competition in a region that is even today 

covering from World War II. Further, by guaranteeing the security of East Asian 

lanes—a public good that China is not yet able to provide—America facilitates th

of energy and trade in a region that depends on both to maintain its impressive e

nomic growth.

Deploying additional U.S. forces to Guam would also generally support growin

American interests in Asia and would most likely be less provocative than sellin

ditional armaments to Taiwan. In the longer term, America and China will hav

reach an understanding concerning their respective roles in the world’s most d

namic region. “As [China grows], there’s going to be an inevitable push as they 

advantage of their economic ability to improve their military capabilities,” Adm

William J. Fallon states. “We ought to recognize that as a reality. This is not a ze

sum game.”69

On 22–25 October 2003, the Chinese navy made its first-ever port call to Guam. 

Admiral Xue Tianpei brought the guided-missile destroyer Shenzhen and supply 

Qinghai Lake, with 550 sailors aboard, into Apra Harbor.70 This historic event wa

of a reciprocal exchange in which two U.S. warships had visited China’s Zhanjian

the month before. China’s official press stated that “the Chinese naval fleet sailed 

Guam on the currents of warming Sino-U.S. relations” and credited the visit with

demystifying America’s military presence in Guam.71

The Quadrennial Defense Review and the Global Posture Study

The 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) declared that “places, not bases” a

necessary to reduce the political restraints on U.S. military operations. The Glob

ture Review is a sweeping effort to realign American overseas operations to best

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tributing 82,500 troops from Germany and South Korea back to the continental United

States, deploying new assets to maintain specific capabilities as opposed to arbitrary

troop numbers, strengthening existing alliances, and building new partnerships.73 A key

element of this process will involve addressing unanticipated threats, possibly with out

of-region assets.74

While affirming the goals behind the Global Posture Review, the Overseas Basing

Commission judged that—especially given America’s current military commitments

and budget deficit—implementation of its recommendations is underfunded and

outpacing infrastructure and technological capacity. This may undermine recruiting

and lead to vulnerabilities and other unintended consequences, particularly in Europe and Japan.75

Although the QDR makes a compelling case that traditional basing options are not a

panacea, in the context of evolving American priorities in East Asia a more nuanced

view of the utility of full-fledged military bases is possible. Some observers contend

that large fixed bases have declining military value and rising disadvantages. Certainly,

bases are increasingly at risk from terrorist attacks, which is one of many vulnerabilities that lead potential host nations to view the prospect of new American bases less

than enthusiastically. However, this danger already applies to existing land bases, particularly in the Middle East, for which, despite efforts to improve sea basing, there is no

substitute.76 Moreover, permanent land bases are important military tools during a

conflict and are perhaps even more important for their political value. “We cannot hope

for much influence without presence,” emphasizes the Overseas Basing Commission.

“The degree of influence often correlates to the level of permanent presence that we

maintain forward.”77 Two excellent examples of the political value of bases in general and

of Guam in particular are Joint Task Force PACIFIC HAVEN, which received and temporarily housed over 6,500 Kurdish refugees escaping Iraq after government crackdowns in

1997, and the large tent city on Guam that sheltered South Vietnamese refugees in 1973.

A second vulnerability of bases, one more relevant in East Asia, is the growing dange

of missile attacks. Indeed, the QDR emphasizes that “saturation attacks with ballistic

and cruise missiles could deny or delay U.S. access to overseas bases.”78 Some analysts

have cited a growing PRC missile threat as a reason not to establish new bases anywhere in East Asia. They argue that China’s CSS-3 missiles were designed to destroy

facilities on Guam using nuclear warheads. Submarine-launched cruise missiles—

with their potential for small radar cross sections, low-altitude flight, continually adjustable trajectories, and potential avoidance of GPS constraints through reliance on

terrestrial imaging—could emerge as a particularly lethal threat.

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cision makers—to deterrence might be situational. Irrespective “of the degree an

ture of American military superiority,” Beijing might become “impossible to dete

the event of a Taiwanese declaration of independence.79 In such a situation, Chin

might view surprise attacks on U.S. forces in Okinawa or Guam as a credible mea

disrupting and even restraining American attempts to support Taiwan.

China certainly has “done the math” and has made a concerted effort to acquir

fensive capabilities that could be used against U.S. bases. But by this logic, Ame

bases in Japan and Korea are even more vulnerable, given their closer proximit

despite growing missile threats from North Korea and even China, Japan contin

to value American bases as a key element of its own defense. South Korean pub

opinion may be more easily manipulated by North Korean propaganda, but U.

forces are moving out of range of North Korean artillery. Additionally, aggressi

Pyongyang might be counterproductive politically—inaccurate North Korean m

siles aimed at American bases in South Korea put civilians at risk. For both ope

tional and political reasons, South Korean bases would not likely play a major r

a Taiwan crisis and hence would not be a target of Chinese missile coercion. U.

bases in Japan are more relevant to a Taiwan conflict and are hence a more like

get of PRC pressure. It is therefore imperative that the United States not rely on 

restricted access to them in such a scenario.

As for Guam, China will probably not soon be able to trap U.S. forces there with 

surface missiles or tactical nuclear weapons. While Guam’s target value would ris

infrastructure and asset improvement, Beijing knows that attacking a U.S. base, e

cially on sovereign territory, would invite a devastating American response. As on

lyst points out, “Presidents would not encounter major domestic opposition in

reacting to aggression against U.S. forces or civilians at home. The question is no

whether, but what form the response would take.”80

Dispersion and the use of missile defenses are particularly relevant for reduc

Guam’s vulnerabilities. Dispersion could entail a periodic rotation of assets s

nuclear submarines at sea away from Guam, thereby exploiting the island’s p

tial as a useful hub while preventing a Pearl Harbor–style surprise scenario. A

dispersion might be augmented with specific access arrangements with nearb

lands such as Palau, to be used in time of crisis. While American ballistic-mis

defense architecture may not be able to neutralize fully a PRC missile attack, 

might at least introduce uncertainty and thereby alter Beijing’s calculus. Ther

even cross-cutting factors in Guam’s favor, such as the potential for increased

defensibility of concentrated assets under a TMD system.81 Stationing SM-3 s

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protection.

American “base structure is not merely a derivative of strategy,” counsels the Overseas Basing Commission, “it is a driver in its own right.” As the Global Posture

Study acknowledges, while emerging threats are not fully predictable and may be

addressed from out of area, they must be roughly anticipated in order to inform

properly the architecture of the new American global basing footprint. The need

for foresight and flexibility, particularly given the reality of finite resources, places

a premium on maximizing U.S. capabilities in locations such as Guam that offer

minimum political restraints, maximum utility, and ready access to areas with mul

tiple anticipated threats.

Regional Political Constraints: The Need for Flexibility

Because of the limitations of geography and politics, there are only a few potential American bases in the Asia-Pacific region. Some places, like the southern end of the Japanese

Ryukyu island chain near Taiwan, Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, Ranai in Indonesia, or

Subic Bay in the Philippines, are geographically desirable but as base locations are either

domestically unpalatable, too provocative for China, or both.82 Others, though well situated and politically permissible—like Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan; Pusan and Chinhae,

South Korea; and Sembawang and Changi naval bases in Singapore—might be of only

limited use during a crisis because of Chinese pressure or domestic constitutional issues.

Still others, like Australia and Diego Garcia, lack political constraints on their use but are

too far from regional flash points to allow sufficiently rapid response.

These challenges have prompted analysts to consider creative operational plans.

Many analysts now prefer a “portfolio approach” to basing, spreading out supply and

repair facilities to maximize flexibility in consonance with “security cooperation,”

one of the basic objectives of the National Security Strategy of 2002. Sea basing and

crew rotation have moved to the fore in order to overcome reliance on uncertain regional partners.

Formalized agreements to guarantee access to a constellation of “places, not bases” reduce the problem of overdependence.83 Such ad hoc base usage has obvious advantages

in the politically constrained East Asia Pacific region, but it is not foolproof, especially

in a crisis. Permanent bases act as important political tools before and during conflict;

in contrast, guarantees of even limited access to foreign facilities could be nullified by

outside pressure.84

Establishing new bases in East Asia would thus be the most effective U.S. option logistically, but current political and economic hurdles are so high as to make the establishmen

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mestic political conditions change in potential host nations. However, current reali

bear out the QDR-driven movement toward flexible basing. Let us consider here th

prospects of American access to Hawaii, Diego Garcia, Korea, and Japan.

Hawaii: Homeland Hospitality

Hawaii is already a major American military hub, but there is still room for expa

Indeed, Oahu contends with Guam for America’s second Pacific carrier group, an

thanks to better existing infrastructure and formal representation in Congress it 

rently the favorite in that competition. Other Oahu bases are slated to receive an 

Force warfighting headquarters and a Stryker brigade with attendant C-17 lift.85

Hawaii, however, suffers from even higher real estate and living costs and wo

traffic congestion than does Guam, and it is at least 3,700 miles farther from 

hot spots.86 A carrier battle group steaming at twenty knots from Pearl Harbo

would take over twelve days to reach the East Asian littoral, closer to the sixte

days from San Diego than the mere three days required from Guam.87 With th

Buffalo’s transfer, Hawaii will have fourteen Los Angeles–class submarines to

Guam’s three. This ratio may shift in Guam’s favor, especially when one consi

that there are no major areas of U.S. security concern between Hawaii and Gu

and that submarines risk shortening the lives of their reactor cores when rep

edly covering such distances.

Diego Garcia: Deliberately Decommissioning

Located in the center of the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia is a British colony popu

primarily by U.S. Navy and Air Force personnel. Started as a naval communicatio

station in 1973, the dependency was rapidly transformed into a full-fledged nava

port facility that enabled numerous bombing runs during the first Gulf war and 

2001 war in Afghanistan.

While tiny Diego Garcia has recently played a disproportionate role and surv

the December 2004 tsunami, it has limitations. It is extremely remote, over o

thousand miles from any other landmass, and even farther from East Asia’s st

gic flash points. The horseshoe-shaped reef, only thirty-seven miles long, is e

tially a permanent aircraft carrier with no room for major new facilities. Des

extreme vulnerability to typhoons, the island provides virtually no wind prot

tion, because its maximum elevation is only twenty-two feet.

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In a Taiwan crisis, resupply from Japan might not work. Despite solid infrastructure

supporting fifty-two thousand American uniformed personnel stationed at 158 sites in

Japan and a wide variety of joint military exercises, actual combat scenarios raise issues

of concern.88 The U.S.-Japan alliance, despite its strengths, has limitations. A variety of

causes, including the stoning of the Japanese consulate in Shanghai by Chinese protesters in April 2005, ongoing territorial disputes with China, and growing concerns about

China’s military89 and economic rise—particularly in the maritime dimension90—have

fueled recent increases in Japanese nationalism. Japan remains in a difficult position

and wants to avoid making controversial decisions. It will honor its commitments to

assist American forces under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty—including $4.4 billion in

annual cost sharing;91 nonetheless, it would doubtless prefer not to become directly involved in a Taiwan crisis. Japan fears Chinese economic sanctions and, in an extreme

case, military retaliation.

Japanese constitutional issues (and the resulting political debate) might prevent any

support, even air refueling or other forms of combat support from Kadena Air Force

Base.92 Although U.S. ships would not be constrained by such problems, the overall situation could become needlessly complicated. Defensive capability remains a gray area

of the Japanese constitution and subject to interpretation. Even preparations for the

adoption of theater missile defenses against the growing North Korean threat might re

quire extensive constitutional revision.93

An issue of special sensitivity for Japan is the stationing of U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers at Yokosuka, already home to fourteen thousand American personnel and

eighteen ships.94 The USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) and John F. Kennedy (CV 67) are slated

for decommissioning by 2008, leaving the United States with only nuclear-powered

carriers. During IRAQI FREEDOM the Kitty Hawk battle group deployed to the Persian

Gulf. The nuclear-powered Carl Vinson assumed responsibility for the Korean theater

and made several port calls at Yokosuka. Tokyo has officially agreed to accept a homeported U.S. nuclear carrier in 2008.95 Given historical sensitivities, however, anti-nuclear

opposition could develop political traction, making a strong fallback option in Guam

all the more attractive.

There are no significant American naval assets in Okinawa, and there is no possibility of

any. For its eighteen thousand Marines, Okinawa is geographically and topographically

constrained; the island lacks live-fire artillery ranges and has no areas for tank-infantry,

close air support, or battalion or regimental training. The Sakishima Islands (the

southernmost islands of the Ryukyu group) are geographically attractive but politically

problematic. An American presence there would be particularly provocative for China,

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ing U.S. bases; if not for the pressure from Tokyo, local residents would have reje

them long ago. American deployment to Okinawa is also subject to the same dom

political problems as are other parts of Japan. The bottom line is that there is a d

that American regional capabilities could become excessively linked to Japanese p

tics. Indeed, perhaps as part of a larger American effort to relieve political pressu

the U.S.-Japan alliance, Guam is already scheduled to receive seven thousand Ma

slated to be moved from Okinawa;96 it is also to receive the headquarters of III M

Expeditionary Force.97

South Korea: Developing Domestic Dissent

Basing in Korea has many significant disadvantages. First, the Korean Peninsula is h

unstable because of uncertainty over the future of North Korea and its nuclear wea

program. Second, South Korea has growing economic interdependence with Chi

giving Beijing leverage. China also has great control over Pyongyang’s future and 

generally serves as a “power broker” on the peninsula.98 Given the magnitude of b

Pyongyang’s threat and Beijing’s leverage, Seoul may be resistant to using South Ko

based assets for extra-peninsular missions.99 The U.S. Navy’s Korea-based assets nu

only 293 sailors and fifty-two Marines; they include no dedicated seagoing forces a

Moreover, anti-American demonstrations in South Korea over the past few years 

increasing anti-American sentiment across East Asia suggest that the United Stat

not forever enjoy basing rights in South Korea or even in Japan. Secretary of Def

Donald Rumsfeld suggested in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committ

February 2003 that U.S. troops in South Korea might be better “oriented toward 

hub and sea hub.”101 Under the Land Partnership Plan, which is to cost Seoul $5.4 

lion and Washington $2.6 billion, U.S. “forces will relocate away from the increas

congestion . . . of the greater Seoul area and will be consolidated into two major h

in the central and southern sections of the country.”102 This is in addition to Seou

$843 million cost-sharing contribution.103

These measures will bring U.S. troops out of the range of North Korean artillery 

reduce the societal impact of America’s presence in South Korea.104 The sooner th

American military restructures its force deployment footprint in East Asia to add

host-country realities and emerging security threats, the more effectively it will b

to maintain a strong and stable presence in this vital but volatile region.

Go West—to Guam

All along the Pacific Rim, political and military forces combine to challenge Ame

influence, and the future looks only worse. If America does not better prepare to 

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ment of assets to East Asia—will reduce both its leverage in peacetime and its flexibility

in crisis. An effective response will require political and geographical diversification of

the U.S. naval presence in the region, with a chain of overlapping bases and access

rights. The linchpin can be a strengthened base in Guam. American naval planners recognize the need to move resources westward to Guam as a first step in a long-term effort to pursue American interests in the region in a flexible way. Such investment

should continue, strengthening the sovereign anchor of the American presence in East

Asia. As yet, Guam remains a small base, in need of both capital investment and height

ened respect from planners. Improving Guam’s infrastructure is a necessary first step

toward correcting these deficiencies.

At its core, the George W. Bush administration’s national security strategy calls for decisive—and if necessary, preemptive—action to protect primary U.S. interests. Existing

political and geographical problems with current Pacific basing options cast doubt on

the nation’s ability to conduct such actions in times of crisis. In Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, regional military cooperation was difficult to obtain (even through coercion), a

fact that starkly reminds American policy makers of the need for diplomatic and military flexibility. Washington therefore must be ready to act, as a last resort, with a small

coalition of partners, or even alone. To retain freedom of action in East Asia, American

planners would do well to establish a presence for strike and deterrence not wholly dependent on outside support.

Current basing arrangements and operating patterns in the Pacific Fleet seem to reflect

excessive optimism about getting “more from less.” They strain U.S.-based naval assets,

slow response time to the region, and rely too heavily on access rights that could evaporate during a crisis. Such problems are hardly unique to East Asia; American forces

everywhere are stretched thin. But it would be a mistake to underestimate the growing

need for increased presence in-theater or to keep extracting more from a burdened Pacific Fleet. Policy makers rightly conceptualize U.S. force posture in East Asia as a chain

of overlapping bases and access rights. Fortunately, American planners have already

committed to reducing long-term dependence on these foreign bases through a significant expansion of Guam’s facilities.

Along with cosmetic and structural improvements on Guam, America needs to expand

its portfolio of military assets in East Asia. U.S. force posture should reflect not only a

capability to respond without delay to problems in the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan

Strait, and critical sea-lanes in Southeast Asia but also to check the scourge of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These distinct but related

tasks require a layered military strategy. In the event of a crisis on the Korean

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front line, bases in Japan as the ready reserve, and a base in Guam as the deep res

In a region where basing options are hamstrung by domestic politics, America ne

access if it is to have influence. Operational readiness without support structures 

not be long maintained. But access to the Asia-Pacific theater is not enough. Ame

needs a reliable center of operations, including supply, repair, logistics, and train

“walk on stage” prepared to act. Deteriorating port facilities and infrastructure in

Guam need to be expanded and updated. The recent assignment of three Los Ang

class attack submarines on the island is a good first step. Increasing power projec

into East Asia, however, will require that the U.S. Navy continue to “move west,” 

ing operational and support assets from San Diego and Pearl Harbor closer to th

main area of operations, to an available site—such as Guam.

There are no new islands or new access points in East Asia;105 therefore, the United St

must use existing access points and bases. Building up the American presence on Gu

the single most important step that can be taken to effect this crucial transition. To m

mize its ability to deter hostility, gather information, and overcome aggression, the N

should continue to develop Guam as a forward base. A diversified and expanded Am

military presence on Guam will offer maximum flexibility in times of crisis and will 

ensure that such future scenarios as the rise of a belligerent China, a change in Japan

eign policy, or a reunification of the Koreas do not create a missing or weak link in th

chain of American capabilities. Moving assets westward across the Pacific and mainta

a flexible and growing constellation of facilities and access rights in East Asia would k

that chain strong; anchoring the chain on Guam would render even the most determ

enemies unable able to dislodge it.

Clearly, America’s national interests call for maintaining a strong East Asian presen

Both current conditions and emerging long-term trends underscore the importanc

building up Guam as a sovereign forward base to ensure American regional influen

But this significant strategic move merits careful consideration. It has already trigg

significant scrutiny by China. One-fifth of the U.S. attack submarine fleet may soon 

stationed at Guam. What level of forces on Guam would represent an over-concent

of assets?106 How defensible is Guam from surprise attack? How easy, for instance, w

it be for China to launch a surprise attack with cruise missiles several years from no

Could Chinese submarines hide in the waters around Guam? Will the United State

tion P-3 aircraft in Guam to protect submarines? Given their responsibility to prep

worst-case contingencies, American defense planners must address these and other

equally challenging questions.

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This chapter in part expands on information previously published by the authors as “Anchoring 

America’s Asian Assets: Why Washington Must 

Strengthen Guam,” Comparative Strategy 24, no. 2 

(April–June 2005), pp. 153–71. The opinions 

expressed here are solely those of the authors and 

do not represent the official policy of the U.S. 

Navy or any other branch of the U.S. government. 

Much of the information for this article comes 

from interviews and consultations with the following individuals, to whom the authors owe tremendous thanks: Col. James Conklin, USMC; Dr. Lyle 

J. Goldstein; Mr. Mel Labrador, Cubic Applications, Inc.; Cdr. Bruce H. Lindsey, USN; Lt. Col. 

Scott A. Lindsey, USMC (Ret.); Capt. Wesley E. 

Lindsey, USN (Ret.); Capt. Robert A. Mirick, USN; 

Prof. William S. Murray; Lt. (j.g.) Henry G. Nuzum, 

USN; Dr. Michael O’Hanlon; Dr. Jonathan D. 

Pollack; Adm. Carlisle A. H. Trost, USN (Ret.); 

and Capt. Clyde Villemez, USN. Dr. Carnes Lord 

reviewed the manuscript and provided valuable 

suggestions. The authors, and not these individuals, are responsible for any errors herein. 

© 2004 from “Anchoring America’s Asian Assets” 

by Andrew S. Erickson. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC., www 

.taylorandfrancis.com. 

 1. Paul H. B. Godwin, “China’s Defense Establishment: The Hard Lessons of Incomplete 

Modernization,” in 歷史的教訓 [The Lessons of History: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army at 75], ed. Laurie Burkitt et al. 

(Carlisle, Penna.: Strategic Studies Institute, 

U.S. Army War College, 2002), p. 35. See also 

长风 [Zhang Feng], “核潜艇与中国海军” 

[Nuclear Submarines and China’s Navy], 

舰船知识 [Naval & Merchant Ships] (March 

2005), p. 12. 

 2. “PACOM Facts,” U.S. Pacific Command, 

www.pacom.mil/about/pacom.shtml. 

 3. James Brooke, “Looking for Friendly Overseas Bases, Pentagon Finds It Already Has 

One,” New York Times, 7 April 2004, p. A17. 

 4. Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, “Inside 

the Ring,” Washington Times, 28 November 

2003, www.washingtontimes.com/. 

 5. America’s other sovereign “overseas” bases 

are in Hawaii. 

 6. James Brooke, “On Farthest U.S. Shores, Iraq 

Is a Way to a Dream,” New York Times, 31 

July 2005, p. A13. 

 7. Information for this paragraph was largely 

derived from “Guam & the CNMI [Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands]

Projecting Sea Power 21,” jointly prepared by 

the Guam and Saipan Chambers of Commerce, August 2003, available at www 

.guamchamber.com.gu/private/FINAL2Guam 

%20Sea%20Power.ppt. 

 8. “PACOM Announces Bomber Deployment 

to Guam,” U.S. Pacific Command Public Affairs Office, 2 February 2004, www.pacom 

.mil/news/news2004/040202bomber.shtml. 

 9. Steve Limtiaco, “Admiral: Guam Key to Strategy,” Pacific Daily News (Guam), 21 July 2004. 

 10. Robert F. Rogers, Destiny’s Landfall: A History 

of Guam (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press, 

1995), p. 133. 

 11. For a detailed overview of Guam’s history as a 

strategic American outpost, see ibid., particularly chaps. 7–15. 

 12. “Guam in State of Emergency after Supertyphoon,” U.S. Pacific Command Public Affairs Office, 9 December 2002, www.pacom 

.mil/guamtyphoon/0212typhoon/index.shtml. 

 13. “Rear Adm. Konetzni: Changing a Subculture 

from Inside Out,” Hawaii Navy News, 20 

April 2001, www.hnn.navy.mil/Archives/ 

010420/konetzni_042001.htm. The USS San 

Francisco and USS City of Corpus Christi

transferred from Norfolk, Virginia. Both had 

just completed refueling overhauls. USS 

Houston joined them from San Diego, California, in January 2004. 

 14. See Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Submarine Study (Washington, D.C.: Joint Chiefs 

of Staff, November 1999); U.S. General Accounting Office, Force Structure: Options for 

Enhancing the Navy’s Attack Submarine Force,

Report GAO-02-97 (Washington, D.C.: November 2001); U.S. Congressional Budget Of

fice, Increasing the Mission Capability of the 

Attack Submarine Force (Washington, D.C.: 

March 2002), table 6, pp. 11, 33. 

 15. Statement of Admiral Vernon Clark before 

the Senate Armed Services Committee, 10 

February 2005; “Resource Implications of the 

Navy’s Interim Report on Shipbuilding,” 25 

April 2005, Congressional Budget Office. 

 16. This calculation assumes that a submarine is 

able to cover 480 nautical miles per day. The 

outer limit of Chinese territorial waters near 
nautical miles from Guam. See also Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility 

Structure of the United States, May 2005 Report 

to the President and the U.S. Congress [hereafter 

Overseas Basing Commission], p. J5. 

 17. Nuclear submarines have to be recored every 

fifteen to twenty years. The U.S. Navy now 

faces a costly decision concerning whether to 

recore some boats for the second time. 

 18. Capt. Wesley E. Lindsey, USN (Ret.), e-mail 

interview with Justin Mikolay, 23 January 2004. 

 19. Congressional Budget Office, as cited in Frank 

Oliveri, “Navy May Base More Subs in Pacific,” 

Honolulu Advertiser, 30 October 2004. 

 20. Information in this and the next paragraph 

derived from Associated Press, “U.S. Carrier Still 

in Balance for Hawaii, Guam,” 1 June 2005. 

 21. For a thought-provoking analysis concerning 

the political implications of establishing overseas bases, see Alexander Cooley, “The Politics of U.S. Bases Abroad,” Foreign Affairs 84, 

no. 6 (November/December 2005), pp. 79–

92. For a Chinese analysis of the foreign basing problems that have made sovereign bases 

more attractive to the U.S. military, see Liu 

Qing, “The Impact of U.S. Global Military 

Strategic Readjustment on Asia-Pacific Security,” Guoji Wenti Yanjiu, 13 July 2005, FBIS 

CPP20050810000262. For Chinese concerns 

that America’s recent force posture adjustments, including the shifting of additional assets to Guam, “break down constitutional or 

legal barriers . . . reduce the pressure on governments in this region . . . [and] give the 

U.S. a new strategic stage on which to dictate 

Asian-Pacific affairs”; see Bi Lei, “Sending an 

Additional Aircraft Carrier and Stationing 

Massive Forces: The U.S. Military’s Adjustment of Its Strategic Disposition in the AsiaPacific Region,” Renmin Wang, 23 August 

2004, FBIS CPP20040823000025. 

 22. James Brooke, “Guam, Hurt by Slump, 

Hopes for Economic Help from the Military,” 

New York Times, 10 March 2003, p. A14. 

Guam’s 160,000 residents stand to benefit 

economically from the island’s increased 

military presence. Each additional submarine 

would bring roughly 150 sailors to Guam and 

$9 million in salaries for them and their support personnel. 

 23. Adam J. Hebert, “Footholds on the Pacific 

Rim: The Air Force Believes That, When It 

Comes to Access, More Is Definitely Better,” 

Justin Bernier and Stuart Gold, “Chin

Closing Window of Opportunity,” Na

College Review 56, no. 3 (Summer 2003

 24. Robert D. Kaplan, “How We Would F

China,” Atlantic Monthly (June 2005)

 25. Natalie J. Quinata, “Fighter Squadron 

on Guam: 12 Jets to Conduct Trainin

sions to Familiarize with Asia-Pacific 

gion,” Pacific Daily News, 30 April 20

 26. “America’s Alliances in East Asia: Pur

and Prospects,” IISS Strategic Comme

no. 3 (May 2005); William Cole, “Air 

Shifts Unit to Bolster Response,” Hon

Advertiser, 23 March 2005; David Isen

“Reshaping Washington’s Global Foo

Asia Times, 20 August 2004. 

 27. Unless otherwise specified, informatio

this and the following paragraph is de

from Overseas Basing Commission, p

and H11. 

 28. The U.S. Navy is currently working to 

total of three nuclear-powered attack s

rines in Guam. Following the extensive 

to USS San Francisco in a grounding on 

ary 2005, which necessitated its transpo

Bremerton, Washington, for repairs, U

falo is scheduled to be homeported in G

starting in September 2006. Mike Gord

“Pearl Harbor Sub May Be Assigned to 

Honolulu Advertiser, 3 November 2005

 29. Malina Brown, “Classified Study Propo

Basing More Subs in Guam, Cutting F

Inside the Navy, 14 June 2004, p. 1; Bry

Bender, “Sub Officers Objected to Clos

in Groton,” Boston Globe, 22 July 2005

 30. Andrew Koch, “U.S. Basing Plans Sha

for Speed and Flexibility,” Jane’s Defe

Weekly, 16 June 2004. 

 31. Overseas Basing Commission, p. J5. 

 32. “U.S. to Boost Naval, Air Presence in 

Pacific,” New York Times, 23 June 200

 33. Gaynor Dumot-ol Daleno, “Bombers 

Based at Andersen,” Pacific Daily New

September 2003, available at www.gu

.com/news/. 

 34. “U.S. Navy and Raytheon Sign $328.4 M

Guam Base Operations Support Contra

theon Company media news release, 10 

2000, available at www.prnewswire.com

 35. Overseas Basing Commission, p. H11
is unlikely that access to [foreign] bases will 

become more predictable in the future because it is unlikely that the U.S. will establish 

new military alliances as formal as those it established to prosecute the Cold War.” Owen 

R. Cote, Jr., “The Look of the Battlefield,” 

Aviation Week & Space Technology, 15 December 2003, p. 72. 

 37. At the same time, Cote notes, “unlike in air 

warfare, the technical trends in antisubmarine 

warfare will likely continue to favor stealth. 

Thus quiet submarines, especially those that 

deploy in littoral waters, will retain a significant advantage over submarine hunters. Together, these trends will make it more 

dangerous for U.S. surface combatants, amphibious ships, and sealift vessels to close hostile coastlines early in a conflict when 

opposing submarines are still extant.” Cote 

foresees “an accompanying U.S. shift toward 

submarines deploying both overland sensor 

networks and fast standoff strike weapons,” in 

part because “U.S. submarines will be the 

most effective means of providing a persistent 

source of fast standoff weapons close to opposing targets early in a conflict.” Ibid., p. 73. 

 38. Scott Snyder, Negotiating on the Edge: North 

Korean Negotiating Behavior (Washington, 

D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 1998), p. 

117; Jonathan D. Pollack, “The United States, 

North Korea, and the End of the Agreed 

Framework,” Naval War College Review 56, 

no. 3 (Summer 2003), pp. 11–49. 

 39. See Edward Rhodes et al., “Forward Presence 

and Engagement: Historical Insights into the 

Problem of ‘Shaping,’” Naval War College 

Review 53, no. 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 25–61. 

 40. Philip Shenon, “Gunboat Diplomacy, 96 

Model,” New York Times, 17 March 1996, 

p. IV-1. 

 41. China seeks to restrict severely the actions of 

foreign vessels not only within its territorial 

waters (out to twelve miles) but also within 

its exclusive economic zone (between twelve 

and two hundred miles from shore). Article 6 

of the Territorial Waters and Adjoining Areas 

Act of the People’s Republic of China requires 

all military vessels to obtain permission before transiting Chinese waters. Article 7 requires that “all foreign submarines and other 

underwater vehicles” must be surfaced. These 

regulations are referenced in Beijing’s closest 

known equivalent to an operations law handbook, 赵培英 [Zhao Peiying, ed.], 当代军人

Modern Soldiers], (Beijing: 解放军出版社

[People’s Liberation Army Press], 1996), 

“全军军事科研工作‘八五’计划列项课题” 

[Army-Wide Military Affairs Research Work 

‘85’ Plan Study Subject], pp. 87–88. 

 42. Overseas Basing Commission, p. J5. 

 43. Weng Hangsong, “An Analysis of Adjustments of U.S. Global Military Deployment,” 

Renmin Wang, 18 May 2005, FBIS 

CPP20050518000054. 

 44. For a Chinese perspective on the U.S. deployment of three attack submarines to 

Guam, see 台风 [Tai Feng], “中国需要反潜

巡逻机马?” [Does China Need Antisubmarine Patrol Aircraft?], 舰载武器 [Shipborne 

Weapons], no. 3 (2005), pp. 70–75; “美国陈

兵关岛虎视台海” [U.S. Troops Deployed in 

Guam Vigorously Watch the Taiwan Strait], 

世界新闻报 [World News Report], 15 February 2001; “美核攻击潜艇欲驻关岛意

何为” [Why America Stations Nuclear Attack 

Submarines in Guam], 信息日报 [News 

Daily], 3 November 2000, p. 22; “美国核潜艇

关岛触礁” [U.S. Nuclear Submarine Strikes a 

Reef Near Guam], 环球时报 [World Times], 

20 January 2005; Zhao Xiaozhuo, “The United 

States Does Not Want to Get Involved in a Cri

sis in the Taiwan Strait,” Huanqiu Shibao, 3 

January 2005, FBIS CPP20050114000176. 

 45. See “美军战略调整中的关岛” [Guam Undergoing U.S. Strategic Adjustment], 中国国

防报 [China National Defense News], 24 

February 2004; “关岛: 美军亚洲 ‘战略漂浮

岛’?” [Guam: The U.S. Military’s ‘Strategic 

Buoy’ in Asia?], 中国国防报 [China Nationa

Defense News], 22 June 2004; “美拟在关岛

部署战机” [America Plans to Deploy Combat Aircraft to Guam], 人民日报 [People’s 

Daily], 15 January 2004; “美军增派远程轰

炸机赴关岛内幕” [The Inside Story of 

America’s Deployment of Additional LongRange Bombers to Guam], 世界新闻报

[World News Report], 12 April 2004, p. 11; 

“美战略调整中的关岛” [Guam Undergoing 

U.S. Strategic Adjustment], 西部时报 [Western Times], 14 April 2004, p. 8; “陈水扁带

蚊帐 ‘过境’ 关岛” [Chen Shui Bian ‘Transits

Guam with Mosquito Net], 环球时报 [World 

Times], 28 January 2005; “关岛: 美军从这里

进军亚太” [Guam: From Here the U.S. Military Advances to the Asia Pacific], 中国国

防报 [China National Defense News], 3 September 2002; 江南 [Jiang Nan], “美军又要增

兵关岛” [The U.S. Military Will Once Again 
[World News Report], 16 September 2002, p. 

15. For Chinese concerns that the U.S. monitors undersea cables that transit Guam and 

Hawaii, see “全球1/10通话被美国监听” 

[The U.S. Monitors 1/10 of All Global Communications], 国防科技 [National Defense 

Science & Technology] (January 2005), p. 18; 

Lu Yousheng, “Readjustment of U.S. Global 

Military Deployment Gets into High Gear,” 

Liaowang, no. 24, June 13, 2005, pp. 47–48, 

FBIS CPP20050621000103. 

 46. See for example 江南 [Jiang Nan], “关岛: 

战略地位非同一般” [Guam: Unusual Strategic Position], 世界新闻报 [World News Report], 16 September 2002, p. 15; “美国重兵

屯关岛” [U.S. Stations Massive Forces on 

Guam], 人民日报 [People’s Daily], 19 February 2001, www.xinhuanet.com.cn; and 

黄明君 [Huang Mingjun], “关岛将成美霸权

的筹码” [Guam Is Becoming America’s 

Hegemonic Bargaining Chip], 军事展望

[Military Prospect] (June 2002), pp. 58–59. 

For related Japanese observations, see Yoichi 

Kato and Tsutomu Watanabe, “Transformation of the U.S. Pacific Command in Full 

Swing,” Asahi Shimbun, 11 August 2005. 

 47. See, for example, 海鹰 [Hai Ying], “美军核

潜艇关岛触礁内幕” [The Inside Story on the 

USN Nuclear Submarine Accident], 舰载武器

[Shipborne Weapons], no. 3 (2005), p. 17. 

 48. 陆宝生 [Lu Baosheng], 透视美国军事战略

大调整 [A Perspective on the U.S. Military’s 

Major Strategic Adjustment], 党政论坛

[Party & Government Forum] (May 2005), 

pp. 32–33. For similar analysis, see “U.S. 

Wanton Distortion Clearly Reveals Its Attempt,” Renmin Ribao, 21 July 2005, FBIS 

CPP20050721000150; Zhang Jiye and Chen 

Wenxin, “Why Is the U.S. Military Playing 

Up the ‘China Military Threat Theory’?” 

Xiandai Guoji Guanxi (July 2005), pp. 34, 38, 

FBIS CPP20050912000249; Su Kaihua, “Continuity and Impact of the Bush Doctrine,” 

Guoji Wenti Yanjiu (March 2005), FBIS 

CPP20050415000197. 

 49. Liu served as commander of the Chinese 

People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) from 

1982 to 1988. He is known for both his 

instrumental role in modernizing China’s 

navy and for his recommendation that China 

develop an aircraft carrier. See 刘华清 [Liu 

Huaqing], 刘华清回忆录 [The Memoirs of 

Liu Huaqing] (Beijing: People’s Liberation 

Army Press, 2004), p. 437; Bernard D. Cole, 

Twenty-first Century (Annapolis, Md.

Institute Press, 2001), pp. 165–68. 

 50. See for example, “横戈海疆” [Patroll

Territorial Seas], 中国水运报 [China 

Transport News], 17 May 2002, p. 4. 

 51. According to one Chinese operator

so-called ‘island chain’ is a peculiar 

cept; it has both geographical impli

and political-military substance. We 

soldiers, especially navy sailors, have c

emotions regarding this term.” “我在

上航行” [I Sailed in the Pacific], 华夏

[Huaxia Times], 10 July 2001, p. 5. Fo

digenous analyses of China’s evolving 

time strategy, see “思虑新时期国家最

益需求展望大海军时代的黎明 我提

‘海军战略’ 问题” [Consider Carefull

Highest National Interests of the New 

Looking Ahead to the Dawn of a Larg

Era/Posing the Issue of China’s Naval 

egy], 军事历史 [Military History], no

(2005); “中国近代海军战略战术思想

演进” [The Evolution of China’s Mod

Naval Strategy, Tactics, and Thought

历史研究 [Military Historical Resear

1 (2000); “中国未来的海军建设与海

战略” [China’s Future Naval Constru

and Naval Strategy] 战略与管理 [Str

Management], no. 5 (1999); “中国海

来舰队” [The Future Fleet of China’s 

舰载武器 [Shipborne Weapons], no. 1

 52. For a Chinese argument that the Unit

States cooperates with Japan militarily 

tain China, see “西太平洋美军'岛链

[The U.S. Military’s Strong ‘Island Ch

Sentiment in the Western Pacific], 中

防报 [China National Defense News]

June 2004; “武士刀 出鞘:日本对华政

硬化” [The Samurai Sword Is Out of 

Scabbard: The Hardening of Japan’s C

Policy], 国际先驱导报 [Internationa

ald], 21 January 2005. 

 53. See note 52. On the archipelagos, see “

舰跟踪我国科 考船” [Japanese Warsh

Track Our Scientific Research Vessels]

世界新闻报 [World News Report], 17 

2004, p. 24. 

 54. Unless otherwise specified, inform

for this paragraph is derived from 

[Wang Jing, editor], “美航母在台湾

演习什么?”(二)[The American 

craft Carrier Conducts What Exerc

around Taiwan? (Part 2)] 央视国际 

International], 19 June 2004, 6:25 
489.shtml. For similar analysis by Zhao concerning Guam’s strategic location, see “Across 

the Strait,” CCTV, 8 April 2005, FBIS 

CPP20050409000033. A more expansive definition of the island chains considers the first 

to run south from Alaska and the Aleutian 

Islands and the second to run south to Australia and New Zealand. See Dan Jie and Ju 

Lang, “Russian Strategic Bomber to Fly to 

China,” Jianzai Wuqi, March 2005, pp. 12–

16, FBIS CPP20050328000206. 

 55. See, for example, “海上逐鹿” [Maritime Contention for State Power], 中国船舶报 [China 

Shipping News], 27 August 2004, p. 11. 

 56. For similar analyses, see Yu Yang and Qi 

Xiaodong, “Major Realignment of U.S. Military Bases: Deployment Aimed at Launching 

‘Preemptive Strike,’” Zhongguo Guofang Bao,

19 April 2005, p. 2, FBIS CPP20050420000062; 

Wu Qingli and Xie Jingsheng, “Analysis of 

Global Force Readjustment by U.S. Military,” 

Jiefangjun Bao, 1 September 2004, p. 12, FBIS 

CPP20040901000043; “U.S. Military Commitment to Asia to Be Smaller but Deadlier 

after Realignment,” Xinhua, 18 August 2004, 

FBIS CPP20040818000106; Li Xuejiang, 

“People’s Commentary on Current Affairs: 

Why Is the United States Always Unable to 

Get On with China?” Renmin Wang, 19 July 

2004, FBIS CPP20040719000097. For other 

Chinese perceptions of a specific American 

threat from Guam, see “美全力加强关岛战

备 遏制中国” [America’s All-Out War 

Preparation to Strengthen Guam and Contain 

China], 联合早报网讯 [Zaobao Network], 

27 June 2005, www.zaobao.com/special/ 

newspapers/2005/06/others050627g.html; 

“美国欲用顶级隐形战机压制中国苏-30” 

[The U.S. Wishes to Use Top Class Stealth 

Fighters to Suppress China’s Su-30], 国际先

驱导报 [International Herald], 23 April 2004, 

p. 1; “核潜艇进关岛 美国居心叵测” [Nuclear Submarines Enter Guam: The U.S. Harbors Unfathomable, Evil Intentions], 中国国

防报 [China National Defense News], 2 April 

2002, p. B04; “美国屯兵关岛意欲何为” 

[Why America Places Weapons in Guam], 

河北工人报 [Hebei Worker News], 24 February 2001, p. 6. 

 57. A recent issue of China’s official People’s Daily

mentions only two “island chains,” the first 

and the second. “美军忙著大调整” [U.S. 

Navy Preoccupied with Major Adjustment], 

人民日报 [People’s Daily], 9 July 2004. 

击中国计划” [Members of the U.S. ‘Hawk 

Faction’ Rave Again: A Perspective on a U.S. 

Plan to Attack China from the Air], 国际展望

[World Outlook], no. 9 (May 2005), pp. 27–28

 59. U.S. Department of Defense, 2005 Annual 

Report to Congress on the Military Power of the 

People’s Republic of China, Pursuant to the 

National Defense Authorization Act Fiscal Year 

2000 (Washington, D.C.: 19 July 2005), p. 29. 

See also Wendell Minnick, “China Tests New 

Land-Attack Cruise Missile,” Jane’s Missiles & 

Rockets, 21 September 2004, www.janes.com. 

 60. See, for example, “美军在关岛部署巡航

导弹” [The U.S. Military Deploys Cruise Mis

siles in Guam] 人民日报 [People’s Daily], 30 

August 2000, p. 6; “美常规空射巡航导弹移

防太平洋关岛” [America Shifts Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles to Guam 

in the Pacific], 中国国防报 [China National 

Defense News], 4 September 2000, p. 1; 

“美国空射巡航导弹部署关岛真想” [The 

Real Considerations behind America’s Deployment of Air-Launched Cruise Missiles in 

Guam], 信息日报 [News Daily], 29 August 

2000, p. 3; “美巡航导弹部署关岛真相” [Th

Real Considerations behind America’s Deployment of Cruise Missiles to Guam], 

河南商报 [Henan Business News], 1 September 2000, p. 7; “关岛导弹瞄准谁” [Who 

Are Guam’s Missiles Aimed At?], 经济导报

[Economic News], 30 August 2000, p. 24. For 

a detailed analysis of how China might attempt to defeat a U.S. attack using cruise mis

siles based in Guam, see “关岛的巡航导弹瞄

准谁?” [Who Are Guam’s Cruise Missiles 

Aimed At?] 山西科技报 [Shanxi Science & 

Technology News], 5 May 2001, p. 8. For information on China’s cruise missile development, see 田金文 [Tian Jinwen], “如何提高

巡航导弹生存能力和打击效果” [How to 

Improve Cruise Missile Survivability and Attack Effectiveness], 航天电子对抗 [Aerospace 

Electronic Warfare], no. 1 (2005), pp. 12–14. 

For an overview of China’s cruise missile development, see 曹晓盼 [Cao Xiaopan], “中国

的巡航导弹现状” [The Current Status of 

China’s Cruise Missiles], 舰载武器 [Shipborne Weapons] (November 2004), pp. 26–27

61. For a detailed account of China’s indigenous 

Song-class submarine development and testing, see 人民日报记者翟启运, 新华社记者

陈万军 [People’s Daily Reporter Zhai Qiyun, Xinhua News Agency Reporter Chen 

Wanjun] “为了新型潜艇的诞生:记海军驻

438厂 军事代表室” [For the Birth of a New 
Military Affairs Representatives Office Stationed at Factory 438], 新华社武汉8月19

日电 [Xinhua News Agency, Wuhan, morning of 19 August 2005, electronic], 解放军报

社版 权所有 [PLA General Newspaper Office 

possesses all copyright]. 

 62. For information on PRC maritime satellites, 

see “HY-1 Satellite,” China Aerospace Science 

and Technology Corporation (CASC), 

www.spaceproducts.com.cn/default.htm; 

孙自法 [Sun Zifa], “中国“海洋一号”A卫星

成效显著” [China’s Haiyang-1A Satellite 

Achieves Remarkable Success], 中新社北京

[Zhongxin News Agency Beijing], 28 May 

2004; 左赛春 [Zuo Saiqun], “‘天眼’ 瞰视万

里海疆: 记我国第一颗海洋卫星” [‘Sea Eye’ 

Looks Down on 10,000 Miles of Sea Dominion: Recording Our Country’s First Ocean 

Satellite], 人民网 [People’s Net], 16 May 

2002, www.people.com.cn/GB/kejiao/42/155/ 

20020516/729817.html. 

 63. See, for example, “天波后向散射超视距雷达

反隐身及在我国国防建设中的作用” [The 

Use of Skywave Over-the-Horizon Radar in 

China’s Defense Construction], 现代国防技术

[Modern Defense Technology], no. 3 (1995). 

 64. See “中国双星定位系统” [China’s TwoSatellite Positioning System], She Jinpei, Yang 

Genqing, and Liang Xuwen, chief editors, 

现代小卫星技术与应用 [Modern Small Satellite Technology and Application] (Shanghai: Shanghai Universal Science, 2004), p. 

252; “北斗一号”为中国导航” [Beidou-1 

Navigates for China], Remote Sensing and Information, no. 2 (2003); “北斗卫星是怎样导

航定 位的” [This Is How the Beidou Satellites’ Navigation Positioning Works], Computer Automated Measurement & Control,

no. 6 (2003). 

 65. See “北斗卫星为神州导航” [Beidou Satellites and the Shenzhou (Manned Spacecraft’s) 

Navigation], China Surveying and Mapping,

no. 4 (2003); “北斗卫星通信功能在水文自

动测报系统中的应用” [Beidou Satellites’ 

Communication Capacity for Use in an 

Automatic Hydrological Survey System], 

Hydrology, no. 5 (2003); “北斗卫星在陕南雨

量监测系统中 的应用” [The Use of Beidou

Satellites in the South Shaanxi Province Rainfall Monitoring System], Journal of Northwest 

Hydroelectric Power, no. S1 (2004); “大有作

为的卫星移动 信息管理应用系统” [There Is 

Great Potential for the Use of Satellite Motion 

no. 7 (2002). 

 66. See “有中国特色的GPS系统: ‘北斗’卫

系统的战略运用” [There Is a GPS Sy

with ‘Chinese Characteristics’: The Be

Satellite System’s Strategic Use], Worl

look, no. 8 (2004). 

 67. “Chinese Firms Join Galileo Project,” 

ington Post, 29 July 2005, p. D5. 

 68. See 王逸峰, 叶景 [Wang Yifeng, Ye J

从中日核潜艇事件看我核潜艇的突

[What the Nuclear Submarine Incid

tween China and Japan Tells Us abo

Ability of China’s Nuclear Submarin

Penetrate Defenses, part 1], 舰载武器

[Shipborne Weapons] (January 2005

27–31; part 2 (February 2005), pp. 3

part 3 (March 2005), pp. 45–51. See 

Erickson, Lyle Goldstein, and William 

Murray, “‘Gate Crashing’: China’s Su

rine Force Tests New Waters,” Chines

tary Update 2, no. 7 (April 2005), pp. 

an analysis of the ‘Han Incident’ by th

mer JMSDF chief of staff, see 大賀 良

Ryohei], “中国潜水 艦部隊が目指す

[What the PLAN Submarine Force Is 

For], 世界の艦船 [Ships of the Worl

no. 7 (July 2005), pp. 96–101. 

 69. Edward Cody, “Shifts in Pacific Force 

Military to Adapt Thinking: New Plan 

flects Reaction to China’s Growing Po

Washington Post, 17 September 2005, 

 70. “中国海军舰队访问关岛” [China’s N

Fleet Calls on Guam], 人民日报 [Peo

Daily], 24 October 2004. 

 71. “Navy Fleet Visits Heart of U.S. Force

Pacific,” People’s Daily, 2 November 2

available at www2.chinadaily.com.cn/

2003-11/02/content_277636.htm. 

 72. Douglas J. Feith, Strengthening U.S. G

Defense Posture, Report to Congress (W

ton, D.C.: September 2004). 

 73. Jim Garamone, “Officials Discuss Glo

Posture Process,” American Forces In

tion Service, 9 January 2004, www.def

.mil/news/. 

 74. Ibid. 

 75. Overseas Basing Commission, see esp

ix, K6–K7. 

 76. The USS Cole tragedy is reason for ca

and careful planning but not for rejec

idea of bases outright. 
 78. U.S. Defense Dept., Quadrennial Defense 

Review (Washington, D.C.: 30 September 

2001), available at www.defenselink.mil/ 

pubs/qdr2001.pdf. 

 79. Thomas J. Christensen, “Posing Problems 

without Catching Up,” International Security

25, no. 4 (Spring 2001), p. 34. 

 80. Joel Wuthnow, The Impact of Missile Threats 

on the Reliability of U.S. Overseas Bases: A 

Framework for Analysis (Carlisle Barracks, 

Penna.: U.S. Army War College, Strategic 

Studies Institute, January 2005), p. 35, available at www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/. 

 81. Unless otherwise specified, data from this and 

the next paragraph are derived from Overseas 

Basing Commission, pp. J4, J6, J11. 

 82. Angel Rabasa, “The Changing PoliticalMilitary Environment: Southeast Asia,” in 

The United States and Asia: Toward a New 

U.S. Strategy and Force Posture, ed. Zalmay 

Khalilzad et al. (Washington, D.C.: Project 

Air Force, RAND, 2001), app. C. 

 83. U.S. Defense Dept., Quadrennial Defense Review.

 84. For instance, if Vietnam offered America 

access to Cam Ranh Bay but was then threatened by China during a Taiwan Strait crisis, 

Hanoi might back down, and Washington’s 

position could be greatly complicated. 

 85. Overseas Basing Commission, p. H11. 

 86. Gregg K. Kakesako, “Admiral Evaluating 

Ideal Sport for Carrier,” Honolulu StarBulletin, 21 August 2005. 

 87. Guam is approximately 1,381 miles from 

Taiwan. At twenty knots, the transit would 

take sixty-nine hours, just under three days. 

 88. Overseas Basing Commission, p. O1. 

 89. Exemplifying the detail in which Japanese 

analysts scrutinize China’s military buildup, 

Japan’s premier naval monthly Sekai no Kansen recently devoted an issue to China’s naval 

development. See “今日の中国軍艦” [Chinese Warships Today], 世界の艦船 [Ships of 

the World] 651, no. 12 (September 2005), pp. 

21–45, 47; 藤木 平八郎 [Fujiki Heihachiro], 

“中国海軍 その現況と将来” [The Present 

and Future of the Chinese Navy], pp. 69–75; 

編集部 [Editorial Department], “注目の中

国新型艦艇” [The Chinese Navy’s New Warships], pp. 77–89; 多田智彦 [Tada Tomohiko], 

“中国海軍のウエポンシステム” [The Chinese Navy’s Weapon Systems], pp. 90–95; 石川

の実力” [The Chinese Navy’s Fleet Air Arm], 

pp. 96–99; 竹田 純一 [Takeda Junichi], “対中

武器禁輸措置の中身と今後” [Western Nations’ Arms Ban against China], pp. 100–105; 

“中国をめぐる軍事力バランス” [The Military Balance Around China], pp. 106–10. 

 90. The November 2004 issue of Sekai no Kansen

for instance, focuses on “The Sea Power Balance: Japan vs. China” [日本vs中国そのシー

パワーを比較する]. A wide range of Japanese specialists address all major components 

of Sino-Japanese maritime development: 

竹田 純一 [Takeda Junichi], “21世紀の東ア

ジア海洋覇権を競う日本と中国” [Japan 

and China: Rivals for East Asian Sea Mastery 

in the Twenty-first Century], 世界の艦船

[Ships of the World] 633, no. 11 (November 

2004), pp. 75–81; 木津 徹 [Kizu Tohru], 

“海軍” [Naval Forces], pp. 84–91; 渡辺 一正

[Watanabe Kazumasa], “コーストガード” 

[Coast Guard], pp. 92–95; 土井 全二郎 [Doi 

Zenjiro], “海運” [Marine Transportation], 

pp. 96–101; 長塚 誠治 [Nagatsuka Seiji], 

“造船” [Shipbuilding Industry], pp. 102–

107; 土井 全二郎 [Doi Zenjiro], “水産” 

[Marine Product Industry], pp. 108–11; 

寺島 紘士 [Terashima Hiroshi], “どうな

る!?海底資源をめぐる日中の角逐” [Maritime Boundary Problems between Japan and 

China], pp. 112–17. 

 91. Overseas Basing Commission, p. M9. 

 92. Japanese support is uncertain, given the fragility of its ruling coalition. The Komeito and 

Soka Gakkai parties have close ties to China 

and strained relations with Taiwan. In the 

event of a crisis, they might seek to place constraints on the operation of U.S. forces and 

the Japan Self-Defense Forces. 

 93. David Pilling, “Japan Finds Missile Defense 

Plans Are Difficult to Launch: Tokyo May Be 

Forced to Dismantle Its Postwar Constitution 

If It Is to Combat North Korea’s Ambitious 

Nuclear Program,” Financial Times, 16 January 2004. 

 94. Overseas Basing Commission, p. H5. 

 95. Thom Shanker, “U.S. and Japan Agree to 

Strengthen Military Ties,” New York Times,

30 October 2005. 

 96. “News Briefing with Secretary of Defense 

Donald Rumsfeld,” U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), 29 October 2005, 

available at www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/
Realign Military Defenses,” Washington Post,

30 October 2005, p. 18. 

 98. The future of North Korea is far more important to Seoul than is the future of Taiwan; 

Beijing could exploit this situation as leverage 

in the event of a Taiwan Strait crisis. 

 99. Overseas Basing Commission, p. H7. 

100. Ibid., p. H9. 

101. Brooke, “Guam, Hurt by Slump, Hopes for 

Economic Help from the Military,” p. A14. 

102. Overseas Basing Commission, p. M3; U.S. 

Defense Dept., Strengthening U.S. Global Defense Posture, report to Congress (Washington, D.C.: September 2004), p. 12. 

103. Unless otherwise specified, information for 

this and the next two paragraphs is derived 

from Overseas Basing Commission, pp. M9, 

H8, i, H5, J6. 

104. The U.S. military has already begun working 

with the South Korean government to adjust 

its basing footprint on the peninsula. In 2004, 

the United States moved the five-thousandstrong 2nd Brigade Combat Team back to the 

continental United States permanently (via 

south of the Han River, where they w

consolidated into ten sites, from forty

The three major sites will be South W

Osan/Camp Humphreys, South East 

Chinhae/Taegu, and Kunsan. Redeplo

of 12,500 U.S. troops from Korea by 2

represent a 33 percent reduction of U

sonnel, to, respectively eighteen thous

four thousand, and three thousand at 

jor sites. Rapid reinforcement for the 

Army’s remaining heavy brigade will be 

from Okinawa, from which Marines wil

tate in for training. Seoul will acquire va

U.S. installations, offer the Americans th

joint facilities, and gradually shoulder an 

ing share of self-defense responsibilities. 

105. It might someday be possible to acqu

rights to a small island or to create a 

made structure that would be the fun

equivalent. 

106. For a cost-based argument against basi

than three submarines in Guam, see Ja

“Admiral: Three Submarines Is ‘About 

Right Number’ on Guam,” Inside the N

June 2005.
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On Sea Basing

ROBERT O. WORK

The Impetus for Sea Basing

A Return to an Expeditionary Posture

The abrupt end to the Cold War, marked by the maintenance of powerful U.S. fo

garrisons along the frontiers of the Soviet empire, took American defense planne

surprise. Even in 1989, after the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing tur

in Eastern Europe, the Joint Chiefs of Staff still believed the Soviet Union would re

the most serious threat to the United States through the 1990s.1

As is typical of a

sitions from one strategic era to the next, the period leading up to the final implo

of the Soviet Union in 1991, and just after, was one of enormous strategic uncert

One thing was certain, however—that the need to maintain strong U.S. garriso

overseas would diminish over time. Some of the forces assigned to these garriso

would be relocated to the continental United States (CONUS); others would be 

mobilized altogether. The pace and scope of the drawdown would be determin

by existing threats than by the need to reassure allies that America would not r

from world affairs.

Sixteen years into this new strategic era, the drawdown of forces stationed overse

continues, and the U.S. global posture is increasingly settled. The broad outlines 

posture should be quite familiar. Just as in the period from roughly 1890 until th

of World War II—a period I will refer to as the “Expeditionary Era”—the primar

and jumping-off point for most overseas U.S. expeditions will be the continental

United States. CONUS-based forces will be augmented by rotational, forward-ba

forces, but for major power-projection operations most U.S. forces will originate 

American soil. These expeditions will continue to be supported by the residual C

War basing infrastructure. However, these bases will increasingly represent “coali

stations” for forces transiting from the United States and adjacent theaters.

CHAPTER FIVE

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Cold War. Freed from the requirement to be immediately ready for full-scale war

against the Soviet Union, American leaders have employed the military for a variety of

tasks, and operational tempo for all of the armed forces has climbed dramatically. In

just sixteen years the United States has fought two major wars; conducted armed interventions in Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan; and committed armed

forces in a variety of other places and circumstances. During this period the term “expeditionary” gradually infused the lexicon of all the services, much to the chagrin of

the Marine Corps, which felt it had cornered the (expeditionary) market during the

Cold War.

Whether or not this high pace of military activity diminishes over time, as it did in the

third and fourth decades of the Expeditionary Era, this new national security era share

several striking similarities with that earlier era. As it did then, the focus of U.S. defens

strategists and military planners is gradually shifting away from Europe and toward

Asia, albeit with a wider aperture. Today’s national security focus is on the Greater

Asian littoral, which extends from the Persian Gulf (Southwest Asia) to North Korea

(Northeast Asia)—an area now often referred to as the “arc of instability.”

The emerging American overseas basing network is eerily similar to that of the Expeditionary Era: Hawaii, Alaska, Midway and Wake islands, and Guam continue to play either major or supporting roles. The United States no longer has the sovereign hub it

had in the Philippines, but it does have strong bilateral security treaties with Japan and

South Korea that give it similar access to major sea, air, and ground facilities in the

western Pacific. Although it no longer bases troops in Australia, the United States has

ready access to that nation’s superb ports, logistics support facilities, and training

ranges. The two key additions to the U.S. naval overseas basing structure along the

Asian littoral are the Fifth Fleet support facilities in Bahrain and on the island of Diego

Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Just as defense planners worried incessantly about the loss of forward Pacific bases in

the Expeditionary Era, defense planners are increasingly worried about maintaining fu

ture forward base access when and where it is needed . This problem was first raised in

a serious way by the 1997 National Defense Panel (NDP), an independent body tasked

by Congress to critique the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and to provide

an alternative strategic review. The panel warned that future access to forward bases

would be less assured over time, for two key reasons. First, absent a compelling, unifying threat like the expansionist Soviet empire, political access would have to be negotiated on a case basis and could not be counted upon. Depending on the circumstances,

even reliable allies might balk at the prospect of U.S. forces mounting combat

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ballistic and cruise missiles, possibly armed with weapons of mass destruction (W

would likely increase over time. At best, then, the NDP warned, U.S. forces operatin

from forward bases could be subject to preemptive or incessant attack by guided w

or WMD. At worst, the United States might lose access to forward land bases altoge

Juxtaposed against the similarities between the current national security policy era an

first Expeditionary Era are several striking differences The most evident is that unlike 

ing that earlier period, the United States is now the sole global “superpower.” Accordi

and despite the implosion of the Soviet Union, American global responsibilities cont

require substantial military capability. The standing “peacetime” U.S. armed forces ar

larger and far more capable than those maintained in the Expeditionary Era.

A second difference is that the current U.S. Navy is the most capable naval power 

world—by a wide margin. It is sufficient to say here that the Navy now enjoys un

tested command of the high seas; it no longer needs to concern itself about fight

way across any ocean, as it did throughout the Expeditionary Era.

A third difference is that the U.S. military now consists exclusively of volunteers, 

pled with the fact that the costs of continuing that force continue to increase. Gr

manpower costs now influence how the force is used, designed, and structured in 

unimaginable during the Expeditionary Era, when peacetime forces were small a

poorly paid and the majority of wartime troops were conscripts.

As just one example of how the volunteer force has changed U.S. force managem

the services have been obliged to make concerted attempts to keep the tremendo

stresses created by the high operational tempo of the past sixteen years from imp

force retention. In this regard, all the services either have developed or are develo

unit rotational bases to help manage the amount of time servicemen and women 

overseas. The Department of the Navy (DoN) rotational deployment model deve

during the Cold War continued to work well with little modification for the Navy 

the Marines after that competition was over. However, the Air Force and Army, b

which had adopted garrison deployment and reinforcement models during the C

War, took some time to find approaches that worked in the new environment. Fo

part, the Air Force adopted in the middle to late 1990s a variation of the DoN mo

for its Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF) concept. The Air Force organized te

AEFs, of which two are always ready for immediate deployment at any time.3

As f

Army, it took the stresses of the “global war on terrorism” to spur an ongoing trans

to a modular brigade reorganization, which will result in a rotational base compris

forty-three active brigades and thirty-four National Guard brigades and capable of 

taining twenty brigades forward at any one time.

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that in the earlier period warfighting strategies centered on dominant industrial capacity and the massing of firepower and forces. In contrast, current warfighting concepts

revolve much more around distributed operations, “information superiority,” and the

discrete, precise application of firepower, forces, and effects. There are many reasons

for this, but perhaps none is as important as the maturation of guided weapons and

munitions and of their associated planning and targeting networks.

A key characteristic of all guided weapons is accuracy independent of range. This

characteristic turned weapons that mostly missed into weapons that mostly hit,

with consistently impressive combat results. The first guided weapon—an airdropped acoustical homing torpedo—was employed in combat in March 1943.

Over the next four decades, guided weapons were introduced into more and more

tactical operating regimes: surface-to-air, air-to-air, antisubmarine, antisurface, an

titank, and air-to-ground warfare. Generally, whenever guided weapons were pursued or introduced, planning and targeting networks followed, as manifested by

the rise of continental air defense networks, integrated air defense networks, and

air battle management networks.

By the early 1980s, Soviet military theorists had concluded that the combination of

these networks into coherent “reconnaissance strike complexes” would spark a military

technical revolution. The impressive American victory in Operation DESERT STORM

appeared to confirm this conclusion, despite the relatively small number of guided

weapons employed. After the war, many American military officers began to speak of a

broader “revolution in military affairs” (RMA) based on better guided weapons, sensors, and information, and improved networking of forces.4

Of course, the uniquely American RMA was not due solely to improved guided weapons and networks. Equally important were the improved quality of the men and

women in the U.S. all-volunteer armed forces and the revolution in joint military affairs sparked by the Goldwater-Nichols Act. The rise of “jointness” has had a profound

effect on U.S. military operations, in that it has greatly lessened the power and independence of the individual services and spurred increasingly effective joint battlefield

cooperation and collaboration.

The major-combat phase of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) came as close as any operation to date to achieving the visions associated with Soviet military theorists of the

Cold War, the Goldwater-Nichols Act, and post–DESERT STORM American military

thinking. In OIF the U.S. armed forces moved over a quarter of a million men and

women and their equipment from bases in the continental United States and from residual Cold War bases and prepared a major invasion, all in less than six months. Once

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special operations forces operated in relatively smooth, synchronized fashion, an

actions were thoroughly integrated in a fast-moving, hard-hitting, multidimensi

campaign built around massed guided-weapons fire and opportunistic maneuve

Indeed, OIF suggests the basic warfighting model for U.S. expeditionary operatio

the current strategic environment, as well as the powerful positive influence that 

proved jointness has had, and will continue to have, on American combat perfor

Together with the “new” expeditionary posture now adopted by the U.S. military

concepts provide an apt label for the new post–Cold War strategic period—“the 

Expeditionary Era.”

Initial Naval Course Changes during the Joint Expeditionary Era

The shift to the Joint Expeditionary Era had a profound impact on the thinking o

American strategists and planners, including those in the Navy. With the collapse 

Soviet Union and its powerful navy, there was no longer any credible threat to U.

maritime dominance. When combined with radical improvements in combat eff

facilitated by the growing maturity of guided weapons and distributed, joint opera

this circumstance spurred DoN planners to shift their attention from open-ocean s

control operations toward power-projection operations designed to influence deci

events ashore.

Less than a year after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, DoN strategists were think

seriously about how the Navy needed to be resized and reshaped in response to t

national security era, as indicated in the 1992 DoN vision document . . . From th

Our ability to command the seas in areas where we anticipate future operations allows us to re

naval forces and to concentrate more on capabilities required in the complex operating enviro

of the “littoral” or coastlines of the earth. . . . As a result, our national maritime policies can af

deemphasize efforts in some naval warfare areas. But the challenge is much more complex than s

reducing our present naval forces. We must structure a fundamentally different naval force to resp

strategic demands, and that new force must be sufficiently flexible and powerful to satisfy enduring 

tional security requirements.

5

In other words, DoN strategists anticipated that the locale for the future naval co

tition would shift from the high seas into the world’s littorals.6

From this new op

environment, the Navy needed to be resized and reshaped for a new mission—de

ing joint goods and services ashore.7

The initial DoN moves to resize and reshape the fleet satisfied almost no one. Eve

among proponents of the Navy, some fretted about the extent of the fleet’s inevit

post–Cold War demobilization. Between 30 September 1989 and 30 September 1

the Navy fell from 592 to 365 ships, with additional cuts planned.8

That year the 

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hefty 48 percent shrinkage in less than a decade.9

These observers considered the dismantling of the Cold War “six-hundred-ship Navy” a mistake of monumental proportions, and they constantly disparaged the size of the Joint Expeditionary Era fleet in

comparison to that of the Cold War.

Meanwhile, other critics, outside the service, charged that this smaller Navy was not the

“fundamentally different naval force” promised by DoN leaders. They pointed out that

the QDR target fleet—twelve aircraft carriers, fifty nuclear-powered attack submarines

and 116 surface combatants—was merely a shrunken version of the Cold War force,

which, they argued, would be unsuited to the demands of the new national-security

era.10 Consistent with this line of thinking, some critics argued for a dramatic reduction in the size of the carrier fleet, others for a far larger submarine fleet, still others for

a fleet made up of small, fast combatants. Underlying all these proposals was a belief

that the Navy was in danger of becoming a relic of the Cold War.

Despite criticisms both inside and outside the service, one thing stayed constant

throughout the initial decade and a half of the fleet’s post–Cold War reshaping and

resizing—the U.S. Navy remained the world’s most powerful naval force in the world

by a wide, and steadily growing, margin. Though it is smaller than the Cold War fleet

in numbers, the U.S. fleet’s current capabilities are unmatched. Moreover, comparing

the fleet’s current and previous sizes provides no indication of the Navy’s current dominating position in the global naval competition. The U.S. Navy operates a war fleet

that displaces some 2.85 million tons; the entire rest of the world operates a combined

war fleet of 3.03 million tons. Only seventeen nations operate fleets with aggregate displacements greater than fifty thousand tons, and fifteen of these are friends, allies, or

strategic partners of the United States. The contemporary U.S. battle fleet is a force

without equal, and it enjoys a competitive advantage in combat capabilities perhaps

unparalleled in naval history.11

The charge that today’s Navy is just a smaller version of the Cold War force is also

questionable. Although contemporary fleet platforms may look familiar, they have

been substantially modified, the better to exploit guided weapons and to share data and

information with other fleet units and joint forces. For example, as both the number of

carrier aircraft capable of dropping guided munitions and the quantity of these munitions in shipboard magazines increased, carriers have gained vastly more powerful capabilities. Moreover, by virtue of substantial improvements to their information and

planning systems, carrier air wings can now be seamlessly integrated in joint air

campaigns. Similarly, the rapid and extensive introduction of vertical-launch missile systems in American surface combatants and submarines during the 1990s has

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projecting enormous firepower in support of joint forces. If today’s fleet looks ge

ally the same as the Cold War fleet, it is in fact a far different and more capable o

Beat to Quarters: Preparing for Future Naval Challenges

Despite the logic of the initial course changes made by DoN planners during the 

decade after the Cold War, and despite the commanding position now enjoyed by 

U.S. Navy, it is fair to say that further alterations to the fleet’s course and speed w

necessary. The character and demands of the emerging Joint Expeditionary Era a

clearer than were the challenges of the early 1990s. For example, it seems increas

apparent that dominating scale and capabilities in the guided weapons warfare re

have given the Navy and the other U.S. armed services an excess capacity over tha

needed to deal with “traditional” military challengers.12 At the same time, it also 

creasingly apparent that the Navy lacks the full range of capabilities needed to co

with three new “nontraditional” challenges that are emerging as natural response

the crushing American advantage in guided weapons warfare, multidimensional 

ning. and targeting networks.

One observed response to American dominance in high-technology force-on-for

warfare has been attempts to avoid it. As demonstrated in operations in Afghanis

and Iraq, many future challengers—especially nonstate actors—will elect not to 

and directly challenge the U.S. military. Instead, they will opt to wage irregular w

to employ terrorism, guerrilla tactics, and other means of indirect combat. These 

lengers will often fight in small, cell-based tactical organizations, favor close-in a

tactics, and conduct operations that aim to inflict “death from a thousand cuts.” 

goal of these “irregular challengers” will be to frustrate the superior firepower of 

U.S. military, cause the United States a steady level of pain, and simply survive lo

enough to exhaust American staying power.13

A second observed response to American conventional military dominance has b

attempts to outflank it by seeking weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuc

weapons. Possessing an ability to inflict “catastrophic” damage on U.S. interests i

by some governments, especially autocratic regimes like North Korea and Iran, a

only way to deter U.S. attacks—and, in the event of a confrontation, to overcome t

huge American lead in conventional guided weapons. Similarly, nonstate actors see 

clear weapons as a means to attack U.S. territory, forces, and interests directly. As a 

protecting the homeland from catastrophic attacks and conducting power-projecti

erations under threat of nuclear attack will be key requirements during the Joint 

ditionary Era.14

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conventional dominance with a combination of “disruptive” strategies and technologies.15 The development of asymmetric, multidimensional battle networks as powerful

as our own or of high-end counter-network weapons might represent one type of disruptive challenge.16 Other types might be new forms of robotic warfare, space warfare,

or low-cost, long-range, weapons that make extended-range barrage attacks against

U.S. forces feasible.17 New types of information warfare, biological warfare (“bio-war”)

war using nanotechnology (“nano-war”), and the introduction of directed-energy

weapons (DEW) might also qualify as serious disruptive challenges. Any of these possibilities would create a very different warfighting regime, one in which the United State

might no longer have a clear advantage.

None of these three emerging challenges would necessarily entail a broader naval competition on the open ocean. Therefore, a continued driving impetus for further change

will be the requirement to meet these challenges in the shallow and constricted waters

along the world’s littorals. Indeed, given its total command of the high seas, for the

next several decades the Navy’s value will be defined primarily by the degree to which i

can contribute to joint campaign objectives after an uncontested transoceanic voyage.

In other words, the Navy’s value will primarily depend on the ease with which it can

operate “right up to within a few miles of the enemy’s shores.”18

Said another way, the speed with which U.S. naval power can be brought to bear will be

determined largely by its degree of littoral access.19 Littoral maritime access can be described by one of four general conditions:

• Unimpeded access, in which the enemy has no credible naval forces or land-based

defenses that threaten the advance of naval forces into littoral waters. Under these

conditions, the Navy can immediately establish itself adjacent to the coast and

provide appropriate support to joint expeditionary forces operating ashore. While

U.S. naval forces might be subject to irregular surprise attacks, these attacks likely

would have little impact on American strategic operations.

• Guarded access, referring to conditions in which the enemy has a coast guard or an

irregular navy whose primary function is to guard maritime approaches and warn

of an impending attack from the sea. In these circumstances, although the enemy

might be able to subject U.S. naval forces to minor attacks or perhaps threaten them

with mines, it would not be able to deny them freedom of action.

• Defended access, where the enemy can mount multidimensional attacks against

naval forces, has maritime defensive capabilities credible enough to deter

intervention, or is able to prevent American freedom of action in regional waters.

Only U.S. assets designed to penetrate a defended battle space would initially

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force would remain farther out to sea until defenses were reduced; only then w

it move closer to the shore.

• Contested access, the most severe condition, is a situation in which the enemy 

robust, redundant, and survivable naval anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) netw

capable of conducting long-range, over-the-horizon sensing and of controllin

intense and sustained multidimensional guided-weapon attacks to the limits o

sensor range. Here, U.S. maritime access would be seriously contested; extensi

counter-A2/AD operations would be required to mitigate the threat. While th

operations were going on, the bulk of the naval force would need to remain in 

high-seas sanctuary.20

The number of nations capable of mounting a serious defense of their maritime 

proaches or contesting American littoral maritime supremacy is today declining 

than increasing.21 Naval analyst Norman Freidman concludes from a review of w

wide defense expenditures that there is no compelling evidence to suggest that h

end maritime defenses or A2/AD networks are now being broadly pursued. Give

increasing costs and difficulty in employing sophisticated weapons in a way that 

seriously contest the Navy’s ability to establish itself in regional waters, uncontes

and guarded access are the most common conditions. The bottom line, then, is th

the foreseeable future few countries will be able to deter an advancing U.S. naval 

force, and fewer still will be capable of seriously contesting its operations in close

littoral seas.

A key unknown is how soon this favorable condition will change, and how. A sec

key unknown is how the three aforementioned operational challenges will begin 

manifest themselves in the Joint Expeditionary Era. What is known, however—a

what will remain constant—is that in an era of sustained, high-tempo expedition

operations and of uncertain forward base access, exploiting the littoral seas as a j

base of operations in support of U.S. campaigns and objectives will be a key, endu

requirement. The various degrees of littoral maritime access will simply dictate t

tial extent of U.S. naval freedom of action and the speed with which naval exped

ary forces will be able to exploit the sea as a base of operations.

This explains the central position senior DoN leaders now place on the importan

“sea basing.” As Vice Admiral Charles W. Moore, Jr., USN, and Lieutenant Gener

ward Hanlon, Jr., USMC, explained in 2003:

Sea basing is the core of “Sea Power 21.” It is about placing at sea—to an extent greater than e

fore—capabilities critical to joint and coalition operational success: offensive and defensive fir

maneuver forces, command and control, and logistics. By doing so, it minimizes the need to b

forces and supplies ashore, reduces their vulnerability, and enhances operational mobility.22

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pected the new emphasis on sea basing to have when he wrote in 2002, as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO):

Beyond its operational impact, the Sea Basing concept provides a valuable tool for prioritizing naval

programs. Sea-Based forces enjoy advantages of security, immediate employability, and operational

independence. All naval programs should foster these attributes to the greatest extent feasible. This

means transforming shore-based capabilities to sea-based systems whenever practical, and improving

the reach, persistence, and sustainability of systems that are already afloat.23

Back to the Future

One might think, given the emphasis now placed on “sea basing” in the DoN’s plans

and preparations, that the idea represents some dramatically new, “transformational”

naval capability. However, the idea of using “floating bases” for transoceanic powerprojection is well over a century old. As early as 1901, Marine planners envisioned the

need for basing “offensive and defensive firepower, maneuver forces, command and

control, and logistics” at sea.24

These early ideas—tied to seizing advanced bases for the purposes of establishing sea

control in forward theaters—started to take more definitive shape during the interwar

period. As planners grappled with the problem of how to force a decisive sea battle

with the imperial Japanese fleet, the unstated concept of a sea-based sea-control fleet be

came an important part of Navy war plans. The armored battle line would be a mobile

naval artillery base, the primary arm for Battle Force offensive action. Newly developed

aircraft carriers would be mobile aviation bases, from which aircraft could scout for th

enemy’s battle line, protect the U.S. battle line from air attack, and conduct independent raids. The amphibious assault fleet would form mobile assault bases from which

to attack and seize forward operating bases. Underway replenishment ships would operate as mobile resupply bases; tenders and other vessels would act as mobile fleet logistics

bases. In practice during World War II this vision proved to be remarkably prescient, excepting only that the expected roles of the battle line and aircraft carriers were reversed.

These floating bases were originally conceived to support sea control operations, but by

the end of the war, with both the Japanese and German fleets in ruins, naval planners

recognized that the broad oceans had been transformed into an uncontested U.S. joint

operating base, from which naval forces could project joint power and decisively influence combat operations ashore. Accordingly, by the end of the Second World War the

heart of the U.S. Navy had transformed itself into a sea-based power-projection fleet,

composed of equally capable strike and operational maneuver fleets supported by a mobile and flexible logistics sea base.

The Power-Projection Fleet was designed primarily to support what are now referred

to as “joint forcible-entry operations” (JFEOs) in contested theaters, as well as

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1945 invasion of Okinawa, the prelude to what would have been the final invasio

Japan.25 By late 1945, the Sea-Based Power-Projection Fleet was prepared to land 

million men (including six Marine divisions) on mainland Japan and to support 

with thousands of combat aircraft, hundreds of mobile artillery bases (surface co

ants), and a vast sea-based logistics support network.

The Power-Projection Fleet was backed up by a huge transoceanic cargo fleet. Dur

the war the U.S. Maritime Commission built, and the American merchant marin

manned, 5,777 ships, including 2,751 Liberty ships and 531 Victory ships. Togeth

they transported 85 percent of all troops, equipment, and cargo hauled overseas 

the war.26 In the Cold War, however, the requirement to project joint combat pow

from the sea took a decided turn. With large standing garrisons maintained over

the requirement to project intact, ready-to-fight combat units was replaced by a 

quirement to deliver garrison reinforcements rapidly through established ports a

airfields. The most efficient way to accomplish this task was a combination of

prepositioned equipment sets and supplies on land and sea; combat aircraft flow

rectly to forward main operating bases; troops delivered from the continental Un

States by airlift; and additional equipment and supplies delivered from CONUS b

sealift. All of this was facilitated by a robust forward theater logistics infrastructu

cluding numerous ports and airfields.

As a result, as the Cold War progressed the likelihood of forcible-entry operation

came ever more remote, and all joint combat forces and operations became more 

more “access dependent.” Over the course of the Cold War, DoN attitudes about 

Power-Projection Fleet gradually changed to adjust to these new strategic condit

With little need to seize joint access or to support maneuver from the sea, Navy o

came to conflate the idea of power projection with strike operations and to view 

sea primarily as a base from which to carry out air and missile attacks against tar

sea and on shore. By 1964, and especially after the Vietnam War, many Navy offic

viewed the amphibious landing fleet as an expensive legacy of a bygone era.

For the Marines—the nation’s so-called 911 force—the name of the game becam

ing constantly ready to fight, able to get to a fight as rapidly as possible by whatev

means available. Given that forward access was generally assured, the Marines wo

less about fighting their way into a theater and more about sustaining operations 

there. The sea became more an avenue for global patrolling and transport than a 

from which to fight. The Amphibious Landing Fleet was viewed as a rotational p

small, sea-based crisis-response forces. Large-scale, combined-arms fire and man

from the sea became an increasingly lost art.

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Power-Projection Fleet now consists of a sea-based strike fleet that requires no theater

access “permission slips” and a sea-based transport fleet that does. The current SeaBased Strike Fleet includes eleven “deployable” aircraft carriers (with an additional car

rier in long-term overhaul) and seventy-one major surface combatants. Under the new

Fleet Response Plan (FRP), this force can theoretically assemble six aircraft carriers and

thirty or forty surface combatants anywhere in the world within thirty days.27 Once in

position, the carriers’ embarked air wings can provide defensive “fires” for joint forces

at sea and ashore, attacking thousands of aimpoints per day for as long as there is ordnance to drop or fire. Carrier aviation would be augmented by the surface combatants,

which would bring to the fight as many as three or four thousand veritcal launch system (VLS) cells, filled with a variety of missiles, many devoted to land attack. This

powerful naval force would be defended by a number of submarines, which themselves

could conduct land attack strikes from their covert underwater sanctuaries. The strike

fleet could be sustained at sea indefinitely, with little need for access to forward bases.

In contrast, and as will be discussed in detail in a moment, within the same thirty-day

period, by using maritime prepositioning ships, the contemporary Sea-Based Transpor

Fleet could deliver the equipment and thirty days of supplies for three Marine and one

Army combat brigades through deepwater ports or protected anchorages in the theater

Surge sealift forces could move approximately eleven additional sets of equipment for

Army brigade “units of action” (UAs) through ports or anchorages—provided, once

again, that access to those ports had been secured either politically or militarily. The

preponderance of the personnel required to man this equipment would arrive on commercial air transports, through established foreign-government-controlled airfields.

The Sea-Based Transport Fleet retains a vestigial amphibious lift capability. The curren

force of thirty-five amphibious assault ships can lift approximately 2.0 fully constituted

combat brigades with both their personnel and equipment. This is the smallest level of

amphibious lift that the United States has maintained since World War II. Unlike the

fifteen brigade equipment sets outlined above, these brigades require no port or airfield

to facilitate their entry into a theater. They would leave their ships fully ready to fight

their way ashore, if necessary.

The fleet’s supporting Logistics Fleet has also been dramatically reduced since World

War II. Today, underway replenishment capability resides in a small but capable thirtythree-ship Combat Logistics Force (CLF). Forward theater repair and salvage capability

has been reduced to two submarine tenders, five fleet tugs, and four salvage ships.

Moreover, naval logistics forces are sized to support forward operations of the SeaBased Strike Fleet only, not larger joint forces.

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Cold War, is woefully inadequate for the emerging conditions and challenges of the 

Expeditionary Era. The U.S. military and its allies are fighting a persistent, global ir

lar war in which repositioning and support of scarce ground forces is as important 

was in World War II. They are also faced with the possibility of confronting region

versaries with nuclear weapons, which may be used to coerce regional neighbors in

nying access to U.S. forces and to threaten fixed theater points of entry. Moreover, t

confront the prospect of increasingly powerful littoral defenses or A2/AD network

conventional guided weapons, which will require sustained operations from the se

der to conduct progressive roll-back and theater break-in operations. Finally, the U

military may be tasked to provide logistics support to joint forces operating ashore 

degree not required since World War II. All of these circumstances call for the recre

of operationally independent, sea-based fire, maneuver, and logistics forces.

It would thus be most accurate to say that “sea basing” is an idea whose time has 

again. With deference to Admiral Clark, it hardly seems likely that the future Nav

support joint combat power from the sea “to a greater extent” than it did during 

War II or Korea. However, it is certainly true that it will need to be able to projec

sustain joint combat power from the sea to a far greater degree than was necessar

the Cold War. Therefore, the former CNO was exactly right to conclude that thin

about sea basing and how it should shape the future Navy should be the first prio

for DoN strategists, planners, and fleet platform architects.

As a starting point, the Navy should resurrect the idea of a Sea-Based Power-Projec

Fleet with three distinct components: a Sea-Based Strike Fleet, consisting of aviatio

power-projection platforms and VLS-equipped surface combatants and submarine

sea-based expeditionary maneuver fleet, designed to exploit the sea as a broad mane

space and to mount combined-arms attacks from the sea; and a mobile Logistics S

Base, including both combat and mobile logistics forces. While each of these three 

ponents plays a critical role in the Sea-Based Power-Projection Fleet, the remainde

this chapter will focus on the future requirements for sea-based expeditionary man

Said another way, it will concentrate on the steps needed to transform today’s Sea-B

Transport Fleet into a flexible and effective Sea-Based Expeditionary Maneuver Fle

Current Thinking about Sea Basing

Start Point: The Contemporary Sea-Based Transport Fleet

As discussed earlier, the current Sea-Based Transport Fleet is a legacy of the Cold 

It includes three major components, backed up by a modernized, albeit much sm

version of the World War II fleet of transoceanic cargo vessels.

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optimized for rapid response missions in conditions of assured access, including rapid

reinforcement of forward-based or deployed joint forces.28 This fleet includes:

• The Maritime Prepositioning Force. The MPF consists of sixteen ships organized

into three squadrons. Each squadron is preloaded with the equipment, supplies,

ammunition, and fuel to support a single Marine expeditionary brigade (MEB) in

sustained combat for thirty days. With squadrons located in the Mediterranean,

on Diego Garcia, and on Guam, MPF ships are within ten to fourteen days’

steaming time from any accessible port in Europe, the Indian Ocean, or the

western Pacific.29

• The Combat Prepositioning Force. The CPF, known in the Army as Army Prepositioning

Afloat or Army Prepositioned Stock 3 (APS-3), resulted from a 1995 congressionally

mandated Mobility Requirements Study.30 This study recommended that the Army

develop the means to transport a heavy brigade anywhere in the world within fifteen

days. APS-3 is patterned after the MPF program: it consists of ships preloaded with

equipment, supplies, ammunition, and fuel associated with an Army “2 x 2” mechanized

brigade (i.e., a brigade with two armored and two mechanized infantry battalions), an

artillery battalion, an engineer battalion, a combat support battalion, and a theater army

logistics package designed to support heavy Army forces until a theater logistics

infrastructure can be developed. The CPF currently consists of eight large, mediumspeed roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) ships (LMSRs) and two container ships filled with

ammunition—a total of ten ships.31

• The Logistics Prepositioning Force. The LPF also consists of ten ships. Two are

tankers converted by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) into offshore petroleum

distribution platforms—sea-based fuel farms. Four carry weapons and supplies to

support U.S. Air Force operations, and one logistics support ship carries Navy

ordnance. All are stationed at Diego Garcia. An additional three ships support the

Marine Corps. Two aviation logistics ships (T-AVBs) each carry an intermediate

maintenance activity (IMA) for a Marine expeditionary brigade’s aviation

squadrons. The ships are berthed on the east and west coasts of the continental

United States. The third ship is a high-speed transport that supports the Marines

based on Okinawa.32

All thirty-six ships in the Maritime Prepositioning Fleet are operated by the Military

Sealift Command (MSC) and are manned by civilian contract mariners.

The second component of the Sea-Based Transport Fleet is the nineteen-ship surge

sealift fleet (SSF), which is optimized for the rapid transoceanic transport of joint

ground combat equipment from CONUS. These ships are operated by the MSC, which

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ninety-six hours or less). They are designed to load and transport mechanized an

mored combat units. Eight of the ships are former high-speed merchant ships bu

the early 1970s; although relatively old, they remain the world’s fastest oceangoin

cargo ships, with speeds in excess of thirty knots. Together, these eight fast sealift 

(FSSs) are capable of lifting nearly all the equipment associated with a legacy Arm

mechanized division.33

The remainder of the SSF consists of eleven LMSRs. These eleven ships—along w

eight sisters in the CPF and one in the MPF—are the largest, most capable milita

RO/RO ships in the world. They were built on the recommendation of the aforem

tioned Mobility Requirements Study. Each ship is capable of lifting over 390,000 

feet of vehicles and cargo at speeds of twenty-four or twenty-five knots. Their lar

pacity allows them to carry every vehicle in the joint force, as well as an armored 

talion task force that is approximately 75 percent the size of a new Army brigade

UA. It would require between thirty-eight and fifty-two C-17 transport sorties to 

a similar load.34

The ships assigned to the Prepositioning and Surge Sealift fleets all require a deep

port or anchorage to discharge their cargos. They are optimized for pierside unlo

using their roll-on/roll-off ramps; however, they all have cranes and can off-load 

cargos “in stream”—up to four miles from the shore—albeit at much slower rate

is possible pierside.35 The personnel associated with the equipment carried by the 

CPF, and Surge Sealift Fleet are flown to a nearby airfield to marry up with the eq

ment and prepare for combat in a procedure known as “reception, staging, onwa

movement, and integration” (RSOI). This process can take a week or longer. In o

words, the forces associated with these ships are not ready to fight when delivered 

distant theater. 36

The Sea-Based Transport Fleet’s final component, the vestigial remnants of the la

World War II Amphibious Landing Fleet, are designed to carry intact combat un

including their personnel, equipment, and cargo—and land them ashore in a rea

fight condition. The fleet consists of thirty-five active Navy amphibious ships. Th

ships were all developed during the Cold War and are capable of sustained speed

between twenty and twenty-two knots. They include:

• Twelve “big deck” amphibious assault ships. These ships are the largest (forty

thousand tons full-load displacement) and most capable amphibious warship

built. They have large well decks and expansive aviation facilities, and they can 

up to 1,700 Marines and a considerable amount of landing force equipment. F

the ships are aging Tarawa-class LHAs, commissioned between 1976 and 1980

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LHD will be commissioned in 2007 to replace the oldest of the LHAs, maintaining

the big-deck amphibious force—at least in the near term—at twelve ships. The

remaining LHAs are to be replaced by new big-deck “LHA replacements,” or LHARs.37

• Twelve relatively young dock landing ships, or LSDs. The first LSDs were developed

during World War II and were among the most innovative amphibious ships of that

war. They introduced the floodable well deck, from which a number of landing craft

can be preloaded, stored, transported, launched, and recovered. Today, the eight

ships of the LSD 41 class and the four ships of the LSD 49 class are the primary

carriers of the high-speed “landing craft air-cushion” (LCAC), which delivers heavy

Marine equipment from ship to shore. All twelve LSDs were commissioned after

1985. The ships were not then expected to be replaced until the late 2020s; however,

because they were not well maintained in the 1990s, they are in poor shape for their

age today and are increasingly expensive to operate.38

• Eleven aging Austin-class landing platform docks, or LPDs. The LPD is a further

development of the original LSD concept, in effect trading well-deck space for

improved helicopter support facilities. These eleven ships are the oldest in the

amphibious landing fleet, having been commissioned between 1965 and 1971. They

are to be replaced by the new San Antonio (LPD 17) class.39

During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy regularly deployed forces to maintain mobile “naval garrisons” along the periphery of Europe and Asia. Three-to-five-ship amphibious

ready groups (ARGs) routinely each carried a Marine Corps battalion landing team

(BLT) on a six-month patrol. Over time, the standard amphibious patrolling unit became a three-ship ARG consisting of one big-deck LHA or LHD, one LPD, and one

LSD. The ARGs carried a Marine expeditionary unit (special operations capable, or

MEU[SOC]), consisting of an infantry battalion, a composite air group with helicopters and later vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) jets, a logistics group, and

other attachments. During the Cold War, with no need to worry about a requirement

to seize forward access, supporting rotational patrols of ARG/MEU(SOC)s became the

most important task of the Amphibious Landing Fleet.

A major post–Cold War development was the partial integration of the amphibious

fleet into the strike fleet. So-called expeditionary strike groups (ESGs) combined a

three-ship amphibious ready group and its embarked MEU(SOC) with three missileequipped surface combatants, a nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN), and other

forces. The ESGs allowed the Navy to create a more dispersed naval global strike network and provide presence in areas where a carrier strike group (CSG) was either unavailable or inappropriate. Given their balanced strike and maneuver capabilities, the

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war on terrorism.40

For major power-projection operations, the ESGs would combine to form an am

ous task force. The total lift requirement for an amphibious task force is expresse

terms of five lift-related “fingerprints”: number of troops carried; vehicle storage 

expressed in thousands of square feet (“vehicle square”); cargo stowage area, exp

in thousands of cubic feet (“cargo cube”); number of aircraft parking and operat

spots, expressed in CH-46 helicopter parking spot equivalents (“deck spots”); an

number of LCACs carried.41 Today, the combined thirty-five-ship Amphibious La

Fleet can carry 3.0 Marine expeditionary brigade equivalents with respect to carg

cube, helicopter deck spots, and LCACs; 2.5 MEB equivalents in troops carried; b

only 1.9 MEB equivalents in vehicle square. As the force lift is limited by the smal

these five fingerprints, the Amphibious Landing Fleet can technically carry only 

MEB equivalents.42

The combined ninety-ship Sea-Based Transport Fleet (thirty-six prepositioning sh

nineteen surge sealift ships, and thirty-five amphibious ships) is backed up by a fift

eight-ship ready reserve fleet. The RRF, the modern version of the World War II flee

transoceanic cargo vessels, is maintained and operated by the MSC and optimized 

vide sustained logistical support for U.S. expeditionary operations. RRF ships are m

tained in a reduced operating status in American ports; they can be activated in fou

ten, or twenty days. The RRF includes government-owned tankers, auxiliary crane 

roll-on/roll-off ships, and heavy lift ships. Because of their configurations, these sh

especially suitable for transporting and off-loading bulky, oversized military equip

The RRF provides the essential sustained logistic support for all joint power-proj

operations. For example, between 1 January and 1 May 2003, in support of OIF, t

combined force—augmented by ships from the Prepositioning and Surge Sealift

fleets—delivered 25.9 million square feet of combat cargo, including nearly two h

dred thousand pallets of munitions and food, and 261 million gallons of fuel to U

forces in the Persian Gulf.44

A Question of Deployment and Employment

As is readily evident from the foregoing discussion, and consistent with the s

gic requirements of the Cold War, the contemporary Sea-Based Transport Fle

an “access-sensitive” force optimized for unimpeded and guarded access scenario

heavily dependent on the availability of deepwater ports and airfields in forward 

aters. This is a far cry from World War II, when the operational maneuver fleet w

signed primarily for conditions of contested or uncertain access.

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neuver fleet is best explained by envisioning expeditionary maneuver operations as involving three basic steps: the deployment of combat units, the employment of combat

units, and the sustainment of combat units.45 A force designed for uncertain access con

siders the first two steps—deployment and employment—as one seamless step, requiring that the units be transported and inserted in ready-to-fight condition. In other

words, the units must be capable of conducting long-range operational maneuver over and

from the sea—transitioning from deployment to direct combat operations with little pause

In contrast, a force designed primarily for assured access considers the deployment and em

ployment steps as separate and distinct. This allows units to be broken up and deployed as

separate packets of personnel, equipment, and supplies and then reassembled for employment in a forward theater. Only after the units are reassembled are they ready for combat.

With this in mind, compare the Sea-Based Operational Maneuver Fleet of World War

II with the contemporary Sea-Based Transport Fleet. By the end of World War II, the

Army had assembled sixty-seven infantry, sixteen armored, two cavalry, and five airborne divisions; the Marines had an additional six amphibious assault divisions.46 The

Sea-Based Operational Maneuver Fleet consisted of 2,547 amphibious landing ships of

all types. This was over three times the total number of surface combatants in the 1945

Navy and fully 38 percent of the entire battle force.47 This large fleet could transport

and support the attack from the sea of thirteen full combat divisions, or 14 percent of

the existing ninety-one nonairborne divisions.48 Viewed another way, nearly one-fifth

of the entire U.S. division-based ground force could be projected into a distant theater

without access to forward land bases (thirteen by sea, five by air).

In comparison, the basic ground unit of action today is the brigade. Assuming that the

ongoing modular Army reorganization results in forty-three active and thirty-four reserve brigade UAs—six of them airborne—and that the Marines can field a total of

eight active and three reserve regimental combat teams, the current Sea-Based Transport Fleet can lift just less than 2.0 intact brigade equivalents (personnel and equipment) in ready-to-fight condition out of a joint brigade-based ground force structure

of eighty-two nonairborne brigades.49 This represents only 2.4 percent of the entire

force. Moreover, there are only eight forcible-entry brigades (two by amphibious lift,

six by strategic or tactical airlift)—that is, 9 percent of the force. Assuming that a port

or protected anchorage and a nearby airfield are available, the force can quickly transport and deliver another fifteen or so complete brigade sets of equipment—an impressive 18 percent of joint ground-force equipment sets—to a distant theater. The

personnel assigned to the equipment would need to be transported via either strategic

or commercial airlift to the theater, where they would go through the RSOI process before they could be employed as combat units.

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projection under conditions of contested access, to one focused on the delivery o

troops and equipment under conditions of assured access is apparent. The quest

joint and DoN planners, then, is this: Is the current access-sensitive Sea-Based Tr

port Force—which was constructed primarily to aid the deployment, not the em

ment, of forces—an appropriate one for the Joint Expeditionary Era?

The Road to Sea Basing

As the conditions of the Joint Expeditionary Era became clearer, an ever-increasi

number of analysts and strategists concluded that the answer to the foregoing qu

was no. As a consequence, they believed that the DoN needed to reshape its sea-b

maneuver capabilities so as to provide the nation with much greater global freed

action. In essence, they argued that future sea-based maneuver forces must be be

able to exploit the sea as maneuver space; be more capable of creating joint acces

if confronted by a determined adversary; and be better able to support joint pow

projection operations without reliance on land bases.

These arguments struck a chord with Admiral Bill Owens, who as vice chairman of 

Joint Chiefs of Staff could direct the services to respond to them. Indeed, he went e

farther, directing the Joint Staff in 1994 to consider the development of “mobile of

bases” (MOBs). As envisioned, these large, modular, ocean megastructures would b

ployed to a joint operations area (JOA) to provide aviation, maintenance, supply

tics, and operational support for U.S. and allied forces. Some concepts envisioned

MOBs as large as a mile long and four hundred feet wide, enabling the takeoff an

landing of C-17 and C-130 transport aircraft and housing complete combat brig

The MOB concept was subject to intense scrutiny by both the Joint Staff and ind

throughout the mid-1990s, but due to technical uncertainties and high costs (up 

eight billion dollars) the MOB was ultimately scuttled.51 However, the mere fact t

the concept received such attention was evidence of the great changes in both the 

tegic environment and American strategic thinking. It is important to note, how

that the MOB was strongly influenced by Cold War thinking that separated the d

ment and employment steps. It envisioned transporting separate MOB modules,

stuffed with equipment, to a JOA and assembling them there into complete MOB

combat forces would then be flown to the base, where they would marry up with 

equipment and prepare for combat. In other words, the concept merely moved th

and airfield necessary for RSOI to sea, off an enemy’s coast.

As the Joint Staff pondered the MOB, Marine planners concluded they should co

trate less on the rapid reinforcement of forward garrisons and allies and more on

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into a rapidly developing fight. The initial Marine thinking was reflected in Operationa

Maneuver from the Sea (OMFTS) and Ship-to-Objective Maneuver (STOM), published

in 1996 and 1997, respectively.52 These two publications offered “new” concepts built

explicitly on launching intact combat units directly from ships at sea toward objectives

ashore and on creating joint force access. Importantly, both concepts explicitly rejected

the idea of conducting amphibious assaults directly across defended beaches, embracing instead the model espoused and practiced by the Army during the World War II

Southwest Pacific campaign—that is, to land where the enemy wasn’t and then to expand access for follow-on operations from there.53

Soon after the publishing of these concepts, the 1997 National Defense Panel (NDP)

wrote about the increasing threats to land bases:

Even if we retain the necessary bases and port infrastructure to support forward deployed forces, they

will be vulnerable to strike that could reduce or neutralize their utility. Precision strikes, weapons of

mass destruction, and cruise and ballistic missiles all represent threats to our forward presence, partic

ularly at stand off ranges. So, too, do they threaten access to strategic geographic areas [of importance

to the United States].54

The NDP’s key point was that the U.S. dominant lead in guided-weapons technology

would undoubtedly diminish over time, making all future American power-projection

operations more difficult and costly. However, naval advocates found the opportunity

to emphasize the vulnerabilities of land bases too tempting to pass up; they began to

assert that “for the most part, sea basing will likely prove more . . . operationally useful

in the emerging strategic environment than land bases.”55

Accordingly, just as the NDP published its final report in December 1997, the Marines

followed up both OMFTS and STOM with Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF) 2010

and Beyond.

56 The leases on the three MPF squadrons were scheduled to expire starting

in 2009. The Marines—fully aware of the NDP’s deliberations—were anxious to make

the follow-on MPF squadrons less dependent on deepwater ports and airfields. One

way to do this would be for MPF units to conduct the RSOI process onboard ships

while they made their way to a JOA, thereby combining the deployment/employment

phases. This thinking, known as “at-sea arrival and assembly” of MPF forces, was

spurred, no doubt, by plans to use MPF squadrons in support of amphibious landings

during Operation DESERT STORM.

57 However, it was also in line with both the NDP’s

work and the Marines’ broader thinking on improving their ability to conduct operational maneuver from the sea.

However, the MPF 2010 and Beyond concept was much more expansive than just

“RSOI at sea.” Once the forces were ashore, the MPF ships would logistically support

them directly from sea, obviating the need to create vulnerable “iron mountains” of

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equipment and supplies. Finally, once the mission was complete they would serv

offshore base to reconstitute and prepare forces for follow-on operations. In othe

words, MPF 2010 and Beyond aimed for a combination of the deployment, empl

ment, and sustainment that had previously been possible only through the Amph

ous Landing Fleet. Additionally, in contrast to the larger, monolithic MOB, MPF 

and Beyond described a more flexible, distributed approach to sea basing.58

Importantly, the Marines viewed this new MPF capability as additive to the existi

Amphibious Landing Fleet, which would retain the mission of supporting joint for

entry operations. It would allow the “assault follow-on echelon” to transition mo

quickly from deployment to employment, thereby rapidly reinforcing the assault 

lon deployed from amphibious assault ships, and then support both logistically u

the follow-on joint force was established ashore.59 However, because the capabilit

outlined in the publication MPF 2010 and Beyond were portrayed as additive cap

ties by Marine planners, the Navy, concerned about their potential costs, stonewa

the concept. Six months after being delivered for review, it remained buried in th

Navy’s staffing process.

Even as Marine recommendations for improved sea-based maneuver capabilities 

guished in the Navy Staff, the Army was making another push for new sea-based 

tional maneuver capabilities. Through the 1990s, Army thinkers engaged in a bro

experimental and conceptual development process referred to as the “Army after 

project.60 The essential purpose of the project was to develop new ways of thinkin

about projecting ready-to-fight Army combat units over long ranges, a concept k

as “operational maneuver from strategic distances.”61

The Army after Next project explored both the air and sea-based technological re

ments needed to support operational maneuver from strategic distances. Also, w

new air maneuver transports that could land small, mobile combat units were co

ered valuable assets, Army planners were cognizant of the lessons of World War I

when many Army units—like Marine units—had been carried to the fight as inta

combat units aboard amphibious ships. It is not surprising, then, that Army plan

conceived of a new type, the Shallow-Draft High-Speed Ship, or SDHSS, as a key

means to enable operational maneuver from strategic distances:

Of all air and sea, current and future, lift capabilities, shallow-draft high-speed ships (SDHSS)

cause of their speed, throughput capability, and capacity—most significantly impacted force c

Air deployment remains the only way to rapidly establish the initial crisis-response presence o

peditionary forces and a division equivalent of ground forces needed to preclude enemy forces

success. But after a few days, SDHSS had a distinct advantage. It was the only strategic platform 

could deliver troops and equipment together in sufficient size to bring immediate combat power to 

While in transit, commanders could conduct en route planning and receive intelligence updates.

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ever there was at least a ten-foot draft and an acceptable beach gradient or discharge site. Troops drove

the future combat system (FCS) from the ship ready to fight onward to the tactical assembly area.

62

In addition to the large transoceanic SDHSS, Army after Next planners also espoused

the virtues of smaller, high-speed, intratheater-range Theater Support Vessels (TSVs).

Like the SDHSSs, the TSVs were envisioned as able to discharge their cargos through

austere ports or possibly even over beaches, providing enormous flexibility in deploying and employing intact combat units.63

Needless to say, the Army’s (re)embrace of sea-based maneuver nettled some Marines,

who saw that province as theirs alone. However, by championing the idea of the

SDHSS and TSVs, the Army provided indirect support to the Marines’ own calls for

improved sea-based maneuver capabilities.

Reinforcing Fires

The general concept of improving joint sea-based maneuver capabilities was further re

inforced by follow-on studies as well as growing operational experiences. First, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a Pentagon-sponsored think tank, conducted a

cost-effectiveness evaluation of the MOB and other potential operational alternatives.

In 2001, IDA concluded that a MOB would be less cost-effective than a distributed sea

base made up of a combination of nuclear-powered carriers and high-speed cargo

ships. While the MPF was not specifically included as a part of this mix, it benefited

from the explicit endorsement of a distributed, sea-based “system of systems” comprising a heterogeneous mix of platforms.64

Soon thereafter, DoD plans for offensive operations in distant, landlocked Afghanistan

were complicated by the fact that the United States did not have immediate and ready

access to nearby Central Asian bases. Although substantial access to land bases was

subsequently negotiated, sea-based forces provided critical early access and support

during ENDURING FREEDOM.

65 The nuclear-powered aircraft carriers USS Enterprise

and Carl Vinson supported tactical aviation strikes from the Arabian Sea.66 Moreover,

the first conventional ground combat formation projected into Afghanistan was a Marine unit that originated from Task Force 58—a sea base hastily assembled off the coast

of Pakistan.67 Then, in early 2003, Turkey refused to allow the U.S. 4th Infantry Division use of Turkish territory to launch attacks into Iraq, denying the United States a

northern axis of attack. It appears unlikely in retrospect that a 4th Division attack from

the north would have materially affected the outcome of OIF and the subsequent occu

pation, but the Turkish refusal did complicate U.S. war planning.68

Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM helped underscore the three

basic strategic realities of the Joint Expeditionary Era. First, the United States would

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projection operations would normally require the projection of joint forces over 

transoceanic distances. Third, the United States would have to work harder to ge

political and operational access to bases in distant theaters. One implication of th

three strategic realities was that the joint force needed to increase its number of a

insensitive forces and to retain a forcible-entry capability in order to be able to cr

access if necessary.

Some might object, pointing out that despite such setbacks as Turkey’s refusal to 

entry to the 4th Division, the United States has been consistently able to negotiat

land-based access during the Joint Expeditionary Era. In this view, political acces

always been an issue.69 The negotiation process for political access now appears to 

more difficult and time consuming than the relatively speedy process associated 

the Cold War;70 nonetheless, neither the process nor the lack of land-based access 

ever threatened the outcome of any American expeditionary operation.

Unquestionably, however, political and operational uncertainty over the early ava

ity of bases was on the minds of the members of the Defense Science Board (DSB

Force on Sea Basing. This task force, assembled at the request of the Undersecret

Defense for Acquisition, delivered its final report in August 2003. In this report, t

DSB worried that both political and operational access would be more difficult t

in the future:

Scenarios of future war rest on having intermediate staging in or near the theater of operations to 

port troops, logistics, and combat fire support. Recent events in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq h

derlined, however, that availability of these bases, more often than not, is uncertain due to politic

factors that delay, limit, or prevent their use. Moreover, modern weaponry, such as precision cru

ballistic missiles which will become widely available in the future, threaten to make fixed bases vu

ble to attack. The assumption of readily available, secure land bases is now open to serious quest

The DSB concluded that a bedrock requirement for future joint forces would be 

pability to create operational access, especially in contested theaters. They therefo

cused on how “sea bases,” functioning as mobile theater intermediate staging bas

would facilitate joint forcible-entry operations. In this regard, DSB members were 

aware of the operational limitations of the Sea-Based Transport Fleet, and clearly 

enced by new concepts such as OMFTS, STOM, MPF 2010 and Beyond, and the 

after Next. In their final report, the DSB wrote that “today’s amphibious operatio

cus on assaults over the shore and into seaports, to establish footholds ashore perm

the buildup of sufficient combat power to conduct operations against inland obj

tives.” In contrast, “operations from a future sea base focus on direct assault of in

objectives (with no operational pause) followed by moves to capture seaports or s

shore lodgments for heavier follow-on forces.”72

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To make this concept a reality, the DSB argued, future sea-based maneuver forces would

need to be prepared and able to contend with the “vulnerability gap” associated with

any power-projection operation in a contested theater (see figure 1). The DSB developed a notional “expeditionary operations profile,” in which initial landing forces are

placed into battle quickly to limit or shorten the conflict and to “capture and render

useful in-theater seaports and airports of debarkation” for the introduction of followon forces. The delay between the introduction of initial landing forces and follow-on

forces, during which the initial-entry force suffers losses, creates the vulnerability gap.7

Although a number of factors influence the magnitude and duration of the postulated

vulnerability gap, one way to reduce it would be to limit the losses incurred during the

initial insertion operations by the landing force. The DSB assumed that over time, “assaults over the shore” (e.g., surface maneuver over the shore with amphibious landing

craft) would be increasingly at risk due to the threat of mines and precision-guided

weapons fire. Moving a landing force through the shallows and across an easily targeted beach would simply be too casualty intensive. Moreover, task force members

judged that future enemy A2/AD defenses would push naval forces much farther offshore, perhaps a hundred miles to seaward—much too far for a practical surface assault.

Accordingly, the DSB concluded, the initial insertion of forces would be conducted, first

and foremost, by the vertical maneuver from the sea base.74 Its approach emphasized

“light, rapidly deployable, maneuver forces” that were inserted into a theater by air and

supported by remote guided weapon fires.75

The Vulnerability Gap in Sea-based Operations

Source: DBS Task Force on Seabasing

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amphibious force, embarked in ships or craft with the primary purpose of introdu

landing force ashore to accomplish the assigned mission.”76 The DSB’s conflation 

amphibious operations with surface-borne assaults, as well as its implicit assump

that aerial maneuvers would be inherently less risky than surface assaults in the f

is a clear indication of its bias toward air landing and air assault operations. The 

never made clear, for example, how an enemy A2/AD network strong enough to 

naval force a hundred miles to seaward or to smother a surface littoral penetratio

point with precision fire would be incapable of detecting large-scale aerial maneu

or shifting its fires to suspected helicopter landing zones. In any event, its new,

“transformational” conception of “sea basing” was nothing more than a new exp

sion of the idea of “vertical envelopment,” a concept pioneered by the Marine Co

over fifty years ago.

In the early years of the Cold War, Marine planners were well aware that their su

assault forces could not rapidly cross a beach and immediately transition to high

tempo maneuver toward inland objectives. Faced with the prospect of nuclear at

against forces stacked up on a defended beach, amphibious planners looked to th

copter to create the conditions for the rapid movement of surface forces deep inl

with little pause at the beach. The initial concept was that air-landed assault forc

would envelop from the rear the enemy forces defending the beaches, landing so c

that they could not employ atomic weapons. Once the enemy forces were destroy

heavy surface assault forces could traverse rapidly through an uncontested littora

etration point and disperse inland before being targeted with nuclear strikes.77 Th

the very same thought expressed by the DSB, except that its members substituted 

fended seaport for a defended beach. As they said, the goal of aerial forcible-entr

erations was “to support the early stages of combat and to provide sustainment u

with the seizure of ports, heavier forces [could] arrive.”78

The DSB’s emphasis on sea-based aerial maneuver and support did not stop with 

assault phase. The need to provide logistics support to deep-landed aerial assault 

was also central to the DSB’s thinking. Task force members concluded that “sea-b

sustainment” of the initial landing force, primarily by aerial resupply, would give 

sea-based force the staying power to persist until heavier forces arrived.79

If the DSB’s vision was an update of an old concept, its ultimate expression was b

taking in scope. It was based on the assumption that there would be no land-base

termediate staging bases (ISBs) within two thousand miles of a joint operations 

Due to likely anti-access threats inside the JOA, they also believed, the sea base h

be able to support operational aerial maneuver from the sea from ranges beyond 

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The sea base also had to be continuously resupplied with all cargo and supplies necessary to sustain deep, air-landed forces and to be able to transfer these supplies to forces

ashore. Moreover, it had to be able to do all of this in sea state 4.80 Upon hearing these

ambitious requirements, one British brigadier remarked dryly, “Now that would be rea

sea control.”81

The DSB judged the future sea-basing “system of systems” to be “well beyond” current

Navy and Marine Corps operational capabilities. It therefore recommended the formation of a Joint Sea Basing Office to oversee a coordinated, spiral development effort

based on the realistic testing of the technologies and concepts needed to make sea basing work. To guide this testing, the DSB identified twelve key issues that required atten

tion before the vision could be realized—sea basing’s “Dirty Dozen.” Of these twelve

issues, DSB members believed three required capabilities stood out: new ships designed

as part of a sea base system of systems; a sea-based heavy-lift aircraft capable of lifting

more than twenty tons over theaterwide ranges; and an ability to handle and to transfe

between ships heavy equipment and twenty-thousand-pound twenty-foot-equivalentunit (TEU) containers in sea state 4.82

The DSB considered its vision, grand in scope as it was, achievable only after a decade

or two of experimentation and technological development. Its members believed that a

sea base with the desired characteristics could not be constructed until after 2020.83

The Need for Speed

The DSB’s recommendation for an extended experimental period to develop further

maneuver sea-base technologies and concepts of operations was derailed, in large part

by a DoD emphasis on improved strategic reaction times. In 2002, the Joint Staff began

a planning effort called “Operational Availability 2003.” OA 2003 resulted when the

Secretary of Defense challenged the metrics used by joint war planners for achieving

rapid victory in two nearly simultaneous major combat operations (MCOs). OA 2003

reexamined the planning metrics for near-simultaneous MCOs in the Middle East and

the Northeast Asian theaters in light of new mobility improvements and a dominating

American lead in guided weapons. This review occurred in late 2002 and early 2003, af

ter Operation ENDURING FREEDOM but before IRAQI FREEDOM.

84

One of the original planning metrics developed in the early Joint Expeditionary Era for

two near-simultaneous MCOs was a necessary forty-five-day delay between the first and

the second. This delay was caused primarily by the need to “swing” sealift forces from on

theater to another in order to shift ground maneuver forces, equipment, and supplies. OA

2003 suggested that the transition-time assumption could be reduced from forty-five to

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first Gulf War—particularly the construction of the new LMSRs—as well as the im

proved aerial throughput provided by the new C-17 transport aircraft.

OA 2003 also reevaluated how quickly a major theater war might be won. Startin

the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 and thereafter throughout the 1990s, joint m

tary planners had increasingly emphasized the importance of rapidly applying ov

whelming force against any potential adversary and achieving a quick victory. Joi

forcible-entry operations would become just the first step of a set of “immediate

tinuous, and overwhelming” operations designed to achieve decisive battlefield r

They would be part of a series of actions designed to seize the initiative early in a 

paign so that an enemy would never be able to consolidate his military gains.

Staff action officers concluded that U.S. joint forces should strive to “seize the initi

within ten days and to achieve all “swift defeat objectives” within thirty. This think

was based on professional judgment and “gut feel,” backed up by decade-old analy

war plans against potential opponents in Southwest Asia, the western Pacific, and N

east Asia. In any event, the Secretary of Defense subsequently endorsed this thinkin

approving and inserting into Defense Planning Guidance what is now known as th

30-30” metric. The metric, described as a “stretch goal” by senior Office of the Secr

of Defense (OSD) officials, required that future U.S. forces be able to seize the initi

in any potential MCO within ten days, swiftly defeat a first enemy in thirty days, an

repeat the process on a second enemy in a different theater thirty days after that.85

The 10-30-30 metric represented the culmination of the force sizing and plannin

struct first adopted by the Bottom Up Review in 1993. This new goal was adopte

the most cursory of analyses and accepted without debate. Apparently, no one on 

Joint Chiefs of Staff or in OSD questioned the wisdom of a planning metric that

counted on the United States always winning short, thirty-day wars, or two wars 

ninety days. In any event, the 10-30-30 metric was to have a major influence on t

rection of joint sea basing plans.

The Fox in the Henhouse

By January 2004 the concept of sea basing was becoming more widely accepted

within OSD, the Joint Staff, and the DoN. As discussed above, the concept was

shaped and focused by two key goals: to provide joint forces with increasing ope

tional independence from foreign bases, and to generate higher strategic and ope

tional speeds.86 Plans were to stand up the Joint Sea Basing Office recommended 

DSB.87 However, these plans were soon modified, with fateful consequences.

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Council (JROC) decided to forgo the establishment of the Joint Project Office and to

instead pursue sea basing within the new Joint Capabilities and Integration and Development System (JCIDS). In the arcane jargon associated with the new process, the first

step was to develop a “joint integrating concept,” or JIC. The JIC, in turn, would guide

a follow-on “capabilities-based assessment” (CBA). In the event, no doubt guided by

the 10-30-30 metric, now institutionalized in Defense Planning Guidance, the JROC

decided that the focus of the JIC should be to “seize the initiative phase of a major

combat operation around the 2015–2025 timeframe” and that the Navy should be the

lead service for the effort.88

The impact of these two JROC decisions was profound. First, by focusing on a nearterm operational goal (i.e., being able to seize the initiative within ten days of a major

combat operation, as soon as 2015), the JROC diverted the sea-basing effort from the

long-term experimental and technological focus recommended by the DSB. By so doing, the JROC consigned that effort to a search for quick material solutions rather than

a more measured and broader examination of how to exploit more fully the world’s

oceans as a vast joint base. Second, by assigning the JIC to the Navy, the JROC converted the JCIDS process into nothing more than the joint validation of DoN plans to

recapitalize key components of its Sea-Based Transport Fleet.

Predictably, then, the subsequent Sea Basing JIC plowed little new ground. It simply in

tegrated some concept work conducted by the U.S. Joint Forces Command with two

updated DoN concepts published under the title Enhanced Networked Seabasing and

Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future).

89 As a result, the definition of sea basing outlined in the JIC was nothing more than a restatement of concepts outlined in MPF

2010 and Beyond: “Sea basing is the rapid deployment, assembly, command, projection

reconstitution, and reemployment of joint combat power from the sea, while providing

continuous support, sustainment, and force protection to select expeditionary joint

forces without reliance on land bases within the [joint operational area].”90

Not that it would have mattered. By making the Navy the lead service on the JIC, the

JROC had guaranteed that the sea-basing effort would become more and more DoNcentric and less and less joint-centric, as was concisely captured by a remarkably candid statement made by a retired Marine officer before a large audience in 2003: “It has

unfortunately—in my opinion—become vogue to talk about the Seabase in Joint

terms. Seabase is not a Joint requirement. Seabase is a Joint force enabler, and there is a

critical difference. Seabasing is a [naval] core competency and we need to keep it one.”9

An increased emphasis on strategic speed, the shortened timeline and narrow focus of

the sea-basing JIC, and the failure of the JROC to establish a Joint Planning Office

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tions of uncertain access and the need to improve joint sea-based maneuver option

come down to this: a single-minded DoN pursuit for an ability to conduct a brigad

sized forcible entry in approximately ten days.

All Ahead, Flank—Pursuing the MPF(F) Solution

Given the joint “top cover” necessary for the development of any new major 

capability, DoN planners began to look for appropriate material solutions for 

new sea base. In this regard, the only plausible way to reach the timelines call

by the 10-30-30 metric was to build a forcible-entry capability into the MPF 

The Navy already had a demonstrated ability to assemble and employ an amp

ous task force using a combination of forward-deployed and CONUS-based a

phibious landing ships in just less than thirty days. However, cutting the employ

timeline by two-thirds using amphibious landing ships was not practical. The

simply was no way to load and sail the bulk of the amphibious fleet (which w

cated in the United States) and assemble the force over transoceanic distance

much less than four weeks.

In contrast, with three MPF squadrons anchored in the Mediterranean, Diego Ga

and Guam, at least one squadron could steam to any point in Europe, Africa, or S

west, Central, Southeast, or Northeast Asia within ten to fourteen days, allowing 

DoN to get close to the ten-day arrival and employment benchmark called for by 

30-30.92 Therefore, despite the Marines’ initial hesitation about using MPF ships 

substitute for amphibious ships in forcible-entry operations and earlier Navy mi

ings about the high potential costs of advanced MPF ships, DoN planners began 

fashion a new Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future), known as the MPF(F), th

could conduct rapid “sea based” forcible-entry operations.93

Any DoN hesitation and misgivings about using the MPF(F) in forcible entry we

swept aside as the promise of total independence from land bases left naval office

pecially Marines, positively giddy. Two Marine officers wrote, “Even when secure p

and airfields are available . . . Sea Basing [will be] the preferred means of engagem

Indeed, General Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps, thought that f

sea bases would allow the Marines to launch a 2020 OIF without using Kuwait as a 

ing base.95 Because of its operational independence from land bases, one admiral m

that the sea base would present an “infinite number of problems for the enemy.”96

Without question, being able to respond quickly was the key DoN motivation be

support for the new MPF(F) concept. Admiral Clark, during his terms as CNO, s

that the key to the future was “to [size] the force for speed of response”;97 further

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[with] much more lethality and much more agility.”98 General Hagee agreed: “When

you are able to respond that fast, it is going to change the calculus of the battlefield. . . .

You might be able to get there so quickly that you may not need large follow-on forces.”99

The rare shared Navy and Marine enthusiasm for the sea-basing concept caused a rapid

thaw in the normally glacial interservice planning process, and the MPF(F) concept be

gan to move forward quickly within the DoN. An analysis of alternatives for the future

MPF force completed by the Center for Naval Analyses outlined several options for the

way ahead. These options ranged from a replacement in kind of current MPF ships

with LMSRs to an eight-ship squadron with ships capable of supporting a MEB, all of

its thirty Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs), and all of its rotary-wing and LCAC requirements. Inevitably, DoN planners—especially Marines—opted for the widest array of

capabilities possible, firm in their conviction that requirements, not budget, should

drive the development cycle.100

By the summer of 2004, however, it was becoming clear that the sheer enthusiasm for

the program, coupled with the DoN proclivity to seek ever more capable (and expensive) ships, was threatening to break the DoN’s entire shipbuilding budget. Total operating costs for squadron options, including full tactical aviation support capabilities

(i.e., JSF runways), were estimated at $28 billion, clearly far more than the expected

budgets could support. Estimated costs for individual ships rose to between two and

four billion dollars apiece.101 As General Hagee wryly noted, “You design the perfect

ship, then all of a sudden you get sticker shock as to what the ship could cost.”102 The

sea-basing dream was becoming a programmer’s nightmare; the DoN needed a

“wakeup call.”103

That call came in July 2004, when twenty-five top DoN officials met to try to reduce

the ever-expanding capabilities of MPF(F) squadrons and ships. The participants

agreed, among other things, to remove JSF runways from the squadron; remove the

ability of MPF(F) ships to arm or disarm helicopters; limit the ships’ ability to withstand damage by building them to enhanced commercial rather than combatant standards; and lower the sea state in which the ships could externally load and unload

cargo from sea state 4 to 3.104

Despite these moves, projected costs for the new MPF(F) squadrons remained high.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that DoN plans for its future Expeditionary

Maneuver Fleet would cost more than twice as much per year, on average, than the

DoN had spent on the Sea-Based Transport Fleet between 1980 and 2003.105 While the

MPF(F) vision was perhaps perfectly defensible given emerging strategic conditions, it

was not welcome given likely yearly shipbuilding budgets. It became increasingly

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within the overall naval platform architecture.

Understandably, Navy officers argued these trade-offs should be reflected in the A

phibious Landing Fleet.106 Even before the July 2004 meeting, Navy officials starte

float the idea that the number of ESGs needed to be reduced in order to fund the

MPF(F). These reductions were defended by explaining that the smaller amphibi

fleet would see no decrease in forward presence; “sea swaps” of entire ESGs—to i

their embarked Marine expeditionary units—would allow the smaller force to m

tain the same number of ships routinely deployed.107

Marine leaders apparently never anticipated that the MPF(F) program would com

with amphibious ships for scarce DoN budget dollars or might result in a 33–50 

cent reduction in the number of purpose-built amphibious ships.108 While Navy 

cials justified the cuts in order to “transform [the Marine Corps] to the next leve

speed”—a direct reflection of the importance the Navy placed on achieving the 1

30 goal—these reductions caused serious unrest among senior Marine officers an

creased tension between the Navy and Marine Corps.109

The sea-basing concept also caused some confusion and unease among the other 

vices and departments. Although touted as a transformational joint capability, the 

transformation plans appeared to primarily support the Marines. For this reason

and Marine officials found it initially difficult to sell the merits of sea basing in t

joint arena. Rather than changing their plans, however, they simply tried to do a 

job of explaining sea basing to the other services. Key to their approach was a ren

emphasis on the joint “enabling” function of the concept: “Putting a [Marine exp

tionary brigade] ashore is extremely important to our nation, but Marines and the 

don’t win wars. Armies and air forces with their eventual mass—and effects, incr

ingly in the future—really need to be brought forward, if they’re not already ther

Despite their new “sales approach” and the addition of a logistics support capa

for a single Army combat unit, the current DoN sea-basing vision remains very 

cused on “closing” a single Marine JFEO brigade within ten to fourteen days; c

ducting at-sea RSOI and mission preparation in two to three days; conducting 

entry operations under the cover of darkness; and sustaining two brigades (eith

Army or Marine) ashore.111

To accomplish these tasks, the DoN now plans on a single MPF(F) squadron consi

of fourteen ships: two LHARs with Marine expeditionary brigade command-and-c

(C2) suites, one LHD with a MEB air combat element C2 suite, three LMSR varia

three T-AKE cargo ship variants, three new “mobile landing platforms” (MLPs), 

two “dense packed” legacy MPF ships. The total cost for the squadron is estimate

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times referred to as the Rapid Strategic Lift Ship (RSLS), which would deliver nondeployable helicopters to the squadron’s three big-deck amphibious ships. At an estimated

cost of $1.3 billion, this would result in a total squadron cost of $15.8 billion, not

counting the equipment stored inside the ships.113 Presumably, this new sea-basing

squadron would be augmented by an additional, “legacy” MPF squadron.

To help pay for this new sea-basing squadron, the current thirty-five-ship amphibious

force will fall to thirty-one ships, with a combined lift capability of no more than 1.9

MEBs. Under the best of circumstances, then, it appears that the total number of Marine expeditionary brigade equivalents that the Navy will be able to lift in the future

will be less than it can today: the current Sea-Based Transport Force can lift 4.9 MEBs

(1.9 brigades on amphibious ships plus three brigades on MPF ships), whereas the

planned future force will lift no more than 3.9 MEBs (1.9 brigades on amphibious

ships, 1.0 on MPF[F] ships, and 1.0 on legacy MPF ships). Moreover, it is important to

note that today’s force lifts less than the long-stated requirement of six brigade equivalents (3.0 brigades on amphibious ships and 3.0 brigades on MPF ships), or even the

“fiscally constrained” lift goal of 5.5 MEBs. In other words, the total amount of fleet

maneuver lift will be reduced by between 20 and 33 percent, depending on the perspec

tive—and this in an era where sea-based maneuver capabilities seem certain to be more

important than at any other time in nearly five decades.

What does the fleet get in exchange for its substantial reduction in sea-based maneuver lift?

Not much. With the exception of being able to claim faster closure times and an expanded

selective cargo discharge capability, a new MPF(F) squadron offers no great improvement

over the capabilities of the current Amphibious Landing Fleet in forcible-entry operations

It will have the same aviation support ships and aerial maneuver platforms, which will

operate at the same distances offshore and have the same throughput. It will be able to

insert one battalion by air and one battalion by surface means in one eight-to-ten-hour

period of darkness—operational capabilities well within that of the current Amphibious Landing Fleet. Additionally, because there is only one well deck in the entire squad

ron, surface assaults by MPF(F) ships will be far less efficient. The current squadron

concept of operations requires that heavy equipment be removed from the LMSRs and

transferred—in up to sea state 3—to the Mobile Logistics Platforms, which would in

turn transfer the equipment to landing craft, which would in turn deliver the equipment to the beach.114 Given the squadron’s $15.8 billion price tag, one has to wonder if

the opportunity costs for these “transformational” capabilities are worth it.

Similarly, what does this “transformational” sea-basing plan give to the joint force?

Again, not much. It will give joint commanders an option to assemble a single JFEO

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an improved ability to resupply joint ground forces ashore. However, a single briga

be too large for most irregular-warfare tasks and too small for most power-projecti

operations, especially those in defended-access scenarios. Also, the improved ti

lines are mostly irrelevant. They are still too slow for the most immediate irreg

warfare tasks, such as prompt strikes against fleeting terrorist targets or promp

counter-proliferation raids to nab weapons of mass destruction. Conversely they 

too fast for any stressing forcible-entry scenario, which is unlikely to see the inse

of a single brigade deep into enemy territory before a powerful, joint follow-on f

assembled and the enemy’s A2/AD defenses thoroughly suppressed. Finally, the c

pressed timeline makes no difference at all in irregular counter-sanctuary or stab

operations, which are most often elective undertakings.

Pentomic Redux

Upon reflection, the evolution of the thinking about sea basing is not unlike the wish

thinking that led to the Army’s “Pentomic Division” in the 1950s. Immediately after W

War II, Army war planners, responding to the development of nuclear weapons and 

to preserve their shrinking budget share, developed a conceptual framework that just

wide-ranging, forcewide Army “transformation.” They envisioned a world in which t

nuclear warfare was not only a possibility but a certainty;115 at one point Army plann

forecast that future Army corps would employ over four hundred nuclear weapons p

day.

116 Naturally, battalion commanders (in the grade of lieutenant colonel) would ne

clear release authority and small nuclear-tipped rockets with which to exercise it.117

For this world the proven Army division was deemed too slow and too pondero

It needed to become more nimble, with larger numbers of “self-contained” and 

sustaining” organic units. Therefore, the division’s three regiments would be brok

up; in their place would be five smaller groups that would be like “amorphous bi

cal cells” whose loss would not impair the ability of the rest of the division to figh

on.119 Of course, to be operationally effective the new division organization woul

pend on dramatic future improvements in tactical air and ground mobility and m

more responsive logistics. But why wait? Change the organization, and the techn

would surely follow.

Of course, the enthusiastic pursuit of the new division proved to be premature. T

world envisioned by Army leaders did not come about; the assumptions upon wh

they based their transformation plans were utterly wrong. Even so, many of the d

goals for the Pentomic Division were sound. Indeed, after comparing the propos

ganization and structure of the Pentomic Division with the modern Army’s plan

“modular division,” one might conclude that the Pentomic designers had the stru

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tervening period, however, improvements to equipment, training, and tactics showed

that the older triangular division had a lot of life left in it after all.

So, perhaps there is a future in which the capability to seize the strategic initiative

within ten to fourteen days will be decisive. In this future, ability to project rapidly a

single combat brigade deep into enemy territory, with little preparation of the battle

space, will be a valid goal—and the MPF force will provide the logical means to achieve

it. In this surprising future, any land base within two thousand miles of the JOA will be

more vulnerable than large commercial ships steaming a hundred miles off a hostile

coast, and enemies with maritime anti-access capabilities formidable enough to push

the joint sea base a hundred miles seaward will be incapable of sensing, much less stop

ping, long-range aerial insertions of ground forces deep into their own territory.

In this world the legacy Amphibious Landing Fleet will be far too slow and ponderous.

The operational requirements of being able to lift 2.5 to 3.0 MEBs on amphibious

landing ships and the equipment of an additional 3.0 MEBs on MPF ships will be replaced by the requirement for speed and an ability to sea-base approximately three brigades. Of course, the sea base will require transportation and logistics capabilities well

beyond those of the current force—such as transferring twenty-thousand-pound TEUs

from ship to ship in sea state 3; “skin to skin” transfer of heavy equipment; and stabilized, motion-compensating cargo cranes—which are “at least ten years away from system development.”120 But why wait for technology to catch up? Change the organization

and the technology will surely follow the concept.

Of course, this line of thinking is likely to be as faulty as it was five decades ago. It is

therefore far past time for OSD, the Joint Staff, and the DoN to stop and reconsider the

current trajectory of sea basing. A good starting point would be a vigorous institutional debate over an important conceptual question: Should the intent of the DoN’s

transformation efforts be to construct bases at sea or to exploit the sea as a joint base?

The distinction, while subtle, has important implications for naval force design.

Sea Base or Sea as Base?

Those who think the goal of the effort should be to construct land bases at sea appear

to be animated by a thought first articulated by Samuel P. Huntington in 1954. In a

Proceedings article in which he pondered the implications of unchallenged command

of the high seas by the United States, Huntington wrote:

With its command of the sea it is now possible for the United States Navy to develop the basecharacteristics of the world’s oceans to a much greater degree than it has in the past, and to extend

significantly the “floating base” which it originated in World War II. The objective should be to perform

as far as practical the functions now performed on land at sea bases closer to the scene of operations.

121

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As one Marine officer put it in 1971,

The time is upon us, when we . . . can cut the umbilical cord of shore based facilities, including

beaches, beach exits, gradients, airfields, ports, etc., and operate entirely from bases afloat. Sea

the coming era of the amphibious force. . . . It is a way of providing an appropriate sized landi

anywhere in the world. The requirement for “stepping stones” or land bases on foreign soil is 

cally reduced or in some cases eliminated.122

As has been discussed, however, sea basing was an idea for which the time had no

come in 1971, much less 1954. The strategic conditions of the Cold War argued a

the expenditure of national resources to re-create land bases at sea. With the tran

to the Joint Expeditionary Era, however, strategic conditions have changed dram

cally, and many of Huntington’s powerful thoughts have gained currency—as ind

in part by the thinking of the Defense Science Board and the current trajectory o

sea-basing plans.

However, a careful reading of Huntington reveals a much more balanced and nua

view of the powerful advantages that the United States enjoys when it can claim u

challenged command of the seas:

It is also possible to argue . . . in a very real sense the sea is now the base from which the Navy o

in carrying out its offensive activities against the land. . . . The base of the United States Navy sh

conceived of as including all those land areas under our control and the seas of the world right up t

a few miles of the enemy’s shores. This gives American power a flexibility and a breadth impossi

achievement by land-locked powers.123

Within this more powerful context, Huntington understood that there were man

ferent base characteristics the DoN might exploit, and he implied that some, how

conceptually attractive they might be, would be impractical to implement. Indee

Huntington would likely argue that any meaningful debate about sea basing wou

need to focus first on a fuller discussion of the great strategic, operational, and ta

advantages enjoyed by any great power that claims the sea as base, rather than th

suit of any particular sea-basing capability.

For example, as described below, there are at least eight different “base character

of the world’s oceans:

• Claiming the sea as a base provides future joint forces with rapid, unobstructe

global freedom of movement. As a consequence, the U.S. military can rapidly

reposition and resupply forward expeditionary forces largely without threat.

Importantly, transports, mobile logistics ships, and combat logistics ships can

most circumstances, move freely, without escort, which means the future Nav

be smaller than it might otherwise be.

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world’s oceans as a vast, secure operating sanctuary. It allows for the establishment

of global listening posts, facilitates global scouting and patrolling, and provides

advanced staging bases for tactical-aviation, strike, special-operations, and rapidreaction forces. This improves America’s global intelligence, surveillance, and

reconnaissance (ISR) posture and provides staging points for surprise punitive

strikes and small maneuver raids from hidden locations over the horizon. It also

provides the ideal base from which to conduct offshore prosecution of a persistent

irregular war. To exploit this advantage, the Navy and Marine Corps must keep

some forces forward to provide sustained ISR, fire, and maneuver coverage.

• For the foreseeable future, any joint power-projection operation larger than a

medium-sized raid will require that the United States introduce land-based air

and ground forces into the theater. In conditions of unimpeded or guarded

littoral access and with established theater infrastructure, the current Transport

Fleet is quite effective in the delivery of equipment and supplies; personnel are

normally transported by air. Sea-based air and missile defense, tactical aviation,

and fire-support platforms can conduct advance force operations and screen the

arrival and delivery of equipment and personnel and support them once they are

committed to combat.

• For joint power-projection operations in defended and contested-access scenarios, the

sea can be used as a base from which to conduct sustained air and missile strikes

against the enemy. Sea-based aviation, missiles, and artillery can threaten an enemy

across the entire breadth and depth of his battle space. This was the prime role of the

Navy in the Cold War, and it will remain an important one for the foreseeable future.

• In defended and contested-access scenarios, the sea also can be used to project

operational maneuver forces into an enemy’s defended battle space. Given that most

joint forces are now “access sensitive,” an important mission for the relatively small

residual sea-based operational maneuver forces will be to enter forcibly a defended

theater and create a lodgment for follow-on forces.124 The forces typically associated

with this mission are airborne, air assault, special operations forces, and amphibiou

assault forces.

• Joint forces operating inland can also be resupplied from the sea. In this way, no

large, immobile, and tempting logistics targets are built up ashore. Being able to

warehouse the majority of supplies at sea and selectively off-load and deliver the

right matériel to the right unit at the right time—an approach now known as “just

in time” or “sense-and-response” logistics—would help mask a critical joint force

vulnerability, especially early in a JFEO.125

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supplies ashore. Adversaries of the United States would be well aware that its

current power-projection model depends heavily on the availability of deepw

ports. They may make special provisions to defend, destroy, or target establish

ports in the theater. In these cases, the sea can be used to create a theater logis

portal—a harbor or a sea-based logistics hub—where one did not exist before

ability rapidly to create a working theater logistics portal, along with improve

capabilities to off-load the Sea-Based Transport Fleet in-stream, would allow 

United States to perform future power-projection operations without seizing 

deepwater port. Such an ability opens a wide range of operational options and

complicates the job of any defender.126

• The ultimate exploitation of the sea would be to re-create land bases at sea “cl

to the scene of operations”—perhaps in the form of mobile offshore bases,

distributed bases, or logistics sea bases. What makes this level of exploitation 

different are its goals of completely eliminating the logistics footprint ashore 

allowing forces to assemble, constitute, and reconstitute at sea. If achieved, thes

would decouple the joint force from any dependence on land bases and allow 

United States complete freedom of action along the world’s littorals.127

This list of base characteristics of the world’s oceans is not exhaustive. However, 

vides a useful start point for a critique of the DoN’s current sea-basing plans. In 

regard, eleven observations stand out.

First, thinking about exploiting the sea as a joint base is a critically important en

In an era when access is increasingly uncertain due to both political and operatio

challenges, being able to exploit the sea as a secure avenue of maneuver, an opera

sanctuary, and an advanced assembly base for operations ashore will provide the 

military with enormous strategic, tactical, and operational benefits. It seems cert

that American power-projection operations in the Joint Expeditionary Era will r

improved capabilities to support strike, maneuver, and logistics from the sea to a 

gree not seen in over five decades.

Second, “sea basing” is not an end in itself but a means to an end—to provide U.S

military operations with global freedom of action and operational independence

two senior officers have written, “Twenty-first century Sea Basing will be our nat

asymmetric military advantage.... It is the key to operational independence in the 

gerous decades before us.”128 Transformation plans for the Sea-Based Transport Fle

should be guided by the broad strategic goal to develop the base characteristics o

world’s oceans in order to “exploit the freedom of maneuver.”129 This demands th

nation improve its transoceanic expeditionary maneuver capabilities.

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pendence and improving naval expeditionary maneuver capabilities. The “stretch goal”

to seize the initiative in ten days and plan for two successive month-long wars is the result of a decade-long defense planning and “shaping” strategy that is increasingly out

of touch with reality. The four assumptions upon which 10-30-30 is based—that the

primary future threat will be traditional military challengers; that the primary force

structure and planning scenario should be for two nearly simultaneous traditional

combat operations; that American dominance in guided weapons warfare will remain

unchallenged; and that adversaries will not adapt to this dominance—are all questionable. Far less debatable is the assumption that in future joint power-projection operations, political and operational access will be more difficult to take for granted,

especially during their early phases.

Regardless, the 10-30-30 metric should be reassessed. The United States already has the

most agile, responsive military force in history. After 11 September 2001 it initiated a

military counterattack in a landlocked country located halfway around the world in

less than four weeks. In preparation for IRAQI FREEDOM the DoN “put 60–70,000

Marines and Sailors into Kuwait, with all their equipment, ready to cross the line of departure in less than 60 days.”130 There seems little reason to increase these already impressive strategic timelines, other than blind adherence to the mantra of “faster is

better” and a growing but unsupported faith that “early measures” and quick actions

“rapidly alter initial conditions” and “lock out” enemy options and strategies.131

Speed is often vitally important in tactical encounters, and it has enormous benefits at

the operational level of war.132 However, the value of speed at the strategic level of war

is far less clear; indeed, it is often counterproductive. An emphasis on strategic speed

contributed to the tragedy of World War I, doomed Japanese and German war planning for World War II, and likely contributed greatly to the lack of postwar planning

for IRAQI FREEDOM. All three examples provide evidence that “obsession with speed

denies the fundamental truth that in strategy, everything is contextual, and circumstance is paramount. . . . In the end, the current thinking about speed mistakes an important and expensive capacity for an inherent and intrinsic advantage.”133

This thought was explicitly captured in the Army after Next project. As described by

two of the project’s leading thinkers,

One consistent study finding in the Army’s series of war games has been that the crucial measure of

successful force projection is not the speed with which the first combat element engages. Rather, it is the

rate at which the United States and its allies achieve decisive operational superiority, depriving an enemy of freedom of action and making its ultimate defeat both inevitable and irreversible.134

In cases where joint forces may have to confront a regional power armed with nuclear

weapons or hardened, redundant A2/AD networks, the speed of the initial combat

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achieve “decisive operational superiority.”

Even more importantly, there is no evidence whatsoever that improved strategic 

will be decisive against irregular challengers, who can be expected often to rely o

strategies that expand the strategic timeline in order to outlast the United States.

one strategist presciently wrote before OIF, “The fast, overwhelming and decisive a

tion of maximum force in minimum time . . . may produce effective short term res

[but it may] be irrelevant, probably even counterproductive, when matched agains

very difficult internal problems that form the underlying problems in target count

Fourth, improving strategic closure timelines should also be subordinated to imp

ability to conduct forcible-entry operations or operational maneuver from the se

the foundation of transoceanic expeditionary maneuver. For the next several dec

regardless of moves made now, the majority of equipment for joint ground force

get to distant theaters on ships optimized for unloading in deepwater ports or an

ages in a benign environment. The majority of joint force personnel will arrive o

commercial airliners through airports provided by host governments. As the DSB 

cluded, the future may require that the DoN work with other joint forces to seize 

create access before equipment and people can arrive in theater. Therefore, for th

seeable future, the ability to seize sea and air points of debarkation (SPODs and APO

in hostile, or potentially hostile, territory will be a fundamental joint requiremen

Recall that by the end of World War II, when access was always uncertain and oft

contested, amphibious landing ships made up nearly 40 percent of the Navy. Eve

ing the Cold War the nation maintained a hedge against the possible requiremen

seize access, though the likelihood of having to do so was extremely remote. The 

quirement for amphibious lift during that era was never less than 3.0 MEBs and 

more. Given that future access looks far more uncertain than at any time since 19

should not the Navy retain a viable forcible-entry capability and perhaps improv

priority afforded to the Amphibious Landing Fleet? Both logic and prudence sug

that the answer to this question is yes—a judgment implicitly endorsed by the D

so, a logical follow-on question comes quickly to mind: Is there any evidence to s

that MPF(F) squadrons as currently envisioned will be able to support forcible-en

operations better than, or as well as, purpose-built amphibious assault ships? Th

swer to this question, if not clearly no, is certainly: not yet.

Amphibious ships are “combat loaded” in accordance with specific landing pla

lored especially for expected missions. Moreover, amphibious assault ships all h

purpose-built interfaces for both air and surface assault “connectors,” allowing

smooth and efficient off-loading of personnel and their equipment at sea. In

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of the mission, their cargo is “unit loaded”—organized by major subordinate unit.

Units arriving on MPF(F) ships must retrieve their equipment, off-load what is

stowed on their assigned vehicles, repackage and restow what is not needed, and

repack the vehicles—all within the cramped confines of the ship. This process is

likely to be far less efficient than pre-mission combat loading by amphibious assault

units at their ports of embarkation.138

Furthermore, the current MPF(F) plan will always involve a major transshipment of

unit vehicles from one ship (generally an LMSR) to another (the Mobile Logistic Platform). Carrying out this transshipment in choppy seas, in the rain, or at night will inject considerable friction into one of the most difficult military operations imaginable.

Indeed, it is hard to imagine a rehearsal before an operation, since that would involve a

minimum of three at-sea transshipments of cargo—a lengthy process, and certainly a

dangerous one, in all but the most benign sea conditions.

Fifth, the DSB’s unbalanced overemphasis on aerial maneuver needs to be reexamined.

As mentioned earlier, the genesis of the DSB’s air-maneuver concepts can be traced to

Marine thinking in the late 1940s about the implications of nuclear warfare for amphibious operations. These early ideas for vertical envelopment gradually expanded to

include the idea of direct aerial ship-to-objective maneuver (vertical assault), which

placed further emphasis on helicopter delivery of amphibious assault forces. Ultimately, this new thinking spurred DoN experimentation with helicopter carriers and

the development of the landing platform helicopter (LPH) with accommodations for a

full Marine battalion and a squadron of helicopters.139

Early Marine thinking about vertical envelopment caught the attention of the 1950s

Army leadership. After the Korean War, the Army enthusiastically pursued the idea of

helicopter-borne air cavalry and air assault units, and it pioneered the use of helicopter

gunships to provide organic close air support.140 However, both Army and Marine enthusiasm for air assault was tempered somewhat during the Vietnam War, which

proved that using rotary-wing aircraft in defended-access scenarios was a risky proposition. Over the course of the Vietnam War, American forces lost approximately five

thousand of the 11,827 helicopters in the theater—a loss rate of over 40 percent.141 The

bulk of these losses came before the battlefield introduction of man-portable guided

anti-helicopter weapons like the U.S. Redeye or Soviet SA-7 Strela in April 1972.142

Based on the hard-learned lessons of Vietnam, Marine and Army planners made several course corrections. For their part, Navy and Marine planners rejected further

LPHs, opting instead for the LHAs and LHDs, which combined the aviation support

capabilities of an LPH with the well deck of an LSD or LPD. This provided the ships

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amphibious landing operations. They also decided to pursue tilt-rotor aircraft fo

vertical-envelopment mission. With its greater speed and higher operating ceilin

tilt-rotor promised to have greater operational reach and survivability than any h

copter and to allow faster troop buildup times, especially over long ranges.143

Army planners, generally satisfied with the capabilities of the helicopter, conclud

that only its concept of employment needed to be changed. They gradually move

ward the concept of “aerial maneuver”—landing forces behind enemy lines wher

enemy wasn’t. As for its helicopter gunship fleet, the Army decided to introduce 

armored helicopters that would employ stand-off guided weapons. The result wa

AH-64 Apache.144 The wisdom of these moves was amply demonstrated during O

tion DESERT STORM, when the 101st Division (Air Assault) conducted two major 

maneuvers and the AH-64 performed admirably.

During the 1990s, leaders associated with the Army after Next project began to c

bine the thinking of aerial maneuver with the emerging ideas of operational man

from strategic distances to form an even broader vision: “air mechanization.” Th

ing proponent was Major General Robert H. Scales, Jr. General Scales envisioned 

insertion of “light, mobile, armored combat units directly into an enemy’s defend

battle space from intratheater bases located 500 miles from the enemy’s defended 

tory.”145 Partly as a result of General Scales’s intense salesmanship, this idea began 

gain currency within DoD, particularly within the DSB, the Office of Force Trans

mation, and the Army Staff. The requirement that the Army’s new Future Comba

tem (FCS) must be transportable by C-130 tactical transports was driven by both

strategic deployability and the promise of air mechanization.146

Despite the concept’s attractions, the size and cost of a tactical transport force de

to support the aerial maneuver of even one large armored combat unit from base

more than five hundred miles away would be substantial. More troubling than pr

jected cost is recent combat experience in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq suggest

that air maneuver and air mechanization operations in the face of guided antiair 

ons promise to be every bit as risky as airborne drops were in earlier eras.147

A recent RAND study on Operation IRAQI FREEDOM concluded, “Though plann

air assault operations were undertaken, primarily because the risks outweighed t

pected benefits. . . . The experience in Iraq involving the employment of attack h

ters raises questions about some of the emerging concepts that place high relianc

so-called vertical envelopment operations deep into enemy territory.”148 As other

RAND analysts make clear, a rapid aerial deployment capability remains an envia

goal. However, in their opinion, greater emphasis needs to be placed on prepositi

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the same conclusion in a study on the transportability of the Army’s FCS. Its analysts

concluded that sea lift was the fastest mode of global transportation for FCS units of

action, anywhere and any time.150

Sixth, if DSB’s bias for air-maneuver operations from ships at sea needs to be revisited,

so too must its bias against surface maneuver. In the future, a force landing from the

sea will be able to generate tactical speeds unheard of in previous eras. To gain an impression of future sea-based maneuver operations, think of the major combat operations phase of OIF as a breakout from an amphibious lodgment area. In Iraq, U.S.

Marine combined-arms columns, using the same equipment they would have used in

an amphibious surface landing, were able to move over four hundred miles inland in

little more than three weeks. They accomplished this impressive feat of arms by concentrating a relatively small number of tanks at the heads of their columns, screening

the columns’ flanks using airpower, disrupting enemy blocking movements by massed

guided-weapons fire, and using high-volume artillery fire to suppress enemy forces encountered in meeting engagements.

Recall that the DSB’s rejection of future surface maneuver derived from its belief that

mines and precision fires would prevent surface “amphibious operations.” However, it

is highly unlikely that an enemy will be equally strong along his entire coast. Using the

sea for maneuver, naval forces can probe the enemy’s defenses to determine where he is

weakest before landing forces ashore. If OIF provides any indication, future Marine

surface landings could land up to four hundred miles away from a defended littoral

penetration point and, covered by fleet guided-weapons fire, move quickly to attack the

forces located there in less than a month. Future ship-to-shore connectors like improved

LCACs and the new Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) will provide means to conduc

even more effective distributed, high-speed surface attacks from ships at sea.151

Moreover, once ashore, surface forces face far less of a “vulnerability gap” than the DSB

imagined. By 1944 the Japanese island defenders in the Pacific had concluded that

there was no exploitable operational pause between the initial landing waves and the

follow-on waves of an American surface assault. The Japanese began to move their

forces inland and to dig in, the better to oppose the American forces once they were

ashore. In the end, their approach proved no better than that adopted by the Germans

in the European theater—counterattacks against surface lodgments by mobile armored

forces. In the face of Allied air superiority, German reinforcements were either deterred

from getting to the beach or destroyed outright attempting to get there.152 Given the de

gree of American air superiority and the scale of its guided-weapons usage, any enemy

who mounts a massed attack against a U.S. surface lodgment defended by the full

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Germans in 1944–45.

Ironically, the “vulnerability gap” applies much more directly to initial attacks m

airborne, light infantry, or light armored forces air-landed deep in enemy territo

assaults tend to come in intermittent, concentrated pulses of combat power rath

the sustained pulses associated with well planned surface maneuver operations. A

tended ranges, the interval between pulses—the delay between the initial and fol

air-landed waves—would likely be substantial and the defensive and offensive fir

power of the United States far less effective. History suggests that success of fut

aerial maneuver operations will depend far less on whether the support base for 

landings are at sea or on land than on the distance between the support base and 

landing point.153

The “vulnerability gap” will be especially severe for Marine air-landed and Army 

borne forces, both of which move only as fast as their feet can take them. Major G

eral Scales had it right when he concluded that foot-mobile infantry landed deep 

enemy lines will be especially vulnerable to interdiction and attack, particularly o

tlefields with guided or nuclear weapons. True air mechanization, which would g

air-landed force the mobility to survive, is likely decades away. For this reason, mec

nized forces that can attack from the sea likely will remain useful for some time to 

This is not meant to imply that aerial maneuver should be abandoned. Rather, th

going suggests that a balance of aerial and surface maneuver capabilities will give 

sea-based maneuver forces enormous flexibility. For the foreseeable future, then, 

fleet would do well to retain a strong surface maneuver capability.

Seventh, keeping personnel and equipment at sea will be no panacea. The same “

sion strikes, weapons of mass destruction, and cruise and ballistic missiles” that t

NDP warned would threaten future land bases will pose equally severe threats to 

naval forces operating in coastal waters. Indeed—nuclear weapons aside—small 

bers of guided-missile “leakers” hitting a sea base could have a far more catastrop

impact than similar attacks against a sprawling land base. At sea, one hit could re

the total loss of an entire combat unit or a critical component of the joint force.1

for nuclear weapons, would an adversary be less or more likely to employ nuclea

weapons against U.S. forces at sea, as opposed to a city or port on his own territo

Work done during the Cold War suggests that the bar for employing nuclear wea

at sea is much lower than it is on land.155

In any event, if fleet defenses can be made leakproof, why can the same level of p

tion not be provided over ports and airfields? Indeed, extending fleet defenses ov

lied territory, facilities, and forces ashore is one of the basic tenets of Sea Shield.1

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All but the most ardent sea-basing proponents recognize that for any major powerprojection operation, the majority of the joint force—and the support tail—will inevitably have to move ashore. Joint forces on both land and sea will be subject to attack by

guided weapons, and each will have inherent vulnerabilities that will need to be accounted for in joint plans and schemes of maneuver.

Eighth, while selective cargo off-load should be a key goal for all expeditionary maneuver

ships because the majority of joint forces will continue to operate ashore, resupplying

joint forces ashore directly from sea bases will likely be a niche capability for the foreseeable future. Sustained support of forces ashore from a sea base will work only for

relatively small forces, perhaps up to two brigades in size, operating relatively close to

the sea. This capability will be most useful during the early phases of a joint forcibleentry operation before an effective support structure can be established ashore, or for

the sustained support of small garrisons fighting the global irregular war, in which a

major footprint ashore is neither required nor desired.

In any case, combining a selective-offload cargo ship with a troopship carrying a large

number of personnel, once the goal of the MPF(F) program, is not a good idea. To

maximize their cargo capacity, legacy prepositioning ships are “dense packed” with

both vehicles and supplies. This makes the selective off-load of any particular item very

difficult. For example, during OIF Army logisticians had to unload eight hundred containers from an ammunition container ship to get at the 560 they wanted.157 To provide

the space necessary to move cargo about internally, selective-offload ships need to be

far less densely packed. In other words, selective-offload ships carrying equivalent

amounts of cargo need to be larger than regular cargo ships and to be designed with

roomier holds with fewer impediments to the movement of matériel.

This makes the ship inherently more vulnerable to guided-weapons attack. As one admiral explained, a selective-discharge cargo ship is like a floating Wal-Mart store,

whereas, “by the way, we usually have lots of compartments on Navy ships, so if you ge

hit, it won’t sink. You can’t do that if [the ship] is to be a Wal-Mart type of environment.”158 Interestingly, the admiral was arguing that if the Marines wanted an MPF(F)

ship with both troop-carrying and a selective-offload capability, they would have to accept the risks associated with operating large numbers of troops from commercial

ships. Of course, the far more sensible approach—evident in the current MPF(F)

squadron design—is to separate the cargo resupply and maneuver support roles, keeping the troops aboard the most protected ships possible. This is the same thinking that

drove the Navy to design separate troop and cargo transports during World War II.

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entirely new set of alternatives to resupplying joint forces from the sea. One is to as

the ashore resupply function to the Amphibious Landing Force and to build updat

sions of the Charleston-class LKA of the Cold War.159 Another would be to make th

sion of “underway replenishment” of ground forces ashore the responsibility of the

Navy’s Combat Logistics Force. Another would be to expand the Logistics Preposit

Force to support all joint ground forces ashore with ammunition, fuel, water, and b

supplies. The point here is that the MPF(F) squadron is not the only, or necessarily 

best, way to solve the niche mission of supplying joint ground forces ashore.

Ninth, perhaps as important, if not more, than a selective-offload cargo capabilit

the ability to create a heavy theater logistics portal where there is none. Such a ca

ity would dramatically improve the Navy’s ability to support transoceanic expedi

ary maneuver. Potential adversaries are well aware that major U.S. power-project

operations require the seizure of deepwater port and nearby airfields. This make

defensive plans easier to develop.

An ability to assemble rapidly an artificial harbor like the World War II MULBERR

anywhere in the world, complete with breakwaters, causeways, cranes, and the lik

would seriously complicate an adversary’s defensive problem and dramatically im

the joint force’s ability to introduce heavy forces into a theater.160 Moreover, many 

cers in the other services view the most critical contribution of sea basing to be t

troduction of responsive joint logistics.161 Developing the ability to create a theat

logistics portal where none exists, coupled with an improved ability to provide “u

way replenishment” of joint forces operating ashore, will go a long way toward m

the sea base a truly joint force multiplier.

Tenth, as the above discussion suggests, the JROC’s disregard of the DSB’s pruden

for an extended period of joint concept development and technological experim

tion for sea basing needs to be revisited. The current focus on the midterm opera

goal of conducting a brigade-sized forcible-entry operation in ten to fourteen da

short-sighted. Instead, the United States should embark on a long-term effort aim

developing the ocean’s base characteristics more fully and improving all aspects o

expeditionary maneuver capability. Only in this way can we ensure that importan

basing options are fully considered and not foreclosed prematurely.

Development of the sea-basing “system of systems” needed to exploit fully the se

joint base will be vastly more complicated than was the development of carrier a

during the interwar years. It took two decades of hard conceptual and technolog

development and experimentation before the Navy finally got carrier aviation rig

The answers for the final sea-as-base system of systems likely will take at least as 

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ties should be a long-term endeavor, shaped by experimentation, war gaming, analysis,

technological research, and prototype development. The belief that the full conceptual

and contextual development of something as complex as sea basing could take place in

little more than three years is foolish.

Eleventh, as a result, current sea-base transformation plans appear to be both premature and out of balance. In July 2004, when asked by Senator John Warner if the Navy

would maintain twelve ESGs, the CNO responded that the requirement was for twelve

ESGs and would stay at twelve ESGs. He went on: “I will tell you that I’m in the process

of . . . setting up a sea swap experiment for the Expeditionary Strike Group to see if we

can do something that large. If we could, it would affect my recommended investment

profile.”162 Since that time, there have been no “sea swap” experiments involving ESGs,

with the exception of the “cross-decking” of a command group from one ESG to another, which is far easier than the complete swapping-out of an entire ESG.163 Yet the

current plan is to reduce the number of ESGs to nine—a reduction of 25 percent.

Nor have there been any systematic experiments on MPF(F) sea-basing concepts or

technologies. Certainly, there have been a number of “limited objective experiments”

and technological demonstrations over the past three years, but nothing on the scale

that accompanied the development of carrier aviation. Because of the lack of empirical

data, current DoN plans endorse a vision that makes important but untested assumptions about the entire MPF(F) concept of operations. In other words, current plans for

the Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet presuppose success in experiments that have yet to

be conceived, much less conducted.

What explains this apparent rush to judgment? One reason might be that by substituting three MPF(F) civilian-crewed (i.e., operated by the MSC) big-deck assault ships for

regular Navy amphibious landing ships, the DoN will save up to three thousand activeduty billets. The Navy will also accrue additional Operation and Support (O&S) savings, all of which could be diverted into Navy procurement accounts. Another reason

might be to help maintain the industrial base.164 Worthy as both these goals are, none

should be used to justify the premature foreclosure of all potential options for the seaas-base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet.

A Global Amphibious Renaissance

The backdrop of the DoN’s embrace of MPF(F) over general improvements to the Amphibious Landing Fleet is a global renaissance in amphibious assault platforms. While

the platforms associated with this worldwide resurgence are varied, four key platform

trends are conspicuous.

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world—HMS Ocean, operated by the Royal Navy. However, a new variation of th

is the V/STOL carrier, or CVV, with an additional capability to carry troops. Her

fore, the prime example was the Italian navy’s 13,850-ton Garibaldi. Italy is now 

ing a much larger (twenty-seven-thousand-ton) ship, the Cavour, which will be a

carry eight STOVL JSFs, twelve medium-lift helicopters, and up to 450 troops an

hundred small vehicles, off-loadable through two roll-on/roll-off ramps.165 The

planned U.S. LHARs are the only other examples of this type.

The second trend is that LHDs—with both a full-length flight deck and a floodab

well deck—are the clear platform of choice for navies that can afford them.166 Fra

Spain, South Korea, and Australia are between them either building or planning 

build at least eight LHDs. The two French Mistral-class LHDs can carry 450 troo

sixty armored vehicles. They have a full-length flight deck, a below-deck hangar t

can accommodate sixteen medium/heavy lift helicopters, and a well deck that can 

four large-displacement landing craft or two LCACs. The single Spanish LHD wi

even larger. It will carry a staff, an air group, and a landing force of 1,220 personn

full-length flight and hangar decks will accommodate twenty-two helicopters, an

floodable well deck will carry four large landing craft. Both the French and Spanish 

designs are competing for an Australian requirement for two LHDs. The three So

Korean “mini-LHDs” will be slightly smaller but will have the same full-length fl

deck and well deck characteristic of the class.167 In addition, the Italian navy recen

announced an intention to build a LHD with a floodable well deck, suggesting th

ian planners are uncomfortable with relying on CVVs for the amphibious mission

The third key trend is that LPDs—with their substantial helicopter capacity and

floodable well decks—are the clear platform of choice among medium-sized amp

ous landing ships. The Netherlands, Spain, and Britain will soon operate ten mod

LPDs. The Netherlands will have two variations of the Rotterdam class. The ships

signed to commercial standards, will carry landing forces of from five to seven hu

personnel; four or six troop-lifting helicopters, respectively; and a variety of land

craft in their large well decks. The same basic design was chosen by Spain for its 

LPDs and by Britain for its four Largs Bay–class auxiliary LPDs. The British also 

two modern Albion-class LPDs, built to warship standards.169

The final trend is that new classes of “multirole” vessels capable of transporting a

landing troops and vehicles are the preference of an increasing number of navies

example, Canada is planning to build up to three Strategic Multirole Aid and Rep

ishment Transports (SMARTs), large ships designed both to replenish Canadian 

batants and transport Canadian peacekeeping troops and their vehicles.170 Moreo

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this trend is not confined to the larger navies. New Zealand is building a Multi-Role

Vessel (MRV) based on a RO/RO ferry design; it will carry 150 troops and a small

number of vehicles.171 Even the smallest navies are seeking to improve their sea-based

transport or maneuver capabilities.172

A particularly innovative approach is being taken in the Royal Danish Navy—a design that

combines the features of a frigate and a transport vessel in one hull. Called “Flexible Support Ships,” these 6,300-ton vessels are armed with a five-inch naval gun, eight Harpoon

antiship cruise missiles (ASCMs), and vertically launched Sea Sparrow missiles. They have a

flight deck large enough to handle heavyweight helicopters and a hangar large enough to

accommodate two medium-lift helicopters. They also have a wide (nine-hundred-squaremeter) “flex-deck” that can accommodate ten sixty-two-ton tanks or a variety of other

cargo or combat systems. The ship can be configured for nine different roles.173

As can be seen, as many of the world’s navies begin to put renewed emphasis on “out of

area” expeditionary power-projection operations, they clearly consider purpose-built amphibious assault ships with both air and surface connector interfaces to be the most efficient and effective transport and maneuver support platforms. While allied decisions and

preferences for sea-based maneuver platforms should not dictate DoN choices, they do sug

gest that the U.S. planners would do well to consider carefully any reduction in the size or

capability of its Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet, especially its Amphibious Landing Fleet.

Indeed, as illustrated in figure 2, amphibious ships are now the American crisis response platform of choice. Since 1989, forward-deployed ARGs/ESGs have been

Naval Responses by Ship Class

Source: D0002763.A2, U.S. Naval Responses to Situations, 1970–1999, December 2000. ©

2000 The CNA Corporation, www.cna.org.

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nation can be effective in a wide variety of roles, including humanitarian and dis

relief, noncombatant evacuation operations (NEOs), shows of force, raids, prom

counter-proliferation operations, and terrorist counter-sanctuary operations.

There is no evidence that MPF(F) forces will be nearly as useful as amphibious fo

They are clearly less suited for the routine amphibious patrolling function condu

since the beginning of the Cold War. Moreover, as discussed, it is unlikely that th

be better for forcible-entry operations, where access is either defended or contest

sharp contrast, many of the routine operations associated with supporting the gl

irregular war will be conducted in unimpeded- and guarded-access conditions—

very conditions for which MPF ships were originally designed. This suggests that 

MPF force might be best refocused on supporting the global irregular war. If so, 

the packets of combat power carried in MPF squadrons—designed for high-inte

mechanized combat—are clearly too big, and the MPF squadrons themselves are 

well aligned to support global operations. To support joint operations focused 

prosecuting the irregular global war, MPF squadrons could be both repackaged 

dispersed to provide better theater coverage and more rapid response in potent

eas of operations.

A Sea-as-Base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet for the Joint Expeditionary Era

What follows is a proposed Sea-as-Base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet that capture

preceding thoughts and musings. It uses the same basic building blocks as are evid

the Navy’s current plans, but in different ways and for slightly different purposes.

This fleet’s primary function is to fight the persistent global irregular war now 

fought by U.S. joint forces and to be able to support simultaneously one major 

power-projection operation. Importantly, it is capable of confronting a regiona

power armed with nuclear weapons. When reinforced by other naval capabiliti

Sea-as-Base Maneuver Fleet will also be capable of operating in contested-acce

ditions. It will have the inherent capability to respond to disaster relief and hum

tarian operations.

The fundamental difference between this plan and the current plan is that it plac

greater emphasis on the Amphibious Landing Fleet. As one admiral recently said

basing is the one element linking the global war on terror and major combat ope

tions.”174 The Amphibious Landing Fleet is better suited to both the amphibious p

ling mission (so vital to the war on terror) and joint forcible-entry operations.

The force will be sized to sustain forward at least two sea-based rapid-reaction m

ver forces in support of the global war on terrorism and to support a two-brigad

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an amphibious double envelopment of a joint lodgment area, port, or airfield using

two separate brigade thrusts; a one-brigade JFEO followed by an immediate brigade

breakout from the joint lodgment area; a two-brigade deep operational penetration; or

a broad-front, two-brigade, distributed infiltration attack made under threat of nuclea

or guided-weapons attack.

Step One: Take Marine Fixed-Wing Aviation Back to Sea

During the Cold War, Marine aviators assumed that they would have immediate access

to land air bases or that their AV-8B Harrier V/STOL jets would be able to operate

from austere expeditionary airfields close behind Marines engaged in ground combat.

In the Joint Expeditionary Era, guided by the vision of sea basing, Marine planners

want to move their aviation assets to sea and maintain them there for as long as possible. This is creating a greater demand for flight deck space in the Amphibious Landing

Fleet—a demand complicated by the fact that the new MV-22 tilt-rotor and the STOVL

version of the Joint Strike Fighter are both far larger and heavier than the aircraft they

replace (the Harrier and the CH-46 helicopter, respectively).175

With the exception of the added complication of helicopters, the problem of taking

Marine aviation to sea is the same that faced naval planners in 1943–44. For the first

several years of World War II, Marine aviation was heavily committed in the Solomons

campaign, where its planes operated primarily from land bases. Carrier air wings on

the fleet carriers (CVs) were composed entirely of Navy squadrons. As the Solomons

campaign moved toward a successful conclusion, and with the decision made to bypass

the Japanese base at Rabaul, Navy planners wrestled with the issue of how best to seabase Marine aviation for the final drive across the Pacific. The options were to integrate

Marine squadrons into the large-deck carrier air wings, to put all-Marine air wings on

escort carriers (CVEs), or a combination thereof. In 1944 the decision was made to

form six all-Marine air wings on Commencement Bay–class CVEs, augmenting CV carrier air wings with Marine squadrons only when necessary. A total of four Marine

CVEs made it to the Pacific before war’s end, and ten Marine fighter squadrons augmented large-deck carrier air wings as the kamikaze threat became more intense.176

These discussions shed new light on both the DoN “Tac-Air Integration Plan” and recent moves to recapitalize the big-deck amphibious fleet. Faced with the prospective re

quirement to lift the larger air combat elements (ACEs) for sea-based MEBs, DoN

planners ordered a review of potential alternatives to replace the five oldest big-deck

amphibious assault ships in service—the Tarawa-class LHAs. In the end, funding considerations drove the design of the new ship, which is now known as the LHAR (for

LHA Replacement), toward a minimal-cost conversion of the LHD.177

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would give up its “wet” well deck, which would make it the first big-deck amphib

assault ship since 1976 to be built without one.178 The removal of the well deck w

allow the ship to carry twenty-three STOVL JSFs or twenty-eight MV-22s, or a co

nation thereof, plus two MH-60 helicopters.179 The decision to give up the well de

was made in relative haste, with little departmental debate or comment. Neverth

Marine aviation officials were happy: the “LHAR is exactly the ship for where we 

going with sea-basing.”180

Marine ground officers were less enthralled, since the decision to remove the wel

in the LHAR dramatically reduces the ship’s contribution to a major surface assa

their eyes, the removal of its well deck made the LHAR nothing more than a repe

the failed experiment known as the LPH, which disappeared from service becaus

was optimized only for aerial assault. However, if viewed as an updated version o

Commencement Bay CVE, the LHAR will provide a capability not seen in the bat

force for over fifty years—a small aviation power-projection platform, capable of 

ing up with amphibious task forces and of carrying more than a third of the num

tactical fighters found on the decks of larger CVNs.

Assuming 85 percent aircraft availability and six days of surge operations followe

nine days of sustained operations, a CVE/LHAR carrying twenty-three Marine (o

Air Force) STOVL JSFs could launch 1,115 sorties, an average of about seventy-fi

day.181 While nowhere near the number a large-deck aircraft carrier can generate, 

represents a substantial quantity of close-air-support sorties in direct support of 

MEB operating ashore, and it would likely be more than enough for normal air s

port operations associated with the global irregular war.

DoN’s recently announced 313-ship plan includes eleven carriers and four LHAR

of the LHARs are earmarked for the Amphibious Landing Fleet, two for the MPF

squadron. Consistent with the discussion above, this plan trades one CVN-21, at 

jected cost of $8.8 billion dollars (for the second ship in the class), for four Comm

ment Bay LHARs, with average projected procurement costs of $2.2 billion apiec

While the LHARs would retain the inherent ability to support rotary-wing aircra

they would normally be employed in the CVE role supporting U.S. fixed-wing ai

Assuming an average operational availability rate of 85 percent, a four-ship class 

normally yield three ships for surge operations. With each LHAR able to carry tw

plane JSF squadrons with three spares, the force under maximum surge conditions 

support sixty-nine JSFs. As one MEB air combat element includes thirty JSFs, three 

provide the required two-brigade lift footprint demanded by a single large JFEO.

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The minimal Cold War requirement for amphibious lift of 3.0 MEB equivalents was

validated in the DoN Lift II study, completed in 1990.182 Ultimately, budget pressure reduced the numbers to the “fiscally constrained” goal of lifting 2.5 MEBs. However,

given that the Amphibious Landing Fleet is a key element of the irregular-warfare effort and provides a key forcible-entry capability for the joint force, the full 3.0 MEB

amphibious lift requirement should be procured. A 3.0 MEB force is large enough to

maintain amphibious crisis response platforms operating in support of the global irregular war and to support simultaneously the two-brigade force assumed to be the

minimum necessary for a future joint forcible-entry operation.

The recapitalization plan for the Amphibious Landing Fleet needs to begin with the

fleet’s big-deck amphibious assault ships. In fiscal year 2007 (FY 07), the USS Makin Island (LHD 8)—representing an improved version of the basic LHD—will be commissioned.183 As Makin Island enters service, one of the LHAs will be decommissioned,

resulting in a fleet of eight LHDs and four LHAs.

With Marine aviation going back to sea, the character of the big-deck fleet will change

slightly over time. Since the four Commencement Bay LHARs will replace the remaining

four LHAs and eventually become the primary sea-based platform for Marine tactical

fixed-wing aircraft, the eight LHDs will concentrate on the traditional Amphibious

Landing Fleet role of delivering troops and equipment over the shore and inland. With

large flight decks and floodable well decks, these eight ships are particularly well suited

to this role. They can land troops by sea, using either LCACs or landing craft utility

(LCUs), or by air using helicopters or tilt-rotor aircraft.

In the amphibious patrolling role, the LHD’s inherent ability to support STOVL aircraft gives them an ability to carry a flexible composite wing of fixed-wing, tilt-rotor,

and rotary-wing aircraft. The planned future wing consists of twelve MV-22 tilt-rotors

four CH-53E heavy-lift helicopters, four AH-1Z helicopter gunships, three UH-1Y util

ity helicopters, two MH-60S multirole helicopters, and six AV-8Bs or JSFs. This wing

will require significantly more than the forty-two CH-46 helicopter–equivalent aircraft

spots normally associated with an LHD.184 However, a recent DoN analysis concluded

that, subject to some restrictions, the LHD load could be expanded to fifty-eight CH46-equivalent spots—albeit with three of seven “H-1s” in “locked spots” when the ship

is carrying both MV-22s and JSFs (meaning they cannot be moved until other aircraft

have been moved).185

During power-projection operations in which the JSFs fly off to operate from the

LHARs, the MEB rotary-wing force will find itself a tight fit aboard the eight-ship LHD

force. The rotary-wing element supporting two amphibious MEBs requires a notional

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normally be available provide 294 (7 x 42) spots using old planning factors, and 

using the new ones (7 x 58). An eight-LHD force thus looks to be marginally cap

carrying the rotary-wing force required to support two MEBs.

The number of spots required is driven primarily by the increased size of the MV

which takes 2.22 times the storage space of the CH-46 it replaces. There are sever

ways to address the resulting shortfall. One is to build an additional LHAR or LH

This might not be as hard as it seems; for example, with nominal thirty-five-year 

lives, we need build only one big-deck amphibious ship every three years to main

force of twelve. If the service lives of all LHARs and LHDs could be extended wit

major problems to thirty-nine years, the big-deck amphibious assault ship/escor

rier force could grow to thirteen ships (five LHARs and eight LHDs) with no inc

in a steady-state three-year build rate. The building of the LHD replacement (LH

would simply move “to the right” and replace the LHD 1 three years later than or

nally planned. Moreover, if all complex aviation power-projection ships could be 

for out of a yearly capital investment account established for them, the cost of th

would be spread out over a thirty-nine-year period, causing little appreciable dif

in the $3.56 billion investment necessary to sustain the baseline force of ten CVN

four LHARs, and eight LHDs.

The next step of the amphibious fleet recapitalization plan involves the replacem

both the eleven aging LPD 4s and all twelve LSDs with new LPD 17s. The develop

of LPD 17 has been difficult and painful to watch. Original plans called for a clas

twelve to replace the LPD 4 class.186 The first was to be delivered in September 20

target cost of $830 million (in FY 96 dollars, not counting nonrecurring design a

gineering costs). However, due to lengthy delays in lead ship design and construc

its delivery date was slipped to September 2003, and cost increased dramatically. 

finally delivered in 2005, the San Antonio (LPD 17), nameship of the class, receiv

unflattering evaluation by the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey, which high

lighted over fifteen thousand deficiencies and declared the ship “incomplete.” By 

time all the deficiencies are completed, the cost of the ship will be about $1.85 billi

Given its problems, it is no wonder that the most recent DoN shipbuilding plan h

production of this class at only ten ships.

Despite this development history, however, production should continue beyond 

ships now planned. One of the reasons why the lead ship was so troubled was the 

ous set of standards to which it was designed. This twenty-five-thousand-ton exp

tionary warship—50 percent larger than the next-largest LPD in the world—was

designed to operate twenty-five miles off a defended shore and in a nuclear

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51/79;188 it features whipping hardening for its hull girders, shock hardening, blasthardened bulkheads, fragmentation protection, and nuclear blast protection. It has a

four-zone collective protective system and can receive contaminated casualties through

a specially designed triage center off the flight deck. It is designed with extensive fire

insulation, along with mist firefighting and smoke-ejection systems. It is equipped with

the same SPQ-9B X-band radar and cooperative-engagement capability being installed

on Aegis/VLS combatants, a top-notch electronic countermeasures system, towed torpedo decoys, and a variety of other offboard decoys. It will be armed with two twentyone-round RAM launchers and two 30 mm counter-boat guns, and it has space and

weight reserved for sixteen VLS cells. Given these features, it will be the most survivable amphibious warship ever built.189

As for its amphibious warfare capabilities, the ship will be able to carry seven hundred troops, with a surge capacity to eight hundred. It will have two medical operating rooms, a twenty-four-bed ward, and overflow capacity for one hundred casualties;

a flight deck that will accommodate two MV-22s or CH-53s, or four CH-46s; a

hangar that can store an additional MV-22 or CH-53, or two CH-46s, or three AH/

UH-1s; a new low-maintenance well deck that can store either two LCACs or one

large-displacement landing craft; twenty-four thousand square feet of vehicle stowage on three vehicle decks, one of which can carry fourteen EFVs (enough to carry a

full rifle company); and thirty-four thousand cubic feet of cargo and ammunition

stowage in two major holds. Moreover, it was designed with the amphibious patrolling mission in mind, with berthing spaces arranged to maintain platoon cohesion,

sit-up bunks for its embarked troops, and increased air conditioning. It is, quite simply, a stunningly capable amphibious platform.190

Further, the majority of the problems associated with the San Antonio’s design now appear to be under control. Follow-on ships for the class are now being built for $1.1 billion.191 While high for a typical amphibious ship, the price appears reasonable given the

ship’s capabilities. Moreover, for operations in a defended littoral these capabilities are

clearly superior to those of any practical MPF(F) ship alternative, and its ability to operate in a nuclear environment is a critical advantage. Accordingly, the Navy should

keep the ship in production at a rate of one per year through FY 2022. With learningcurve efficiencies and multiyear contracts, the cost of the ship might be driven down

below $1.1 billion. This plan would result in a class of twenty-four ships by 2025. The

first twelve of the class would replace the eleven legacy LPD 4s, and the second twelve

would replace the twelve LSD 41/49s, resulting in an efficient and capable all-LHD/

LPD force.

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LPD 17s, augmented by the four Commencement Bay LHARs. This would provide 

than three MEB equivalents in all amphibious-lift metrics except vehicle square, wh

would come in at 2.93 MEB equivalents, a deficiency correctable by the optional ad

of a fifth LHAR (or ninth LHD). Assuming an 85 percent availability rate, the fleet 

exceed the minimum 2.0 MEB forcible-entry requirement with plenty to spare.

These thirty-six or thirty-seven amphibious landing ships would form a distribu

base consisting of vessels all built to warship standards. Indeed, by capitalizing on 

ships’ greatly expanded capabilities, planners could improve the fleet’s amphibio

trolling function and provide an even better link between the irregular war and m

combat operations. They could do so by reconfiguring today’s twelve (and tomor

planned nine) three-ship expeditionary strike groups into eight four-ship “distri

expeditionary sea bases,” or DESBs. These DESBs would consist of one “base sup

group,” consisting of an LHD, one CG 52 guided-missile cruiser or DDG 79 guid

missile destroyer, and three “expeditionary maneuver groups,” consisting of one 

17 and one DDG 51/79 guided-missile destroyer. Each DESB would also include 

ship division of Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs).

With one DESB homeported in Japan, the remaining seven would provide a rotatio

pool for additional deployed DESBs. In this way, two distributed expeditionary sea 

could be maintained forward, where they would conduct the amphibious patrollin

function associated with the global irregular war. This posture would provide, on a

six dispersed two-ship naval task elements in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific

In the event of a crisis, the two forward-based and forward-deployed DESBs cou

combine anywhere from the Persian Gulf to Northeast Asia (i.e., Korea) in from 

teen to eighteen days.193 The resulting eight-ship DESB could support six rifle com

nies with multiple insertion options, including: all under armor in EFVs; two reinf

tank companies; two fires groups, augmented by ten five-inch naval guns and appr

mately eight hundred VLS cells; twelve JSFs, twenty-four CH-46s or MV-22s, eight 

53s, and fourteen H-1 helicopters; or twelve LCACs and four large-displacement la

craft. The two LHDs could also receive and house significant additional reinforcem

Indeed, two LHDs and six LPD 17s would have the surge capacity to base over ei

thousand total troops. While not a full brigade, this sea-based maneuver force wo

represent a formidable combat capability for advanced force operations. When c

bined with one or two forward-deployed carrier strike groups, multiple reinforci

LCS divisions, and forward-deployed SSGNs, the Navy could rapidly assemble a 

combat force with a variety of balanced sea-based strike and maneuver options.

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an Amphibious Landing Fleet consisting of eight (possibly nine) LHDs and twenty-four

LPD 17s would provide an enormously flexible and capable force, equally attuned to the

requirements of the global war on terrorism and power-projection operations.194

Step Three: Recapitalize the Maritime Prepositioning Fleet

Under this new plan, the Maritime Prepositioning Fleet would be reconfigured the

better to support and complement the Amphibious Landing Fleet. A key aim, over

time, would be to make the MPF less dependent on the availability of ports and airfields, more able to support operational maneuver from strategic distances, and more

able to support the global irregular war.

Combat Prepositioning Force (Future). As the Army presence in Iraq is reduced, plans

are for the Army’s Afloat Prepositioned Stock-3 to be expanded into a far more capable

Army Strategic Flotilla (ASF). These plans call for three five-ship squadrons, each consist

ing of one LMSR carrying a single “1 x 1” Army brigade set of equipment (i.e., one armored battalion and one mechanized battalion) or heavy unit of action; one LMSR

carrying combat support equipment; two container ships, one loaded with supplies, the

other with ammunition; and a smaller, shallow-draft RO/RO ship loaded with special hu

manitarian/disaster relief and special-operations support packages.195 The addition of a

smaller draft RO/RO ship to the Army Regional Flotilla (ARF) squadron mix was made

to provide more flexibility in squadron employment options.196 This plan will release two

LMSRs currently dedicated to supporting the CPF to the Surge Sealift Fleet. Original

plans were for the Army to begin transition to the new ASF structure by FY 2008. However, ongoing operations in Iraq will likely delay the transition.197

Like the current MPF, the ASF squadrons would be anchored in the Mediterranean and

at Diego Garcia and Guam, within ten to fourteen days of any port between Europe

and Northeast Asia. However, Army planners explicitly assume that an advance force

must secure the necessary SPODs and APODs before the ASF squadrons can dock.198

As a result, the Army would also like to expand the CPF to include an “afloat forward

staging base” (AFSB) large enough to embark an air assault brigade combat team

(AABCT) consisting of approximately 3,800 personnel and ninety helicopters of all

types. This would be one of the Army’s sea-based contributions to JFEO. However, as

Army helicopters are not “marinized” (i.e., specially modified to prevent salt-air corrosion), the AFSB would be capable of only limited maintenance. The brigade would shif

operations ashore as soon as possible. With the brigade ashore, the AFSB would operate as a selective-offload logistics sustainment facility. Army planners have examined a

variety of options to base an AABCT at sea but have yet to settle on a particular

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such an approach.

The development of the ASF has important implications for the Navy. Today, the M

and CPF combined provide lift for four sets of heavy combat brigade equipment re

ing an available port and airfield at which to off-load. The new ASF will raise the 

ber to six. This implies that the DoN could reconfigure two Maritime Prepositioning 

squadrons for different duties with no appreciable decrease in today’s capabilities. 

their part, the Marines would undoubtedly want to convert these two squadrons in

MPF(F) “sea basing” squadrons, for $30–$31 billion. However, with the aforemen

tioned changes to the Amphibious Landing Fleet, there is an alternative option th

both less expensive and more attuned to the operational requirements of the Join

peditionary Era. It starts with changes to the Logistics Prepositioning Force.

Logistics Prepositioning Force (Future)—the Joint Offshore Logistics Support Base. 

based logistical resupply of joint forces operating ashore is a key concern of all se

and combat support agencies, not just the Marines. For example, the Defense Lo

Agency sees the sea-basing of supplies as an integral part of its “Global Stock Pre

itioning Strategy.” This strategy relies on seven dispersed joint depots (in Germany

Kuwait, Guam, Japan, Korea, and Hawaii); a deployable land-based distribution d

or “depot in a box”; and DLA “afloat distribution centers,” or DADCs. The DAD

floating warehouse with selective-offload capability, is designed to provide imme

sustainment until the logistics sea bridge can be established and expeditionary sh

based deployable distribution depots are up and running.200 They will focus on p

ing heavy supplies that would be prohibitively expensive to ship by air but that w

take a relatively long time to arrive by sea, such as bulk liquids, construction mat

and major subassemblies and repair parts.201

Likewise, the Army is pursuing a “supply support activity afloat” (SSAA), designe

provide selective off-load of cargo until the joint theater logistics infrastructure i

tablished ashore. Both the Army and DLA believe that shore-based distribution i

siderably more efficient than sea-based distribution. Moreover, despite the know

of long-range air or missile attack, both presume that any major joint power-proje

operations will eventually require the establishment of bases and logistics infrast

ture ashore. This is also the position of the Air Force.202 All this makes clear once ag

that while the duplication of land bases at sea is a noble conceptual goal, the highe

to middle-term payoff would be the development of a forcible-entry capability a

fleet of common cargo ships that would logistically support the entire joint force 

the land-based distribution system is established.

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tics Propositioning Force. Consistent with this line of thinking, an expanded force including tankers as well as selective-offload cargo ships capable of handling both

containers and breakbulk cargo would provide the foundation for the development of

a prepositioned “joint offshore logistics support base” (JOLSB).203 The JOLSB would be

sized to support units conducting a JFEO and to sustain joint forces ashore until the

theater logistics infrastructure can be established. The vessels could also support opera

tions ashore in cases where the establishment of a large logistics footprint may not be

prudent or during humanitarian and disaster relief undertakings when the ashore infrastructure has been destroyed.

DoN analyses suggest that a selective-offload container ship with the capacity to carry

six hundred TEUs, along with a selective-offload breakbulk cargo ship based on the TAKE cargo ship now in serial production, would provide fourteen or fifteen days of

supply for a five-battalion combat brigade operating ashore—as well as the ships supporting them. A single oiler (T-AO) would provide 2.5 days of fuel supply for ships in

the sea base and for five battalions ashore.204 For tentative planning purposes, then, the

DoN support element in the JOLSB would include two selective-offload container

ships and two T-AKE variants for the Marines, one T-AKE to support Navy shipboard

ordnance requirements, and six tankers. This eleven-ship package would provide ordnance, supplies, fuel, and water to support two forcible-entry MEBs in combat for

fourteen or fifteen days.

Ships dedicated to DLA, Army, and Air Force support elements would add to these numbers. Although the DoN would incur the nonrecurring engineering costs of redesigning

ships for JOLSB requirements, the actual procurement costs for Air Force, Army, and

DLA ships would be borne by the respective department or agency. Final size of, and anchorages for, the JOLSB would be determined by follow-on operational analysis.

The requirement for the JOLSB to support shore-based aviation forces suggests the

need for a substantial joint aviation support element. The first ship to be added to the

element should be the fifth LHAR recommended in this plan. Additional ships might

include replacements for the two T-AVB aviation support ships now in the LPF. These

ships carry cargo containers with the intermediate maintenance activity for Marine air

craft. They are optimally designed to off-load their containers ashore but can support

some operations at sea. Their replacements should be more capable ships specifically

designed to service and repair aircraft at sea.205

If Congress were to approve the purchase of a hull designed and built overseas, the logical replacement for these two ships might be modified Maersk S-class containerships.

Modified with large flight decks, with operating spots for fifteen heavy-lift helicopters

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two CH-46 equivalents during transit, could support every rotary-wing aircraft i

joint inventory, and would have room for two hundred TEU containers and a tho

personnel.206 Two ships, one on each coast, manned by civilian crews from the M

Sealift Command and ready to be activated in ninety-six hours, would provide an 

tional 144 CH-46-equivalent parking spots and a mobile joint rotary-wing aviati

support facility.207 When married up with the LHAR, the joint force would have a

highly capable aviation-support sea base for both rotary-wing and STOVL aircra

MULBERRY 21. A new capability found in the LPF would be an ability to create a 

bor and theater logistics portal where none exists, thereby helping to increase the 

fleet’s operational independence and freedom of action. This capability, dubbed 

BERRY 21” after the artificial harbors developed for the invasion of France, would 

joint planners “to think in a rather different geographical box from the [enemy] 

officers whose job was to second guess their plans” and to enable expeditionary

“maneuverism” across transoceanic distances.208

MULBERRY 21 would expand upon the Joint Enable Theater Access–Sea Ports of 

kation (JETA-SPOD) program sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Command.209 This p

gram includes the development of new lightweight, modular causeway systems a

lightweight container-handling systems. These new initiatives would be combine

new rapidly deployed and employed breakwater systems and legacy platforms, lik

auxiliary crane ships found in the RRF, to create the ability to form a protected h

anywhere in the world.

MULBERRY 21 would be both a program and a joint task force, perhaps under the 

Transportation Command. The joint task force would be responsible for develop

and testing new harbor and SPOD technologies and systems, and for employing 

BERRY 21 during a crisis. The costs for developing this capability should be borne 

the services equally.

Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future). The reshaping of the Amphibious Land

Fleet, the upgrading of the Army’s Combat Prepositioning Force into a MPF clon

the expansion of the Logistics Prepositioning Force into a joint offshore logistics 

port base would allow the Navy to recast its plans for the Maritime Prepositionin

Force. These new plans would be informed by three facts:

• The current MPF ships all have more than twenty years of service life left in th

Indeed, even as it plans for a new MPF(F) capability, the DoN plans to buy ou

leases for the legacy MPF ships and place them in the RRF.

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and shaped by considerably more experimentation and technological development,

and possibly prototype development.

• There have recently been moves to provide temporary offshore bases in support of

the global war on terrorism.

With regard to the last point, an important supporting mission in the global irregular

war is working to increase our partners’ capacity to fight local terrorist networks, primarily by providing training and direct support to local governments and militaries.

Another is to operate in or near ungoverned areas, conducting operations to disrupt

enemy safe operating areas and sanctuaries. In both cases, the ability to establish a tem

porary sea base to support relatively modest joint operations ashore is an attractive option, especially in cases where infrastructure ashore is nonexistent or a host government

desires a minimal U.S. footprint. Significantly, these missions would normally be conducted in unimpeded- or guarded-access scenarios.

Recently, the DoN modified the USNS GySgt Fred W. Stockham, one of the sixteen legacy

MPF ships, to create an “irregular-warfare maritime support base.” The ship was given a

new fifty-four-foot flight deck capable of handling two MH-60 helicopters, a commercialtype aviation refueling system, a medical module, communications upgrades, and far

more watercraft than were previously assigned to the ship. For a conversion cost of just

three million dollars, the Stockham “is off doing real good stuff that we can’t talk about.”210

Building on this sensible modification, the leases for the three MPF squadrons should be

purchased outright as planned, and two of the three squadrons should be resized and reshaped for a new mission—supporting the global war on terrorism. The two five-ship

MPF squadrons would be repackaged as five two-ship “irregular-warfare maritime support squadrons.” One squadron might be repositioned to Ascension Island and focus on

supporting forces operating in the West African littoral. One squadron would remain in

the Mediterranean, supporting forces operating from the northwest African coast to the

Horn of Africa. One squadron would be retained on Diego Garcia, from which it could

support irregular-warfare operations throughout the Indian Ocean. One squadron might

be repositioned to Palau and focused on Southeast Asia. The final squadron would remain on Guam, focused on the western Pacific, from the Philippines to Northeast Asia.

Each of the ships would receive more extensive modifications than did the Stockham.

At an estimated cost of $25 million per ship, the package would include expanded

rotary-wing support capabilities and increased watercraft and lighterage. Most important, the ships would be modified to house, feed, and sustain up to a reinforced rifle

battalion. Assuming that the estimate for the conversions is accurate, total conversion

costs for ten ships would come to $250 million.

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bat operations for equipment specifically tailored for irregular warfare. This wou

mean fewer tanks and more armored “Humvees,” armored trucks, engineering eq

ment, and water purifying units. Because irregular enemies are increasingly draw

complex terrain like cities and built-up areas, the equipment sets would also emp

urban warfare capabilities, such as robotics and nonlethal weapons.211

The third of the current MPF squadrons would remain at Diego Garcia. It wo

become a “swing squadron,” capable of delivering the equipment set for a Ma

expeditionary brigade in support of either a major combat operation or a ma

stability operation, allowing the Marines to form a full Marine expeditionary 

for either mission. The squadron would be unit and combat loaded to the ext

practical, and it would be given additional watercraft and lighterage to impro

in-stream off-loading ability. The ships might also be configured to allow som

RSOI in transit.

The third squadron would also become the focus of experiments to explore furth

idea of basing and supporting large combat units on and from a sea base. The aim

would be to transform this “swing squadron” over time to support a MEB fully a

rectly from the sea.

Step Four: Recapitalize the Surge Sealift Fleet

The eleven LMSRs in the Surge Sealift Fleet, when joined by the two additional s

freed up by the new ASF program, will be able to carry nearly ten Army heavy un

action. The oldest LMSR is less than ten years old. As a result, these thirteen twen

four-knot ships will remain the backbone of the Surge Sealift Fleet for the next s

decades.212 The focus of attention on surge sealift recapitalization plans should th

fore be on the eight aging fast sealift ships. All are approaching forty years of serv

and will soon need to be replaced. The increased DoD emphasis on reducing stra

closure times will put the DoN under “tremendous pressure to improve high-spe

lift.”213 Therefore, the replacement ships should be at least as fast as, if not faster t

the thirty-to-thirty-three-knot FSSs. However, consistent with arguments made e

in this chapter, high speed should not become, in and of itself, the driving techni

consideration for FSS replacements. Instead, the focus should be to improve U.S. 

freedom of action and to improve its operational independence.

With the Navy’s amphibious lift capacity increased to 3.0 MEB equivalents and w

ten irregular-warfare support ships capable of carrying an additional 2.0 brigade

equivalents (ten reinforced rifle battalions), the Navy will have five brigades’ wor

operationally independent lift across the full range of potential access scenarios. 

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(three Army heavy brigades and one MEB) that can be used to reinforce quickly a joint

lodgment or to rush forces to a theater with ready access—maintaining today’s level of

capability. The possible addition of an AABCT afloat would increase the joint lift capability by one brigade. Also, the thirteen LMSRs in the Surge Sealift Fleet will deliver an

additional ten brigades’ worth of equipment through prepared ports. What is still lacking, however, is any material improvement in the number of heavy ready-to-fight brigades that can be delivered to a distant theater without dependence on deepwater

ports. This suggests that the first priority for the replacements for the eight fast sealift

ships should be to eliminate their dependence on ports while improving their ability to

support operational maneuver from strategic distances.

Eliminating the lengthy RSOI required at the other end of a transoceanic voyage

would, by itself, improve strategic employment times for expeditionary maneuver

forces by up to a week. Said another way, a ship that carries intact combat units can be

slower than a ship designed to deliver just equipment and still be faster in delivering

ready-to-fight brigades to a distant theater. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on

ships that combine speed and austere delivery capability with an ability to carry intact

combat units—perhaps a reinforced battalion task force—much like the High-Speed

Shallow Draft Ship envisioned during the Army after Next project. Using these types of

ships, now referred to by the Army as “Austere Access High Speed Ships” (AAHSSs), th

joint force could inject heavy Army forces from the continental United States or from

distant intermediate staging bases directly into and through a littoral, in trail of forcibleentry forces.

Another option would be to avoid having to stop at an austere port or beach entirely,

by replacing fast sealift ships with lighter-than-air “hybrid ultra-large aircraft,” or

HULAs. However, these airships, perhaps twice as fast as practical fast sealift ships, and

with potential cargo payloads of from thirty tons to one thousand, would still find it

hard to compete with the sheer volume that can be moved by large sealift ships. An

analysis conducted by OSD’s Office of Force Transformation (OFT) indicated a fleet of

twenty HULAs would be able to ship six Apache helicopter battalions from Fort Camp

bell, Kentucky, to Saudi Arabia in twenty-six days. However, with cargo capacities of

nearly four hundred thousand square feet, two or three of today’s twenty-four-knot

LMSRs and thirty-three-knot FSSs can accomplish the same task in thirty-two days.214

Overall, the best option is to replace the eight fast sealift ships with a squadron of ships

that can carry the equipment and personnel associated with one Army modular division (three to four heavy UAs) and their basic combat loads of fuel, ammunition, and

supplies; travel across transoceanic ranges at speeds of from thirty-six to thirty-nine

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liver them through an austere, shallow-draft port or across an undefended beach

option would increase the number of access-insensitive and ready-to-fight heavy 

gades normally delivered by sea in a JFEO from two (delivered on amphibious as

ships) to five or six.

The costs for such ships will undoubtedly be quite high—at least as much as the 

projected price tag of $1.3 billion. Adding a capability to discharge the equipmen

through an austere port or across a beach would likely raise the price even more. 

cause of their high costs and because the ships would be designed to support dire

the Army’s ability to conduct operational maneuver from strategic distances, the 

for the ships should be shared equally by the Departments of the Navy and the A

Step Five: Recapitalize and Modernize Sea-Base Connectors

Sea-base “connectors” are a critical component of any sea base. They come in thr

ferent varieties—intertheater, intratheater, and cargo and assault connectors.215

Intertheater connectors provide the primary linkage between the CONUS base of 

ations, intermediate staging bases, and the sea base. They would deliver high volu

of personnel, equipment, and supplies over transoceanic distances either to trans

ment locations or directly to the sea base. Today, it is impossible to land intrathea

transports such as the C-130 at sea, let alone the larger and heavier strategic airli

like the C-5 and C-17. Therefore, for the foreseeable future the primary interthea

sea-base connectors will be ships.216

One potential intertheater connector being pursued by the DoN is the aforeme

tioned High Speed Ship. This ship’s notional characteristics are a speed of thirt

to thirty-nine knots, a range of eight thousand nautical miles, and a draft of 8.

ters. It is designed primarily to deliver a MEB’s worth of nondeployable helicop

and 1,650 personnel, to an MPF(F) squadron. The projected cost of the ship is $

lion.217 However, as this plan relies on the Amphibious Landing Fleet for JFEOs, t

quirement to deliver helicopters to the MPF(F) squadron is eliminated. Accordin

for the reasons previously presented, this plan diverts the money earmarked for t

HSS to developing the replacements for the fast sealift ships—the Army’s AAHSS

Intratheater connectors are capable of self-deploying to the theater of operations

on the scene, their primary role is to move forces and supplies within the theater

appropriate threat conditions, they can also be used to insert combat units over

intratheater ranges.

In many ways the aforementioned HULA appears to be a much better fit as an in

theater connector. Although their payload is far less than that of strategic sealift 

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needed to support the HULA is still several years away. However, a promising new type

of sea-based intratheater connector with similar cargo capacities—the Joint High

Speed Vessel (JHSV)—is soon to enter production and service.218

Conceptually, the JHSVs are the successors to the World War II sea-based intratheater

connectors, particularly the landing ship tank (LST) and the landing ship medium

(LSM). These ships ranged in size from the LST’s 4,080 tons to the LSM’s nine hundred

tons, had ranges of four to six thousand miles, and made speeds of less than thirteen

knots. While they were slow, both had one key characteristic—they were beachable.

LSTs and LSMs formed a fleet of “one-way, one-shot” intratheater connectors that augmented the larger amphibious warships.219 Nearly 1,700 of these ships were built during

World War II, and they saw extensive action in all theaters.220

After the war, the smaller LSM faded quickly from service, but the larger LST lived on.

Many World War II LSTs were reactivated for the Korean War, and twenty-two new

LSTs were built during and after that conflict. They were all later replaced by twenty

Newport-class LSTs, the ultimate beachable U.S. landing ship. At 8,450 tons, the

Newports traded in the clamshell doors characteristic of earlier LSTs for an elevated bow ramp. This arrangement allowed them to keep up with the twenty-knot,

transoceanic amphibious ships developed during the Cold War.221 However, indicative

of the declining interest in amphibious operations during the late Cold War and its im

mediate aftermath, the ships were retired during the 1990s without replacement, long

before the end of their thirty-five-to-forty-year service lives.222

The only remaining intratheater connectors that can beach themselves are found in a

vestigial force of nine Besson-class vehicle landing ships (LSVs) and thirty-five large

LCU-2000s operated by the Army Transportation Corps. The former displace 4,199

tons, with a range of 5,500 nm and a speed of twelve knots; the latter displace 1,102 tons

and have a range of 4,500 miles and a speed of 11.5 knots. Both can discharge vehicles

directly over a beach. However, the ships are optimized solely for the intratheater trans

port of vehicles; they do not have the troop berthing to carry intact combat units.223

The inability of either the Army or Navy to deliver small intact combat units over a

beach severely hampers the emerging visions of operational maneuver from the sea

and operational maneuver from strategic distances. As a result, both the Army and

Navy began thinking about new intratheater connectors that could be used in these

roles. The Army after Next program called for the development of a Theater Support

Vessel, or TSV, which could discharge intact combat units through austere ports or even

across beaches, thereby complementing the larger High Speed Shallow Draft Ships.224

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The HSV would perform the role of high-speed logistics connector for a sea base

transferring personnel equipment from theater land bases to the sea base, betwee

ships in the sea base, and from the sea base to shore. By virtue of its modular des

the HSV could also perform additional roles, such as mine warfare or support of 

cial operations forces.225 Rather than “one-way, one-shot” connectors, Navy plann

envisioned the HSV as a multifunctional component of a sea base.

Since 2001, the Army, Navy, and Marines have experimented with no fewer than 

distinct types of these vessels. One of the vessels was used to support OIF, and an

continues to provide logistical support to Marines on Okinawa as part of the LPF

experiments proved promising enough to prompt both the Army and Navy to lau

formal procurement programs for high-speed, sea-based, intratheater connector

Happily, in late 2004 the Army and Navy signed a memorandum of intent to mer

TSV and HSV programs into the single Joint High Speed Vessel program mentio

above.227 The intent was to develop a common hull form to lower costs and ensur

interoperability between the two vessels. Critically, the JHSV will have an ability 

ject intact combat units from a sea base or theater base directly into an enemy’s d

fended territory. The aim of the program is to:

provide high speed intratheater surface connector capability to rapidly deploy selected portion

joint force that can immediately transition to execution, even in the absence of developed infras

ture, and conduct deployment and sustainment activities in support of multiple, simultaneous, dis

uted, decentralized battles and campaigns. The primary missions include: support to Theater

Cooperation Program and Global War on Terrorism, littoral maneuver, and sea basing.228

The JHSV program will result in a modern version of the LSTs and LSMs of W

War II but will do those ships one better. JHSV will transport forces and suppli

from in-theater intermediate support bases to the sea base or directly to the JO

transport personnel and supplies within a sea base; or transport personnel, sup

or intact combat units from the sea base to the shore. As with its predecessors, 

speed will likely be less important than payload capability and the ability to de

payloads directly to the shore.

The cargo and assault connector, the third type, is used to get cargo, personnel, an

equipment from the sea base ashore. Cargo connectors include lighterage and ot

craft used to off-load maritime prepositioning, surge sealift, and other cargo ship

stream, in unimpeded- or guarded-access conditions. These consist of side-loadi

warping tugs, amphibious warping tugs, powered causeway sections, unpowered 

toon causeways, and self-propelled joint modular lighters. These cargo connecto

be used only in protected harbors or benign sea states. One side-loading warping 

and three or four powered causeway sections are normally carried by each MPF s

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connectors—landing craft or other special-purpose craft that are carried by the larger

ships in the sea base. These special-purpose vessels have always played a vital role in

amphibious operations.230 In 1944 alone, over twenty-five thousand landing craft

weighing less than fifty tons were built—an average of ten for every large sea-base maneuver platform or intratheater connector.231 Until a VTOL rotor or aircraft can be developed that lifts twenty-five or more tons, ship-to-shore surface connectors will

remain the preferred means of transporting heavy equipment ashore.

The most capable ship-to-shore surface connectors include the landing craft air cushion, the landing craft utility, and the landing craft medium (LCM). The forty-plus-kno

LCAC can deliver from sixty to seventy-five tons across 70 percent of the world’s beaches

The LCU is a displacement landing craft capable of transporting up to 190 tons directly

to the beach at speeds of eleven knots; the smaller LCM can deliver from thirty-four to

sixty-five tons of cargo directly to the beach at approximately twelve knots.232

Given the ambitious goals of operational maneuver from the sea and ship-to-objective

maneuver, as well as Navy sea-basing plans, it is unsurprising that these connectors are

being thoroughly modernized. At least seventy-two of the ninety-one original LCACs

are being put through a service-life extension program (SLEP) to delay disposal, improve engine performance, and perform upgrades.233 The LCACs will be augmented by

the end of the next decade (and eventually replaced) by a new, more capable LCAC(X)

Additionally, the slow but dependable LCUs are to be replaced by a far more capable

replacement heavy landing craft, or LCH(X). This craft is expected to have a speed of

thirty knots and carry 2,200 short tons.234

Ship-to-objective surface connectors are special assault connectors designed to transport

a combat team directly from the ship to an inland objective without needing to unload

on the beach. In essence these amphibious assault vehicles (AAVs) are armored vehicles

that “swim” to the shore at relatively low speeds (eight knots) and then operate as armored personnel carriers. The current AAV is the AAVP7 (i.e., the seventh in the series). It is protected by reactive armor and armed with a .50-caliber heavy machine gun

and a 40 mm grenade launcher; it can carry eighteen Marines.235

The AAV is scheduled to be replaced by the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, or EFV. Although it will carry three fewer troops, the EFV will be much better armed and protected

However, its most dramatic improvement will be in its mobility; it is designed to achieve

water speeds as high as twenty-five miles per hour and to have the cross-country mobility

of an M1 tank. Marines hope the EFV will allow them to perform high-speed, protected

tactical maneuvers directly from the ship to an inland objective.236

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around eight million dollars a copy. Current Marine plans are to buy over a thousa

the vehicles, enough to outfit two amphibious and three MPF brigades. Assuming 

hicle is deemed operationally effective, the expeditionary force recommended abov

would require a maximum of four, and a minimum of two, brigades’ worth of EFV

maximum buy would equip three amphibious brigades and one MPF “swing” brig

The minimum buy would equip two forcible-entry amphibious brigades.

In the years after World War II the Marines pioneered the use of helicopters as sh

objective aerial connectors. Today, all three of the Marines’ utility and troop lift he

ters, and the AH-1 helicopter gunship as well, are updated variants of helicopters 

developed during the Vietnam War. Not surprisingly, the Marines plan to replace 

upgrade them all.

The CH-46 medium troop-lift helicopters will be replaced with the MV-22 tilt-ro

which combines the vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of a helicopter with 

high speed of a turboprop aircraft. The transition is long overdue; more than twe

years after the start of the “JVX” program that led to its development, the MV-22 

yet to enter squadron service, because of a series of crashes and nagging design p

lems.237 However, it appears that the MV-22’s troubles are now behind it.238 With 

MV-22 the Marines will have an aircraft that “is twice as fast, can carry three tim

much, and goes six times farther than the aging CH-46Es” it replaces.239

The MV-22’s sharp increase in performance also comes at a sharp increase in pri

With a current fly-away cost of $70 million or more, the MV-22 is putting heavy 

sure on the aviation procurement account at the same time DoN is trying to fun

number of other important aircraft programs. Setting aside the question of its hi

costs, the fundamental issue is whether or not the MV-22 is the best fit for the em

ing Sea-as-Base Maneuver Fleet. The answer is: perhaps not.240

Why? In short, the MV-22 appears to be a poor fit in the system of systems of shi

shore aerial connectors. For example, the MV-22’s speed and range are much gre

than those of the heavy-lift helicopters that haul the landing force equipment, th

ity helicopters that provide command and control during aerial maneuver opera

or the helicopter gunships that would normally escort it. A force making a deep a

sertion using MV-22s will need to be escorted by AV-8Bs or JSFs and will be limi

what the MV-22 can carry inside its cargo box. Therein lies the second rub—alth

its cargo “box” is slightly larger than that of the CH-46 it replaces, because of its 

nal seating arrangement the MV-22’s designed load of twenty-four Marines is an 

tremely tight fit. One Marine sergeant involved in the operational testing of the p

believes the aircraft’s true combat load to be closer to twelve Marines.241

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wide at its narrowest point, it can carry only specially modified “internally transportable vehicles”—small jeeplike four-wheel-drive vehicles capable of carrying no more

than four Marines. Moreover, although it can carry more than ten thousand pounds

externally, when it does it sacrifices its speed and range advantages over a helicopter. At

present, it can carry its full external load at speeds up to 110–120 miles per hour over a

radius of only about seventy miles.242

Summing up, then, the MV-22 is a superb high-speed people mover. As such, it is best

suited for Vietnam-era air-assault missions involving the insertion of foot-mobile

troops supported by a few small gun carriers or reconnaissance vehicles, the seizure of

airheads, or deep raids.243 Indeed, the aircraft’s deep raiding and insertion capability ex

plains the interest of the Special Operations Command (SoCom) in the aircraft.244

However, the MV-22 appears far less well suited to service as the Marines’ primary

ship-to-objective aerial connector in forcible-entry operations, primarily because of its

limited internal cargo capacity and its impact on the size and design of the Amphibious Landing Fleet.

Since the MV-22 can hold no more troops than the original CH-46—and potentially

less—Marine Corps plans have long assumed that the future MV-22 squadron will

require the same twelve aircraft as the current CH-46 squadron. As discussed earlier,

this has unfortunate ramifications for the sea base, because the MV-22 is twice as big

and twice as heavy as the CH-46. Indeed, the aircraft’s size is the primary cause of the

dramatic increase in the number of spots needed to sea base a MEB’s worth of rotarywing aircraft. While four twelve-plane CH-46 squadrons require forty-eight shipboard spots, four twelve-plane MV-22 squadrons require 106.56 spots. In essence,

then, a two-MEB operation supported by MV-22s requires two to three more LHD

equivalents than one supported by the CH-46. The fifth LHAR and two new T-JAVBs

recommended earlier would make up the spot shortfall, at a shipbuilding cost of approximately $3.4 billion. These shipbuilding costs should be considered overhead for

the MV-22 program. For an aircraft buy of 360 MV-22s, this amounts to a $9.7 million shipbuilding premium per aircraft, on top of its current fly-away cost of over

$70 million.

This is a very steep price for a high-speed aerial personnel mover. As the DSB pointed out,

the key to getting dramatic improvements in the operational capabilities of a sea base is to

develop an aerial connector that can compete with surface connectors in payload. Accordingly, there have been increasing calls for a number of heavy-lift ship-to-objective aerial

connectors. These include “Quad Tilt-rotors”;245 blimps;246 a Joint Heavy Lift aircraft with

lift fans;247 and gyro-copters.248 All of these concepts are exciting; however, they are likely

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rameters of a future Joint Heavy Lift aircraft, and if the MV-22 is any indication, the 

of developing such a system will be high.249 Moreover, no one is quite sure how big su

heavy-lift aircraft would be or what its potential impact on the sea base would be. Th

rine Deputy Commandant for Aviation, Lieutenant General Michael Hough, has esti

that an aircraft capable of lifting twenty-five tons over four or five hundred miles at s

of 350 knots—the general characteristics desired by the Defense Science Board—wou

weigh two hundred thousand pounds when fully loaded and require a flight deck 1,2

long—figures that current and planned sea-base ships cannot support.250

Rather than waiting for the Joint Heavy Lift aircraft to be defined and developed

Marines have opted to purchase 154 new CH-53Xs, a follow-on to the CH-53E h

lift helicopter now in service. The CH-53E can carry a six-ton payload over a com

radius of 110 nautical miles or a sixteen-ton payload over a combat radius of fift

tical miles. With its new engines, new rotors, and other improvements, designers 

the CH-53X will be able to carry a payload of from 13.5 to sixteen tons over a 11

radius at half the operating cost of the CH-53E;251 it has three times the load of a 

53E over ranges of two hundred nautical miles.252

The Marines cannot get the CH-53X fast enough to suit them. The current CH-5

fleet continues to be heavily used in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the airframes are 

ing out much faster than expected. Estimates are that in 2010 the Marine Corps w

need to start removing about fifteen helicopters a year from service as they reach 

end of their design lives. Even if the Marines were to start a crash program to dev

CH-53X, it would likely not be ready before 2015. Further, a crash program is no

likely.253 With money tight, the assistant secretary of the navy for Research, Devel

ment, and Acquisition has refused to allow the program to go forward until $800 

lion for it is found within existing budgets.254

Given the CH-53X’s superior personnel and cargo-hauling capability, freeing up D

funds to procure the CH-53X appears to be an important step toward improving t

fleet’s sea-based maneuver capabilities. One option might be to truncate the MV/C

buy at approximately 175–200 aircraft, with the aim of creating a Joint Tilt-Rotor F

of ten twelve-plane squadrons. The entire force would be upgraded to the CV-22 st

dard, with upgraded terrain-following radar, a suite of integrated radio-frequency 

termeasures, and directed infrared countermeasures. These modifications would en

the joint CV-22 force to “go anywhere, anytime, and come back”—an enviable cha

istic for a national deep raiding force.255 The best home for the Joint Tilt-Rotor For

could likely be U.S. SoCom, the supported commander for the global war against t

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into accelerating the CH-53X’s development and pursuing it as the single primary surface-to-objective aerial connector.256 Although it is about 20 percent larger than the

MV-22, the CH-53X is capable of lifting many more troops and much more cargo over

the operational ranges associated with an attack from the sea.257 It is also capable of lift

ing more powerful vehicles ashore. An all-CH-53X force thus would likely require

fewer total aircraft than a mixed MV-22/CH-53 fleet. The necking-down to a single pri

mary sea-based aerial connector would also save O&S dollars.

A second option would be to pursue an alternative medium-lift/heavy-lift rotary-wing

force with a less expensive medium helicopter in place of the MV-22. There are three

likely potential candidates: the CH-60, CH-92, and EH-101.258 However, given the

much greater lifting capacity of the CH-53X, as well as the increased costs associated

with introducing a new airframe into fleet service, an all-CH-53X force looks to be

both more attractive and more flexible than any of these options.

A third alternative, of course, would be to continue to buy the MV-22 as planned but to

replace CH-46s with MV-22s on less than a one-for-one basis. Indeed, because the

transition to the MV-22 is much slower than originally planned and CH-46s are nearing the ends of their service lives, the Marines already intend to replace every four CH46s with three MV-22s over the near to middle term, resulting in “interim” squadrons

of nine aircraft.259 By making this plan permanent, the DoN would both free up money

for development of the CH-53X and reduce the deck-spotting factor for a 2.0-MEB

forcible-entry operation by more than an LHD equivalent.260 The strongest argument

for this option is that further delay in replacing the tired CH-46 fleet is simply not pru

dent. Moreover, despite its operational limitations and high costs, the MV-22’s speed

and range improvements will undoubtedly create new operational opportunities, especially for the forward-deployed amphibious crisis-response forces.

Summary of Recommendations for the Sea-as-Base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet

To recap, here are the recommendations for the design of a new Sea-as-Base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet capable of playing a major role in the global war on terrorism,

in joint forcible-entry operations, and in expeditionary campaigns against more traditional enemies.

• Consistent with the goal of taking Marine tactical aviation back to sea, the eleventh

CVN in the current Navy shipbuilding plan should be replaced by four new

Commencement Bay LHARs. The ships would be built in fiscal 2007, 2010, 2013, and

2016. These ships would normally be employed as escort carriers, supporting

Marine, and possibly Air Force, STOVL JSFs.

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Amphibious Landing Fleet equipped with eight LHDs and twenty-four LPD 1

Fourteen additional LPD 17s above the ten now in the plan should be purcha

a rate of one per year, from FY 2009 to FY 2022. The first twelve LPD 17s wou

replace the eleven aging LPD-4s; the final twelve LPD 17s would replace the L

49s on a one-for-one basis.

• Current ESG formations should be reorganized into eight distributed expedit

strike bases, each consisting of one LHD, one CG 52, three LPD 17s, three DD

79s, and a two-ship LCS division. With one DESB homeported in Japan, the

remaining seven would keep one DESB rotationally deployed in the Indian O

The remainder of the force would be postured for rapid surge in support of a 

major combat operation or a two-brigade JFEO.

• The DoN should support Army plans to reorganize its Combat Logistics Forc

a three-squadron Army Strategic Flotilla. Each squadron is designed to deploy 

support a “1 x 1” heavy unit of action through a prepared port. This reorgani

in turn, will open up the possibility of reorganizing the DoN’s own Maritime

Prepositioning Force (discussed below).

• The current Logistics Prepositioning Force should be expanded and reorganiz

into a joint offshore logistics support base. The mission of the support base w

be to provide logistics support to joint forces ashore until an expeditionary th

infrastructure could be established. Notional planning requirements for ships 

direct support of the fleet include six tankers, three T-AKE selective-offload c

ships, and two six-hundred-TEU containerships. Requirements for the DLA a

distribution center, Army supply support activity afloat, and Air Force suppor

requirements would be established by the respective agencies and department

• To provide sea-based aviation support for joint aviation units, the Logistics

Prepositioning Force would also receive three new aviation support ships—an

LHAR and two T-JAVBs.

• The additional LHAR should be purchased in FY 19 and transferred to the M

Sealift Command for operations as part of JOLSB. This recommendation is 

on the assumption that the expected service lives of LHDs and LHARs can b

extended to thirty-nine years. The cost of the extra ship would be absorbed w

planned payments of a newly established capital account for aviation powerprojection ships. The ship could be used in a variety of roles: as a rotary-win

aviation transport, as a joint aviation support base, as a special operations su

base, or to support major forcible-entry operations.

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based on the Maersk S-class hull. The possibility of a six-ship buy with the Army

which is looking into the possibility of sea-basing an air-assault BCT, should be

explored. Because the hulls are foreign designed and built, procuring Maersk Sclass ships would require congressional approval.

• The DoD and DoN should initiate a MULBERRY 21 program as part of the LPF to

create the joint capability to create rapidly a protected harbor and theater logistics

portal anywhere in the world.

• The leases for the three MPF squadrons should be bought out, and a total of ten of

sixteen ships should be converted to irregular-warfare maritime support bases, similar

to the modifications made to the USNS Stockham. These ten ships would be organized

into five two-ship irregular-warfare squadrons, positioned at Ascension Island

(assuming the approval of the government of Britain), Italy, Diego Garcia, Palau

(assuming approval of the government of Palau), and Guam. The heavy combat

equipment now stored on these ten ships would be positioned in northwestern

Australia (assuming approval of the government of Australia); one equipment set

would support combined-arms training between Marine Corps and Australian army

units, and the other would represent prepositioned war reserve stocks.

• A single six-ship MPF squadron should remain anchored at Diego Garcia,

earmarked to reinforce either a major stability operation or a major combat

operation. This squadron would become the focus of sea-basing experimentation.

The final selection for future MPF(F) ships would be dictated by the outcome of

joint sea-basing experiments and be heavily influenced by the size of future highspeed connectors. In the interim, this squadron would be unit and combat loaded to

the greatest extent practical and be augmented with additional cargo connectors to

improve its in-stream cargo-offload capability.

• The eight FSSs should be replaced by an eight-ship class of thirty-six-to-thirtynine-knot Austere Access High Speed Ships designed to transport the equipment

and personnel of a modular Army division over transoceanic distances and insert

them through austere ports or over beaches. The intent of the program would be to

increase the number of heavy ground-combat brigades delivered in ready-to-fight

combat condition.

• The Joint High Speed Vessel Program needs to be continued, with a goal of creating

a family of intratheater connectors to augment both the Amphibious Landing Fleet

and the Austere Access Shallow Draft Ship. Vessels that can discharge their cargo

over a beach would be the most versatile. The final number of ships bought should

be determined by further analysis.

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force, by reducing the number of aircraft in planned MV-22 squadrons from t

to nine and diverting the money saved to develop the CH-53X. The result wou

a mixed MV-22/CH-53X aerial ship-to-objective connector force.

Exploiting the Sea as a Joint Base

The U.S. Navy enjoys a level of naval supremacy perhaps unmatched since Athens 

the Delian League. As a result, in the early decades of the Joint Expeditionary Era, t

United States can claim the sea as a vast base of operations—with all the attendant 

gic, operational, and tactical benefits.

Unfortunately, the current conception of sea basing is focused primarily on land

and supporting one or two brigades from the sea within ten to fourteen days. Wh

such a capability may be desirable, pursuing it is diverting attention and resource

from the development of other, more important oceanic base characteristics. It is 

to reassess the current direction of the joint sea base and to make the changes ne

to develop the sea as a joint base.

The Sea-as-Base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet outlined herein is designed with 

goal in mind. It is a fleet equally capable of supporting the global war on terroris

projecting power through a littoral defended by a small number of nuclear weap

is based around improvements to the Amphibious Landing Fleet rather than to t

Maritime Prepositioning Force. The amphibious fleet is designed to assemble an

port a two-brigade JFEO from purpose-built amphibious warships. The Maritim

Prepositioning Force is reshaped to provide direct support to the global war on t

ism and to reinforce either a JFEO or a major stability operation.

The Sea-as-Base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet also better supports operational m

neuver from strategic distances by replacing eight aging fast sealift ships with Au

Access Shallow Draft Ships capable of moving three intact Army units of action a

speeds across transoceanic distances. It also includes a much expanded and more 

ble Logistics Prepositioning Force, capable either of forming a joint offshore logi

support base for amphibious operations or of assembling a theater logistic porta

transshipping equipment, supplies, and personnel through an artificial harbor, a 

BERRY 21. It enables the joint force to operate in any of four littoral access condit

unimpeded, guarded, defended, or contested.

This Sea-as-Base Expeditionary Maneuver Fleet will provide the joint force with im

proved global freedom of action, operational flexibility, and tactical options. As suc

will provide the nation with a truly asymmetrical advantage in the twenty-first cen

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1. See, for example, Lorna S. Jaffe, The Development of the Base Force 1989–1992 (Washington, D.C.: Joint History Office, Office of the

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, July

1993), p. 2.

2. National Defense Panel, Transforming Defense: National Security in the 21st Century

(Washington, D.C.: December 1997). The

panel’s final report can be found at Defense

Strategy Review, www.comw.org/qdr/

97qdr.html.

3. See “Aerospace Expeditionary Force,”

www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/

usaf/aef-intro.htm.

4. For a good discussion on RMAs, see James R.

FitzSimonds and Jan M. van Tol, “Revolutions in Military Affairs,” Joint Force Quarterly (Spring 2004), pp. 24–31.

5. . . . From the Sea (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Navy

Dept., September 1992), available at www

.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/

navy/fts.htm#INTRO [emphasis added].

6. As described in . . . From the Sea, “as a general concept, the littoral comprises two segments of the maritime battlespace; seaward—

the area from the open ocean to the shore

which must be controlled to support operations ashore; and landward—the area inland

from shore that can be supported and defended directly from the sea.” For a good discussion about the implications associated

with operating in shallow, more crowded littoral waters, see Stephan Nitschke, “Littoral

Warfare: A New Name for an Old Mission?”

Naval Forces, no. 3 (2005), pp. 16–27.

7. Wayne P. Hughes [Capt., USN (Ret.)], Fleet

Tactics and Coastal Combat (Annapolis, Md.:

Naval Institute Press, 2000), p. 9.

8. The ships the DoN officially counts as part

of its war fleet are collectively known as the

“Total Ship Battle Force” (TSBF). However,

the Navy operates many additional ships.

The official TSBF numbers on these two

dates were drawn from U.S. Naval Historical

Center, “U.S. Navy Active Ship Force Levels,”

www.history.navy.mil/branches.

9. Report of the Quadrennial Defense Review

(Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secretary of

Defense, May 1977), available at www.comw.

org/qdr/97qdr.html. The QDR did not explicitly say the TSBF target was 305 ships.

This number came from the review’s supporting documentation.

10. Report of the Quadrennial Defense Review,

sec. V, “Forces and Manpower.”

11. These figures are derived from Robert O.

Work, “To Take and Keep the Lead”: A Nava

Fleet Platform Architecture for Enduring

Maritime Supremacy (Washington, D.C.:

Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2006).

12. “Traditional Challenges” form one of the

four quadrants of DoD’s “Quad Chart,” a

graphic depiction of the types of challenges

in the 2005 QDR security environment. See

Ryan Henry, “Defense Transformation and

the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review,” Parameters (Winter 2005–2006), p. 13. See also

U.S. Army Dept., “Annex D, Changing Security Environment,” United States Army, www

.army.mil/references/ASPG-AnnexD.Doc.

13. “Irregular Challenges” describe a second of

the four quadrants found in the new DoD

“Quad Chart.” See Henry, “Defense Transformation and the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review,” p. 13.

14. “Catastrophic Challenges” define the third o

four quadrants found in the new DoD

“Quad Chart.” See Henry, “Defense Transformation and the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review,” p. 13.

15. “Disruptive Challenges” define the fourth

quadrant in the DoD “Quad Chart.” See

Henry, “Defense Transformation and the

2005 Quadrennial Defense Review,” p. 13.

16. See, for example, Loren B. Thompson, PhD,

The Hidden Dangers of Networked Warfare,

Lexington Institute Issue Brief (Arlington,

Va.: 17 June 2005).

17. For one vision of unmanned robotic warfare

see Rowan Scarborough writing in the 8 May

2005 Washington Times.

18. Samuel Huntington, “National Policy and

the Transoceanic Navy,” U.S. Naval Institute

Proceedings (May 1954). This superb short

article, written nine years after the end of

World War II, is in essence a call to naval

leaders to think more broadly about the

Navy’s role in a new national-security policy

era. Huntington’s powerful thoughts inform

my thinking and infuse this chapter.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:41 AM
operate and dominate in littoral waters, see

Barry R. Posen, “Command of the Commons,” International Security 28, no. 1 (Summer 2003), pp. 5–46.

20. Anti-access and area-denial threats include a

number of actions that can be taken outside

the environs of the littoral. For a good conceptual overview of A2/AD threats, see F. G.

Hoffman, “Sailing in a Fog of Peace: Future

Anti-Access Threats,” a PowerPoint presentation given at the National Defense University

on 9 July 2002.

21. Norman Friedman, “Globalization and

Anti-Access Strategies?” in Globalization

and Maritime Power, ed. Sam J. Tangredi

(Washington, D.C.: National Defense Univ.

Press, 2002), pp. 487–501.

22. Charles W. Moore, Jr. [VAdm., USN], and

Edward Hanlon, Jr. [Lt. Gen., USMC], “Sea

Basing: Operational Independence for a New

Century,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings

(January 2003), p. 80.

23. Vern Clark [Adm., USN], “Sea Power 21:

Projecting Decisive Joint Capabilities,” U.S.

Naval Institute Proceedings (October 2002).

24. Jack Murphy, History of the U.S. Marines (New

York: Exeter Books, 1984), pp. 58–82. For a

German “floating base” of the early years of

World War II, see Kenneth P. Hansen, “Raeder

versus Wegener: Conflict in German Naval

Strategy,” Naval War College Review 58, no. 4

(Autumn 2005), esp. pp. 98-99.

25. For a wonderful recap of battle force operations off Okinawa, see Thomas C. Hone,

“Seabasing: Poised for Takeoff,” in Transformation Trends, issued by the Office of Force

Transformation on 15 February 2005.

26. See “Ships for Victory,” Seawaves Magazine, www.seawaves.com/bookreviews/

shipsforvictory.htm.

27. As part of the Fleet Response Plan (FRP),

these six carriers would be joined by an additional two carriers within ninety days;

“Making Big Waves,” U.S. News and World

Report, 30 August 2004. For a more detailed

description of the FRP, see Michael D.

Malone [VAdm., USN], James M. Zortman

[RAdm., USN], and Samuel J. Papero [Cdr.,

USN], “Naval Aviation Raises the Readiness

Bar,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (February 2004), pp. 39–41.

Military Sealift Command, www.msc.

.mil/factsheet/apf.asp.

29. See “Maritime Prepositioning Force,” 

Navy’s Military Sealift Command, ww

.navy.mil/PM3/mpf.asp; Henry B. Co

[Maj., USANG], “Sea-Basing and the 

time Pre-positioning Force (Future),” 

tary Review (July–August 2004), pp. 5

30. This study is known as the Mobility R

ments Study Bottom Up Review Upd

U.S. Senate, Statement of General Cha

Robertson, U.S. Air Force, before the S

Armed Services Sea Power Subcommit

Strategic and Tactical Lift in the 21st C

10 March 1999, available at armed-se

.senate.gov/statemnt/1999/990310cr.

31. See “Combat Prepositioning Force”; “Ar

positioned Stock (APS-3),” Globalsecu

www.globalsecurity.org/military/agen

army/aps-3.htm; Robert A. Chilcoat 

vid S. Henderson, “Army Preposition

Afloat,” Joint Force Quarterly, Spring 

pp. 51–57.

32. See “Logistics Prepositioning Force,” 

Navy’s Military Sealift Command, ww

.navy.mil/pm3/lps.asp.

33. Norman Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of 

U.S. Fleet, 18th ed. (Annapolis, Md.: 

Institute Press, 2005), pp. 305–306. F

purposes of this report, the eight FSS

considered capable of transporting th

equipment for three Army heavy uni

action (UAs).

34. See “Surge Project Office,” U.S. Navy

tary Sealift Command, www.msc.navy

pm5/surge.asp. Each LMSR can carry 

tire U.S. Army task force, including fi

eight tanks and forty-eight other trac

hicles, as well as more than nine hun

trucks and other wheeled vehicles. An 

armored UA has fifty-eight M1 tanks

two tracked Bradley fighting vehicles

sixteen tracked self-propelled howitz

report will therefore assume that an L

can lift approximately 75 percent of a 

equivalent. See the “LMSR Fact Shee

Navy’s Military Sealift Command, ww

.navy.mil/N00P/Savannah/fact-lmsr.h

also Andre Maraoui, “A New Dimens

Strength,” Sea Power (May 2003), pp. 

35. After a decade of lessons learned an

tical innovations, during Operation 

FREEDOM eleven MPF ships carrying 

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:41 AM
pletely off-loaded pierside between 16 January and 4 February 2003. The ships were

off-loaded in an average of forty-eight

hours—five days less than planned. Instream off-loads would take far longer; David Vergun, “Outfitting the Operating

Force,” Sea Power (May 2003), pp. 36–38.

36. RSOI encompasses “all of the activities

needed to receive a unit’s equipment and personnel at air and sea ports of debarkation; activities necessary to reorganize personnel and

equipment into cohesive units following strategic airlift and sealift; their movement forward to marshaling, staging, and tactical

assembly areas; and their integration into the

Combatant Commander’s command and

control and logistics structures.” Details can

be found in Joint Tactics Techniques, and Procedures for Joint Reception, Staging, Onward

Movement, and Integration, Joint Publication

4-01.8 (Washington, D.C.: Joint Staff, 13

June 2000), available at www.jdtc.transcom

.mil. See also “RSOI” at United States Joint

Forces Command, www.jdtc.jfcom.mil/

DeploymentFAQ/faqpage11.htm.

37. See Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S.

Fleet, pp. 182–89.

38. Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet,

pp. 194–98. Several officers interviewed for

this chapter commented on the Navy’s failure to budget adequately for LSD maintenance in the 1990s. One interviewee referred

to the ships as the “amphibious Spru-can,” a

reference to the Spruance-class destroyers, of

which thirty-one were commissioned between 1975 and 1983. With planned thirtyfive-year service lives, the ships were expected to be in the fleet through 2017. But

the ships were “ridden hard” and not properly maintained; all but three have been retired, and those three will soon be gone.

39. See Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S.

Fleet, pp. 190–93.

40. Howard Petrea [Capt., USN (Ret.)] et al.,

“Expeditionary Strike Group Becomes Reality,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (October 2003), pp. 44–47; Greg Tyler, “ESG

Touted as Future of the Navy,” Pacific Stars

and Stripes, 23 April 2004; Jason Ma, “Admiral Touts ESG’s Quick-Response Capability

for War on Terror,” Inside the Navy, 11 October 2004, p. 1.

CBO], The Future of the Navy’s Amphibious

and Maritime Prepositioning Forces (Washington, D.C.: November 2004), pp. 7–9.

42. Ibid.

43. See “Ready Reserve Force Ships,” U.S. Navy’s

Military Sealift Command, www.msc.navy

.mil/inventory/inventory.asp?var=RRF.

44. Frank Randall, “Military Sealift Command

Maintains an Accelerated Pace,” Seapower

(July 2004), p. 32.

45. A fourth step, reconstitution of forces, occurs

after the power-projection operation has

been completed.

46. See U.S. Army Center of Military History,

www.army.mil/cmh/lineage/cc/inf.htm.

47. “Ship Force Levels, 8/14/45,” at U.S. Naval

Historical Center, www.history.navy.mil/

branches/org9-4.htm#1945.

48. John P. Higgins [LCdr., USN], “Gators: An

Endangered Species?” Globalsecurity.org,

www.Globalsecurity.org/military/library/

report/1995/HJP.htm.

49. The Army modular reorganization aimed to

create forty-three to forty-eight brigade UAs

it appears the plan has settled on forty-three

See Joshua Kucera, “The U.S. Army Aims to

Upgrade Entire Bradley Fleet,” Jane’s Defense

Weekly, 20 July 2005, p. 8.

50. “Mobile Offshore Bases,” Globalsecurity.org,

www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/

ship/mob.htm; Christopher J. Castelli, “DoD

Panel Mulls Seabasing Ideas, including Mobile Offshore Bases,” Inside the Navy, 18 November 2002, p. 1.

51. See Pat Towell, “‘Mobile Offshore Base’ Proposal Has Slew of Powerful Opponents,”

Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 15 February

2003, p. 382.

52. These two concept papers can be found at

Office of the Chief of Naval Operations for Ex

peditionary Warfare (the website of N75 of

the Naval Staff), www.exwar.org/Htm/

ConceptDocs/NADPGR/navyusmc.htm.

53. For a good synopsis of how Marines now

view amphibious operations, see Christian

Lowe, “Beyond the Beach,” Armed Forces

Journal (January 2005), pp. 20–25.

54. National Defense Panel, Transforming Defense: National Security in the 21st Century

(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Defense Dept.,

1997), p. 12.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:41 AM
of Sea Basing in the Twenty-first Century,” in

Defense Science Task Force on Sea Basing

(Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secretary of

Defense, August 2003), app. E, p. 137, available

at www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/seabasing.pdf.

56. Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps [hereafter

HQMC], Maritime Prepositioning Force 2010

and Beyond (Washington, D.C.: 30 December 1997), available at www.fas.org/man/

dod-101/sys/ship/docs/mpf-2010.htm.

57. For an overview of this planning, see

Charles M. Herndon [Maj., USMC], “Amphibious Forces: The Gulf War (A Study in

Quick Response and the Versatility of Amphibious Forces),” U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 1992, available at

Globalsecurity.org, www.globalsecurity.org/

military/library/report/1992/HCM.htm.

58. HQMC, Maritime Prepositioning Force 2010

and Beyond.

59. This is a key point, driven home by all those

interviewed who took part in the development of 2010 and Beyond.

60. The World Wide Web is a rich source of

materials on the Army after Next project.

For a summary overview of the project, see

“Army after Next,” Sourcewatch.org, www

.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Army

_ After_ Next.

61. “The purpose of operational maneuver from

strategic distance is to achieve a deployment

momentum that not only permits rapid seizure of the initiative but also never relinquishes it.” It is often defined by Army officers

as the direct injection of combat forces into a

JOA from outside the theater. Huba Wass de

Czege [Brig. Gen., USA] and Zbigniew M.

Majchrzak [Lt. Col., USA (Ret.)], “Operational Maneuver From Strategic Distances,”

Military Review (May–June 2002).

62. Ibid. [emphasis added].

63. Ibid.

64. Towell, “‘Mobile Offshore Base’ Proposal Has

Slew of Powerful Opponents,” p. 382; Andrew Koch, “Boost for Sea-Basing Concept,”

Jane’s Defense Weekly, 13 August 2003.

65. Andrew Koch, “USA Looks to Enhance SeaBasing Capabilities,” Jane’s Defense Weekly,

22 May 2002.

66. See “Operation Enduring Freedom: Deployments,” Globalsecurity.org, www

-freedom_deploy.htm.

67. For a good synopsis of initial Marine 

tions in Afghanistan, see Jay M. Holt

[Capt., USMC], “The 15th Marine Ex

tionary Unit’s Seizure of Camp Rhin

rine Corps Gazette (June 2002), pp. 4

68. For a thorough discussion on the im

Turkey’s refusal to allow the 4th Infa

Division to launch attacks from its s

On Point: The United States Army in 

tion Iraqi Freedom, Globalsecurity.o

globalsecurity.org/military/library/r

2004/onpoint/index.html.

69. For example, in 1986, the French and 

ish governments denied aircraft over

rights for the punitive U.S. raids agai

Libya. See “Operation EL DORADO CA

Globalsecurity.org, www.globalsecur

military/ops/el_dorado_canyon.htm

70. Ironically, it is the spread of democrac

ensures this. In any event, access appr

by no means automatic in the Garriso

71. Defense Science Task Force on Sea Bas

(Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secr

Defense, August 2003), pp. iii–iv.

72. Ibid., pp. 14–18 [emphasis added].

73. Ibid., p. 29.

74. This assumption was made explicit in 

sentation by Dr. William Howard, m

of the DSB Task Force on Seabasing, 

“The Seabasing Dirty Dozen: Issues t

Addressed to Enable Seabasing,” give

sea-basing conference sponsored by

Raytheon Corporation, 16–18 Februa

[hereafter Raytheon conference].

75. Defense Science Task Force on Sea Basin

76. See Department of Defense Dictionary 

itary and Associated Terms, Joint Pub

1-02 (Washington, D.C.: Joint Staff, 1

2001, amended), available at www.dt

doctrine/jel/doddict.

77. See “Amphibious Warfare: Cold War 

Office of the Chief of Naval Operation

peditionary Warfare, www.exwar.org/

8000PopE7.htm, and Norman Freidm

U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft (An

Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2002), cha

78. Defense Science Task Force on Sea Bas

21 [emphasis added].

79. Ibid., pp. 29–32.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:41 AM
conditions. They are measured by the

Pierson-Moskowitz Sea Spectrum Table or

the Beaufort Scale, which define nine seastate levels (0 to 8). The higher the sea state,

the more extreme the ocean conditions:

“Heavy weather is any weather condition

that results in high winds, extreme sea states,

and heavy rain, snow and/or hail. Obviously,

weather of this type results in extremely uncomfortable conditions on board ship. Excessive rolls, yaws, pitches, coupled with

taking on water make work and living dangerous. There are a multitude of hazards that

occur in heavy weather. Objects can slide or

fall on personnel, causing injury. Personnel

can fall into machinery or equipment. Personnel working exposed to the weather can

be washed overboard or against fixed objects. Heavy weather is as dangerous now as

it was during the days of sail, and all personnel must be aware of potential hazards and

safety requirements.” Sea state 4, in the middle of the scale, is described as a “fresh

breeze,” with many whitecaps and a chance

of sea spray, winds speeds of 17–21 knots,

and average wave heights of 3.8 to five feet.

See “Military Weather,” Globalsecurity.org,

www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/

ship/weather.htm. The DSB believed that the

current amphibious landing force was capable of operations only in sea states 1 and 2.

81. Comment by Maj. Gen. J. B. Dutton, CBE,

commander of United Kingdom Amphibious Forces, Royal Marines, Raytheon

conference.

82. Defense Science Task Force on Sea Basing,

pp. ix–x.

83. Murray, “The Operational Issues of Sea

Basing in the Twenty-First Century.”

84. This and the following paragraphs are based

upon a series of interviews conducted by the

author with participants of OA 2003.

85. See Greg Jaffe, “Battle Lines: Rumsfeld’s Push

for Speed Fuels Pentagon Dissent,” Wall

Street Journal, 16 May 2005.

86. See Moore and Hanlon, “Sea Basing.”

87. “Dawson: OSD to Create New Joint

Seabasing Concept Office,” Inside the Navy,

19 January 2004. For a good overview of

how sea basing fits into the JCIDS process,

see Col. Greg Cook, USAF, “Joint Seabasing

and the JCIDS Process,” PowerPoint

2004expwarfare/cook.ppt#1.

88. “JROC Green Lights Effort to Integrate Joint

Seabasing Concepts,” Inside the Pentagon, 29

July 2004, p. 3; John T. Bennett, “Fusing

Concepts Will Culminate in Joint Seabasing

Capability Plan,” Inside the Pentagon, 12 August 2004, p. 1.

89. Edward Hanlon, Jr. [Lt. Gen., USMC], and

R. A. Route [RAdm., USN], “Enhanced Networked Seabasing,” Marine Corps Combat

Development Command and the Navy Warfare Development Command concept paper, n.d., available at www.nwdc.navy.mil/

Concepts/Sea_Basing/ENSeabasing.aspx;

Henry B. Cook, “Sea-Basing and the Maritim

Pre-Positioning Force (Future)”; Major John

M. Curatola, USMC, and Lieutenant Commander Robert Bovey, Jr., USN (ret), “The

Future Maritime Prepositioning Force,” U.S.

Naval Institute Proceedings November 2001.

90. Hone, “Seabasing: Poised for Takeoff.”

91. Colonel Vince Goulding, U.S. Marine

Corps, as cited in Malina Brown, “Navy

Marine Officials Argue Iraq War Validates

Need for Seabasing,” Inside the Navy, April

14, 2003, p. 1.

92. Marine Corps Combat Development Command, “Power Projection From the Seabase:

Issues, Challenges, Opportunities,” an undated PowerPoint briefing presentation; Andrew Koch, “Seabases Key to Speed,” Jane’s

Defense Weekly, June 11, 2004.

93. Andrew Koch, “USA Looks to Enhanced SeaBasing Capabilities”; Henry B. Cook, “SeaBasing and the Maritime Pre-Positioning

Force (Future)”; John M. Curatola [Maj.,

USMC] and Robert Bovey, Jr. [LCdr., USN

(Ret.)], “The Future Maritime Prepositioning

Force,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (November 2001).

94. Art Corbett [Col., USMC] and Vince

Goulding [Col., USMC (Ret.)], “Sea Basing:

What’s New,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceeding

(November 2002) [emphasis added].

95. “JROC Green Lights Effort to Integrate Joint

Seabasing Concepts”; “Sea Basing Would

Speed U.S. Marines to Trouble Spots,”

DefenseNews.com (August 2004).

96. “Kelly: Sea Basing Presents ‘Infinite Number

of Problems’ for the Enemy,” Sea Power (Jun

2004), p. 22.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:41 AM
Rely on Sea Basing,” Defense News, 17 January 2005, p. 4.

98. Jason Sherman, “A Cargo Ship with a JSF

Runway?” Defense News, 15 March 2004, p. 8.

99. Donna Miles, “Seabasing to Transform Marine Deployments, Commandant Says,”

American Forces Press Service, 9 June 2005.

100. Sherman, “A Cargo Ship with a JSF Runway?”

101. Squadron costs are found in Sherman, “A

Cargo Ship with a JSF Runway?” Ship estimates are found in Jason Ma, “Navy Aims to

Balance Industrial Base Needs in New

Seabasing Plan,” Inside the Navy, 2 May 2005.

102. “Washington Report,” Seapower (June

2005), p. 8.

103. For one critic’s analysis of sea basing, see

John P. Patch [Cdr., USN], “Chasing the

Dream,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings

(May 2005).

104. Christopher J. Castelli, “Meeting of Top Navy

Officials Sheds Light on Prepositioning Ships,”

Inside the Navy, 6 September 2004, p. 1.

105. CBO, The Future of the Navy’s Amphibious and

Maritime Prepositioning Forces; for a concise

summary of the report, see John T. Bennett,

“CBO Study: Navy Amphibious Ship, MPF(F)

Plans May Prove Too Costly,” Inside the Pentagon, 11 November 2004, pp. 3–4.

106. Andrew Koch, “U.S. Considers Overhaul of

Amphibious Forces,” Jane’s Defense Weekly, 5

May 2004.

107. Trading amphibious ships for the MPF(F)

has been a constant Navy position. See

Christopher J. Castelli, “Navy Wants to Cut

the Number of Strike Groups, Slash LPD-17

Shipbuilding,” Inside the Navy, 26 April 2004,

p. 1; Christopher J. Castelli, “ESG Cut Would

Be Gradual; Carrier Group Cut Possible,

But Harder,” Inside the Navy, 3 May 2004, p.

1; John T. Bennett, “Navy May Cut Number

of Expeditionary Strike Groups to Fund

MPF(F),” Inside the Pentagon, 12 July 2004, p.

1; Roxana Tiron, “Ships’ Costs Could Sink

Plans for Floating Military Bases,” National

Defense (January 2005).

108. This is evident in a PowerPoint presentation

entitled “MPF(F) Concept of Employment,”

in which Marine planners argue for a thirtysix-ship amphibious landing fleet plus two

MPF(F) squadrons.

tionary Strike Groups to Fund MPF(

110. Christopher J. Castelli, “Admiral Sees 

for More Dialogue between Services 

Seabasing,” Inside the Navy, 18 April 2

111. Seabasing Joint Integrating Concept (W

ington, D.C.: Joint Staff, 1 August 200

112. Information on the MPF(F) squadro

found in John J. Young, Assistant Sec

of the Navy for Research, Developme

Acquisition, Report to Congress, Mari

Prepositioning Force, Future, MPF(F), 

pared by Program Executive Officer fo

(Washington, D.C., June 2005). See al

val Leaders Finalize Plan for Maritime 

positioning Ships,” Inside the Navy, 7 J

2005; and Christopher P. Cavas, “Big C

for Sea Base: Large-Deck Amphibious 

Added to Pre-Positioning Squadron,” 

Times, 1 August 2005. Squadron cost

found “Maritime Prepositioning For

ture) Shipbuilding Requirements” of 

2005, a PowerPoint presentation to C

Hill staffers by the Marine Corps Com

Development Center.

113. Andrew Koch, “U.S. Navy Explores Join

Speed Cargo Ship,” Jane’s Defense Week

August 2005. This ship will be discusse

in the section on intertheater connecto

114. Andrew Koch, “U.S. Navy Shipbuildi

Takes On Water,” Jane’s Defense Week

June 2005.

115. For a thorough treatment of the Pent

Division and Army thinking on battl

nuclear operations in the 1950s, see A

Bacevich, The Pentomic Era (Washing

D.C.: National Defense Univ. Press, 1

and John J. Midgley, Jr., Deadly Illusi

Army Policy for the Nuclear Battlefield

cial Studies in National Security and 

Policy (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 198

a more detailed and particularly fasci

look at the Pentomic Division, see Jo

Cushman [Maj., USA], “Pentomic In

Division in Combat,” Military Review 

ary 1958), pp. 19–30.

116. See “Tactical Nuclear Warfare on Land

gic studies lecture notes from Political 

419 (lecture 16, 4 March 2004), Conco

University, available at artsandscience

.concordia.ca/poli419n/. These notes 

fascinating discussion of the use of ta

nuclear weapons in Europe.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:42 AM
direct-fire nuclear warfare at the battalion

level. It was a stubby, 150-pound rocket that

looked like a large mortar. See Bacevich,

Pentomic Era, pp. 95–96.

118. Edward L. Rowny [Col., USA], “Ground Tactics in an Atomic War,” Army Combat Forces

(August 1954), p. 19.

119. Bacevich, Pentomic Era, pp. 103–108.

120. Vergun, “Outfitting the Operating Force,” p.

37 [emphasis added].

121. Huntington, “National Policy and the Transoceanic Navy,” p. 491 [emphasis added].

122. J. W. Hammond, Jr. [Lt. Col., USMC],

“Seabase: The True Amphibious Operation,”

Marine Corps Gazette (April 1971).

123. Huntington, “National Policy and the Transoceanic Navy,” p. 491 [emphasis added].

124. This is quite clear in joint doctrine, which defines a forcible-entry operation as “seizing

and holding a military lodgment in the face of

armed opposition. A lodgment is a designated

area in a hostile or potentially hostile territory

that, when seized and held, makes the continuous landing of troops and material possible and

provides maneuver space for subsequent operations (a lodgment may be an airhead, a beachhead, or a combination thereof). A lodgment

may have established facilities and infrastructure (such as those found at international air

and sea ports) or may simply have an undeveloped landing strip, an austere drop zone,

or an obscure assault beach” [emphasis

added]. Joint Forcible Entry Operations, Joint

Publication 3-18 (Washington, D.C.: Joint

Staff, 16 July 2001), p. I-1.

125. A good real-world example of the problem

created by moving large amounts of ammunition and supplies ashore is discussed in

Adam S. Siegel, “Scuds against Al-Jubayl?”

U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (December

2002). For a more detailed explanation of

the event see Siegel’s “Missile Defense at the

Waterfront: Implications of the Scud Missile

Attack on Al Jubayl Port, February 15–16,

1991,” Defense and Security Analysis 19, no. 1

(2003), pp. 15–33.

126. Operation OVERLORD—the Allied invasion of

mainland Europe—provides the model.

Allied planners decided not to try to seize

the French port of Calais, opting instead to

seize a combined lodgment and build two

artificial harbors at Normandy that would

inforcements and supplies until better ports

could be seized. The creation of two MULBERRY artificial harbors was a huge undertak

ing, but despite the loss of one of them to a

Channel storm soon after the invasion, it

was successful. See “Mulberry Harbours,”

Combined Operations, www.combinedops

.com/Mulberry%20Harbours.htm.

127. See J. E. Rhodes [Lt. Gen., USMC], and G. S.

Holder [RAdm., USN], “Seabased Logistics,”

Marine Corps Concept Paper, available at

Federation of American Scientists, www.fas

.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/docs/sbl.htm.

128. Moore and Hanlon, “Sea Basing” [emphasis added].

129. Admiral Vern Clark, as cited in Dr. Scott C.

Truver, “Transformation: A Bridge Too Far?”

Jane’s Navy International (March 2005), p. 31

130. Miles, “Seabasing to Transform Marine Deployments, Commandant Says.”

131. See, for example, comments by Admiral Joseph Sestak, in Sharon Weinberger, “Navy

Officials Outline Changing QDR Focus,” De

fense Daily, 12 January 2005, and comments

made by Ryan Henry, Principal Deputy

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, in

Greg Jaffe, “Battle Lines.” The ideas of “rapidly changing initial conditions” and “lockout” of enemy strategies are central to

network-centric warfare theory. See, for example, Arthur K. Cebrowski [VAdm., USN]

and John J. Garstka, “Network-Centric Warfare: Its Origins and Future,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (January 1998).

132. As just one contemporary example, see Arthur P. Brill, Jr., “Corps Combat Assessment

Team Cites Need for Speed in Iraq,”

Seapower (February 2004), pp. 22–26.

133. Thomas Hughes, “The Cult of the Quick,”

Aerospace Power Journal (Winter 2001).

134. Wass de Czege and Majchrzak, “Operational

Maneuver from Strategic Distances” [emphasis added].

135. Greg Jaffe, “Battle Lines.”

136. Hughes, “The Cult of the Quick.”

137. Ma, “Navy Aims to Balance Industrial Base

Needs in New Seabasing Plan.”

138. Vergun, “Outfitting the Operating Force,” p. 37

139. Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p

190; see also Freidman, U.S. Amphibious

Ships and Craft.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:42 AM
Flight Commission: Born of Dreams—Inspired

by Freedom, www.centennialofflight.gov/

essay/AirPower/HeliatWar/AP42.

141. One estimate for losses was 5,086 helicopters; see “Helicopter Losses during the

Vietnam War,” Vietnam Helicopter Pilots

Association, www.vhpa.org/heliloss.pdf.

Another source puts the losses at 4,869.

See “Helicopters at War.”

142. Peter A. Wilson, John Gordon IV, and David

E. Johnson, “An Alternative Future Force:

Building a Better Army,” Parameters (Winter

2003–2004), p. 25.

143. See the sections entitled “V-22 History: HXM,”

and “V-22 History: JVX,” Globalsecurity.org,

www.global security.org/military/systems/

aircraft/v-22.htm.

144. See “AH-64 Apache,” Federation of American

Scientists, www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/

ah-64.htm.

145. Wilson et al., “An Alternative Future Force,” p.

25. See also Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, Jr.,

“Operational Maneuver in 2015,” PowerPoint

presentation, n.d.

146. Koch, “Boost for Sea-Basing Concept.”

147. Helicopters are especially vulnerable near

the ground. The book (subsequently a

movie) Blackhawk Down tells of the harrowing aftermath of a “snatch and grab” operation in downtown Mogadishu, Somalia, after

several helicopters were shot down. See Mark

Bowden, Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War (New York: Grove Atlantic, 1999).

During Operation ANACONDA in Afghanistan, Army helicopters inserting Special Operations and Army combat units were

ambushed in their landing zones. One helicopter was shot down and another forced to

land. Enemy units surrounding the landing

zone kept American units pinned down for

some time and inflicted numerous casualties.

For a gripping account, see Sean Naylor, Not

a Good Day to Die (New York: Penguin,

2005). In Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, all airassault operations were canceled because the

risks were judged greater than the expected

benefits; Iraq: Translating Lessons into Future

DoD Policies, RAND Corp. analysis transmitted to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

via letter dated 7 February 2005.

148. Iraq: Translating Lessons into Future DoD

Policies.

Force,” p. 24.

150. Cynthia Dion-Schwarz et al., Future C

System (FCS) Vehicle Transportability

ability, and Reliability Analysis (Alexa

Va.: Institute for Defense Analysis, Ap

2005). This study was made before th

concluded that the weight of the Futu

Combat System would need to climb 

22,000 kg—about 5,000 kg more than 

lifted by the C-130—to meet all surv

requirements. See Joshua Kucera, “FC

ners Opt for Heavier Vehicles,” Jane’s 

Weekly, 29 June 2005, p. 4.

151. See “Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle,” 

AAA, www.efv.usmc.mil; Hunter C. K

“EFV Brings Improved Range, Lethal

Marines,” Sea Power (November 2003

152. Williamson Murray, “Flawed Trium

Military History Quarterly (Summer 

pp. 6–15.

153. German airborne drops on Crete and 

Allied air drops associated with Oper

MARKET-GARDEN during World War I

Army air cavalry experiences in the I

Valley in Vietnam in 1965, provide so

cellent examples. Operation MERCUR

German invasion of Crete, relied hea

airborne troops, and MARKET-GARDE

volved a major Allied airborne drop b

German lines in 1944; both proved c

the air-landed forces. Of twenty-two 

sand Germans in the Crete assault fo

5,500 became casualties; of the ten th

men of the British 1st Airborne Divis

dropped at the deepest point behind 

man lines, only 2,300 returned. See “

tion MERCURY: The German Invasion 

Crete, 20 May–1 June 1941,” Military 

Encyclopedia on the Web, www.histor

.org/articles/battles_crete.html; and “

tion MARKET-GARDEN, September 194

World War II Multimedia Database, w

.worldwar2database.com/html/arnhe

In 1965, the U.S. Army 1st Battalion 

7th Cavalry Regiment landed by helic

in an landing zone called “X-ray.” In 

battle that ensued the U.S. force was n

overwhelmed by North Vietnamese tr

although supporting helicopter and fir

port bases were relatively close. This ba

described by General Harold G. “Hal” 

and photographer Joseph L. Galloway 

superb book We Were Soldiers, Once . . 

Young (New York: Random House, 199

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:42 AM
tine Exocet missiles struck the British merchant ship Atlantic Conveyor, which had

been taken up from trade. The missiles sent

the ship to the bottom, and a good portion of

the British troop-lift helicopters went with

it. Salvage was impossible. The loss meant

that the British force had to march across the

Falklands to attack the Argentine troop concentration at Port Stanley. Under different circumstances, the loss might have had a major

impact on the outcome of the British invasion. See “Atlantic Conveyor,” Answers.com,

www.answers.com/topic/atlantic-conveyor.

155. See, for example, William M. Arkin, “The

Nuclear Arms Race at Sea,” Neptune Paper 1

(Washington, D.C.: Institute for Policy

Studies, October 1987), p. 25.

156. Mike Bucchi [VAdm., USN] and Mike

Mullen [VAdm., USN], “Sea Shield: Projecting Global Defensive Assurance,” U.S.

Naval Institute Proceedings (November 2002),

available at www.usni.org/Proceedings/

Articles02/PRObucchi11.htm.

157. Ann Roosevelt, “Army, Navy Collaborating

on Sea Basing Concept,” Defense Daily, 30

June 2004.

158. Castelli, “Admiral Sees Need for More Dialogue between Services on Seabasing.”

159. The Charleston-class LKAs were the first assault cargo ships purpose-built for the rapid

unloading of cargo via both surface and air

connectors. With thirty-three thousand

square feet of vehicle space, seventy thousand cubic feet of cargo space, five highspeed elevators, two cranes, and ten booms,

these ships were invaluable in moving bulk

munitions, supplies, and provisions ashore.

Today they remain in Category B reserve,

suitable for reactivation in 180 days. Note

that the LKAs did not double as troop transports; they have accommodations for only

roughly two hundred Marines—those required to drive the vehicles off and run supply operations. For more about this class, see

Norman Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the

U.S. Fleet, 14th ed. (Annapolis, Md.: Naval

Institute Press, 1987), pp. 195–96.

160. Commenting on the significance of the MULBERRY artificial harbor for the Allied invasion

of Europe, one historian says: “The importance of MULBERRY [harbors] goes far beyond the operational issue of how efficacious

they were. Until their invention it was

to capture a major functioning port soon after landing, to replenish those forces already

ashore and to sustain the build-up....

Meanwhile, having persuaded themselves

(wisely or not) that their logistical needs

would be met, for an extended time after the

landings, by transportable [harbors], the

Allied planners freed themselves to think in

a rather different geographical box from the

German staff officers whose job was to second guess their plans. Its highest purpose,

indeed, was to enable an exercise in

maneuverism of a scale unsurpassed since

Hannibal.” Jane Penrose, ed., The D-Day

Companion (New Orleans: National D-Day

Museum, 2004), pp. 134–35.

161. John J. Klein [LCdr., USN] and Rich Morale

[Maj., USA], “Sea Basing Isn’t Just about the

Sea,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (January 2004), p. 33.

162. Castelli, “Navy May Cut Number of Expeditionary Strike Groups to Fund MPF(F),” p. 1.

163. Christopher P. Cavas, “Small Sea Swap Works

for U.S.,” Defense News (November 2004).

164. Ma, “Navy Aims to Balance Industrial Base

Needs in New Seabasing Plan.”

165. Stephen Saunders [Commo., RN], ed., Jane’s

Fighting Ships, 2004–2005, 107th ed. (Surray,

U.K.: Jane’s Information Group, 2004); Eric

Wertheim, ed., Combat Fleets of the World

2005–2006 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute

Press, 2005), CD-ROM version; E. R. Hooton

“Send an Amphib, the Future Cry,” Armada

International, no. 1 (2005), supplement.

166. For a thorough overview of these LHD programs, see Ian Bostock, Scott Gourley, and

Kathryn Shaw, “Advanced LHDs Lead the

Way,” Jane’s Navy International (May 2005),

pp. 13–18.

167. Saunders, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships, 2004–

2005; Wertheim, ed., Combat Fleets of the

World, 2005–2006; Hooton, “Send an

Amphib, the Future Cry,” p. 11; Bostock et al.

“Advanced LHDs Lead the Way”; Jacobs,

“South Korean Navy: Transformation to Pro

vide New Capabilities,” p. 46. The South Korean LP-X, the Dokdo Ham class, is classified

as an LPD but is more a “mini-LHD.” It will

be able to carry a battalion of troops, up to

seventy amphibious assault vehicles or two

hundred smaller vehicles, fifteen UH-60

helicopters, and two LCACs.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:42 AM
Options for New LHDs,” Jane’s Navy International (August 2005), p. 11.

169. Saunders, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships, 2004–

2005; Wertheim, ed., Combat Fleets of the

World, 2005–2006; Hooton, “Send an

Amphib, the Future Cry,” p. 11.

170. Sharon Hobson, “Canada Proceeds with

Joint Support Ship Project,” Jane’s Navy International (January/February 2005), p. 4.

The Canadian decision to pursue this ship is

not without controversy. See Dr. Paul T.

Mitchell, “Joint Support Ship: Transformation or White Elephant?” U.S. Naval Institute

Proceedings (March 2004), pp. 64–66.

171. Hooton, “Send an Amphib, the Future

Cry,” p. 11.

172. Ibid., p. 10.

173. “Denmark’s FSS Vessels: Versatility in Motion,” Jane’s Navy International (August 2005),

p. 34; Saunders, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships,

2004–2005; Wertheim, ed., Combat Fleets of

the World, 2005–2006; Hooton, “Send an

Amphib, the Future Cry,” pp. 11–12.

174. Cavas, “New Missions Will Rely on Sea

Basing,” p. 4.

175. The typical deck-spotting factor for aircraft

on a big-deck amphibious assault ship like

the LHA or LHD is based on the CH-46 medium helicopter, which has a spotting factor

of 1.0 with its blades folded. The MV-22,

with its blades folded, has a spotting factor

of 2.22. The AV-8B has a spotting factor of

1.53; the JSF has a spotting factor of 2.05.

176. Robert Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II (Washington, D.C.:

Combat Forces, 1952), pp. 324–33. See also

“History of Marine Aviation, Central Pacific

Operations,” www.acepilots.com/usmc/

hist10.html, and “History of Marine Aviation,

the Philippines,” www.acepilots.com/usmc/

hist11.html, both American Aces of WWII.

177. “Plug-plus” meant that the LHD hull would

be lengthened by a seventy-seven-foot

“plug” and widened by ten feet. Dale

Eisman, “Navy Tilting toward Enlargement

of Wasp-Class Ships for Sea Bases,” Norfolk

Virginian-Pilot, 4 December 2002. See Donald G. Gellar, Jr., “LPD-17 and LHAR,”

PowerPoint presentation, 23 June 2005,

available at 64.233.167.104/search?q

=cache:qDHsNQjLGlYJ:hqinet001.hqmc.us

mc.mil/AVN/ASL/Ordnance/Documents/

_Overview.ppt+lpd-17+and+LHAR&

178. In essence, the new ship would exten

LHD’s hangar bay forward; the disp

shops and spaces, along with expand

cargo and ammunition magazines, w

be relocated to space freed up by clo

well deck.

179. Gellar, “LPD-17 and LHAR.”

180. Sharon Weinberger, “LHAR to Be Mo

ation Capable, Official Says,” Defense 

April 2004, p. 8.

181. Gellar, “LPD-17 and LHAR.”

182. The DoN Lift II Study is formally kn

the Integrated Amphibious Operations 

USMC Air Support Requirements (Wa

ton, D.C.: U.S. Navy Dept., January 1

183. LHD-8 introduces many other chang

sides gas-turbine propulsion (the fir

LHDs were steam powered), includi

electric auxiliaries, an advanced mac

control system, water-mist fire-prot

systems, and the Navy’s most advanc

command-and-control and combat sy

equipment. See PEO Ships, “LHD-8 to 

Transformation of ‘Big Deck’ Amphibi

Force,” Globalsecurity.org, www.global

.org/military/library/news/2003/05/mi

-navsea06.htm.

184. When built, the LHD was credited w

spotting-factor rating of forty-five (i

46 equivalents). To account for the M

helicopters normally carried as well a

deck gear, the current spotting factor 

for LHDs is forty-two.

185. These figures come from Deputy Com

dant for Aviation (APP) message to

NavAirWarCenAcDiv, date-time grou

061759Z May 2005, subject “L-Class 

ACE Support Meeting after Action.”

186. For an interesting view of the LPD 17 

its problems came to light, see Stephe

Surko [LCdr., USN], “LPD-17 . . . Ar

U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (Janu

1995), pp. 43–44. For a prescient warn

“over-specing” the LPD 17 would lead 

problems, see John E. O’Neil, Jr. [Capt

“Be Careful with the LPD-17,” U.S. Na

stitute Proceedings (January 1995), p. 4

187. Jack Dorsey and Dale Eisman, “Report 

lights Ship’s Problems,” Norfolk Virgini

13 July 2005.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:43 AM
caused some radar-defeating measures to be

eliminated, leading to several suspected radar “hot spots”; ibid. Representatives from

Northrop Grumman expect these problems

to be corrected in later ship of the class.

189. Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet,

18th ed., p. 190; Surko, “LPD-17 . . . Arriving,”

p. 43; Roth, “LPD-17 Leads to Dramatic

Changes in Design, Systems Integration,” p.

19; “LPD-17 Systems,” PowerPoint briefing,

provided to the author by Northrop

Grumman Ship Systems.

190. See “Specifications, LPD-17 (San Antonio

class) Landing Platform Dock, USA,” available at Naval-technology.com, www

.naval-technology.com/projects/lpd17/

specs.html; Gary L. Pickens and L. F. Picotte

[RAdm., USN (Ret.)], “LPD-17: A Ship Built

by and for the Expeditionary Warrior,” San

Antonio Class: 21st Century Amphibious Assault Ships, https://www.pms317.navy.mil/

news/lpd17ashipbuiltbyandfor.asp; Surko,

“LPD-17 . . . Arriving,” p. 43.

191. Admiral Clark put the cost of an LPD 17 in

FY 05 dollars as $1.125 billion. See U.S. Senate, Statement of Admiral Vern Clark, U.S.

Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, before the

Armed Service Committee, 12 April 2005,

available at www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/

testimony/clark050412.pdf.

192. Forward-deployed naval forces (FDNF) have

different rules for the time crews can be deployed from home station. In essence, the

ships can be at sea approximately 50 percent

of the year. As a result, on average, two of

four two-ship groups found in the DESB

would be available.

193. A four-day loadout of the DESB stationed in

Japan, followed by fourteen days steaming

from Japan to the Persian Gulf, would combine the two DESBs in the Persian Gulf in

eighteen days. In a crisis in Northeast Asia,

the DESB would be loaded and awaiting the

arrival of the DESB sailing from the Persian

Gulf, a trip of fourteen days.

194. Conceivably, a ninth LHD might be built instead of the fifth LHAR recommended elsewhere in this chapter.

195. Maj. Gen. Brian I. Geehan and Brig. Gen.

Kathleen M. Gainey, “Seabasing: Building

the Army Contribution,” PowerPoint presentation and remarks, Joint Seabasing Conference, Washington, D.C., 16–17 February

Jim Rafferty [Brig. Gen., USA], “Army Field

Support Command (AFSC) Command

Overview Briefing,” Munitions Executive

Summit, 10 February 2005, available at National Defense Industrial Association, proceedings.ndia.org/5650/Rafferty.pdf; Army

Regional Flotillas (ARF) and Afloat Forward

Staging Base (AFSB), U.S. Army Information

Paper (Washington, D.C.: DAMO-SSW, 22

July 2003), available at hqinet001.hqmc

.usmc.mil/pp&o/POE/POE-60/. See also

Roosevelt, “Army, Navy Collaborating on Se

Basing Concept.”

196. Including a smaller, shallower-draft RO/RO

in the ASF squadron mix addresses a key

problem with the larger ships found in the

Maritime Prepositioning and Surge Sealift

fleets. In 2002, a Illinois Institute of Technol

ogy Research Institute survey of all ports in

the Central and Pacific Command areas of

responsibility found that a vessel longer than

152 meters could enter only 36 percent of

them. At 290 meters, the larger LMSRs and

RO/RO ships in the ASF (and in the Surge

Fleet) can berth at relatively few ports

around the world. A smaller RO/RO will be

able to access considerably more ports in

austere locations, a key consideration for

humanitarian, disaster relief, and specialoperations-support missions. John H.

Williams and William K. Thomas, Worldwid

Port Survey “Quick Look” (Chicago: Illinois

Institute of Technology Research Institute,

10 December 2002).

197. Geehan and Gainey, “Seabasing: Building th

Army Contribution.”

198. Ibid.

199. Ibid.; “Army Regional Flotillas (ARF) and

Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB).”

200. Fred Baille, Executive Director, Distribution

and Reutilization Policy, Defense Logistics

Agency, PowerPoint presentation, Surface

Deployment and Distribution Command

(SDDC) Conference, 26 April 2005, available

at www.sddc.army.mil/; Fred Baille, “DLA

and the Seabasing Concept,” PowerPoint pre

sentation, Joint Seabasing Conference.

201. In “supply-speak,” these are Class III, IV, and

IX supplies, respectively. There are eleven

different classes of supplies. See “Logistics,”

Globalsecurity.org, www.globalsecurity.org/

military/library/policy/army/fm/90-31/

Ch9.htm.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:43 AM
the Army Contribution”; Rafferty, “Army

Field Support Command (AFSC) Command Overview Briefing”; Brig. Gen. Mike

Worden, USAF, “Joint Services Perspectives

on Seabasing Logistics,” comments, Joint

Seabasing Conference.

203. Gary S. McKissock [Lt. Gen., USMC],

“Seabasing: The Maritime Intermediate

Support Base,” Marine Corps Gazette (June

2002), pp. 12–15. For ideas how the DLA,

Army, and sea-basing logistics requirements

might be met, see Jonathan Kaskin, Director of Strategic Mobility and Combat Logistics, “The Challenge of Joint Seabasing

Logistics,” PowerPoint presentation, Joint

Seabasing Conference.

204. Kaskin, “The Challenge of Joint Seabasing

Logistics.”

205. See M. Scott Ballard [Maj., USMCR], “Maritime Prepositioning Force Future: The Future of Seabased Aviation Logistics,” Marine

Corps Gazette (May 2002), pp. 31–33.

206. Norman Polmar, “Sea Base Ships for the Future,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings

(March 2005); Stephen M. Carmel, “A Commercial Approach to Sea Basing—Afloat

Forward Staging Bases,” U.S. Naval Institute

Proceedings (January 2004); and Maersk

Line, Afloat Forward Staging Base Transformation, brochure.

207. Another advantage of the Maersk T-JAVB

option is that the Army is considering the

same ship for its Air Assault BCT Afloat program. Should the Army pursue this capability, a common ship would lower the average

acquisition costs for both the Army and

Navy. Interviews with Maersk representatives

indicate that the ships might be bought and

modified for less than $400 million a ship

based on a six-ship buy (two T-JAVBs and

four Army Afloat Forward Staging Bases).

These were estimated costs; final costs would

depend on Navy and Army specifications as

well as other contractual agreements.

208. Penrose, ed., D-Day Companion, pp. 134–35.

209. Geehan and Gainey, “Seabasing: Building the

Army Contribution.”

210. Richard R. Burgess, “Keys to the Future,” Sea

Power (May 2005), p. 31.

211. Assuming approval by the government of

Australia, the heavy ground combat equipment from MPF Squadrons 2 and 3 might be

located in northwestern Australia. On

squadron could be used to provide an 

ment training pool for combined-arm

training for Marines and the Australi

army, and the other could represent

prepositioned wartime stocks. In the 

of a major combat operation, the Irre

Warfare Squadrons could sail to Aust

trade their lighter equipment for tan

lery, and other heavy equipment, and 

deliver them to the fight as part of th

sault follow-on echelon. The idea for 

Australia for a staging base for U.S.

prepositioned wartime stocks came f

terviews with members of the Marin

Pacific staff.

212. The first four LMSRs were conversio

Danish-built RO/ROs. Two were com

in 1996, and an additional two in 199

Bob Hope– and Watson-class LMSRs 

completed between 1998 and 2003; a

tional ship was completed in 2004. Se

Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. 

18th ed., pp. 292, 300–302.

213. Vice Admiral Cebrowski, as director 

Office of Force Transformation, cited 

Richard Barnard, “Iraq Conflict Brin

creased Interest in Military Airships,” 

Power (July 2003), p. 1.

214. Barnard, “Iraq Conflict Brings Increas

terest in Military Airships”; Michael S

“U.S. Navy Floats Lighter-than-Air Tr

Concept,” Jane’s Defense Weekly, 7 May 

215. Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, USN, an

Gen. Edward Hanlon, Jr., USMC, “H

Speed Connectors,” Navy and Marine 

concept document, n.d., p. 4.

216. Ibid., p. 5.

217. Koch, “U.S. Navy Explores Joint High

Cargo Ship.”

218. For a good overview of intratheater se

Scott Gourley and Richard Scott, “Spe

Sea Is the key For Intra-Theater Lift,” 

Navy International (March 2005), pp. 

219. Freidman, U.S. Amphibious Ships and 

pp. 115–27, 203–205.

220. See “Landing Ships and Craft,” iBib

www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/sh

ships-ls.html.

221. Freidman, U.S. Amphibious Ships and 

pp. 347–45.

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14th ed., pp. 206–11.

223. Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet,

18th ed., pp. 627–29.

224. One conceptual version of a TSV was a highspeed trimaran with seats for 970 troops and

1,900 square meters of vehicle stowage space.

The ship could deliver a payload of five hundred tons a range of 750 nautical miles at

speeds of thirty-eight knots; by dropping

both its speed (to twenty-three knots) and

payload (to 355 tons) the ship could extend

its range to 3,000 nm. Ian Bostock, “Austral

Details High-Speed Sealift Trimaran Designs,” Jane’s Defense Weekly, 8 December

2004, p. 30.

225. See “High Speed Vessel (HSV),” Navy Warfare

Development Command, www.nwdc.navy.mil/

Concepts/Sea_Basing/ConceptsHSV.aspx.

226. For a description of the different TSVs and

HSVs, see Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the

U.S. Fleet, 18th ed., pp. 626–27. See also William Cole, “Navy Shows Off Speedy New

Vessel at RIMPAC,” Honolulu Advertiser, 13

July 2004; Lorenzo Cortes, “High-Speed Catamaran Performing the Lift Mission Well,

Marine General Says,” Defense Daily, 9 July

2004, p. 3; and “High Speed Vessel (HSV).”

227. Lawrence S. Ryder [Lt. Col., USMC], “Joint

High-Speed Vessel,” Marine Corps Gazette

(March 2005), pp. 22–25.

228. See “Army RDT&E Budget Item Justification

(R2 Exhibit),” February 2005, available at

www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2006/Army/

0208058A.pdf [emphasis added].

229. Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet,

18th ed., pp. 212–13.

230. Freidman, U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft,

chaps. 4, 7, 10.

231. Benjamin W. Labaree et al., America and the

Sea: A Maritime History (Mystic, Conn.: Museum of America and the Sea, 1998), p. 599.

232. These ship-to-shore surface connectors are

augmented by small “Landing Craft Personnel, Light,” which carry seventeen passengers

or two tons of cargo. Polmar, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 18th ed., pp. 201–208.

233. Ibid., p. 202.

234. Andrew Koch, “Navy Considers Seabase

Transport Options,” Jane’s Defense Weekly, 23

February 2005, p. 8; Kaskin, “The Challenge

of Joint Seabasing Logistics.”

18th ed., pp. 210–11.

236. Ibid., p. 209.

237. Lt. Col. Carl J. Fosnaugh III, “How We Provide for the Common Defense: A Review of

the Interactive Decision-Making Process of

the V-22 Osprey Program from 1981–1992,”

available at National Defense University,

www.ndu.edu/library/n4/n035603c.pdf.

238. The MV-22 is now doing well in its operational testing. See Amy Butler, “Spreading It

Wings,” Aviation Week and Space Technology,

18 July 2005, pp. 24–25; C. Mark Brinkley,

“Osprey Works to Shed Its Troubled Past,”

Defense News, 25 July 2005, p. 54.

239. M. Thomas Hayden, “The MV-22 Osprey,”

available at Military.com, www.military.com

Opinions/0,,Hayden_ 101304,00.html.

240. The MV-22 has had many supporters and

detractors since its inception. For the oppos

ing views on the aircraft, see the statements

of Dr. L. Dean Simmons, Institute of Defens

Analysis, and Dr. David S. C. Chu, Office of

the Secretary of Defense, before the Senate

Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcom

mittee, 19 July 1990, available at MaxwellGunter AFB, www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/

navy/edm/exc-dma3.pdf. For a more recent

recapitulation of the arguments for and

against the MV-22, see Christopher Bolkcom

V-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft (Washington

D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 7 January 2005).

241. C. Mark Brinkley, “Tilt-Rotor Impresses U.S

Marines with Speed, Other Improvements,”

Defense News, 25 July 2005, p. 54.

242. Butler, “Spreading Its Wings,” p. 25.

243. The MV-22 is incapable of lifting an uparmored Humvee (High Mobility MultiWheeled Vehicle), now in use in Iraq; Butler

“Spreading Its Wings,” p. 25.

244. Current plans are for SoCom to procure

from fifty to fifty-five CV-22 variants specially optimized for these missions; Scott

A. Shaeffler [Maj., USAF], “Getting It

Right with the CV-22,” Air & Space Power

Chronicles, www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/

airchronicles/cc/schaeffler.html.

245. Richard L. Phillips [MGen., USMC (Ret.)]

and Mark J. Gibson [Lt. Col., USMC (Ret.)],

“The Missing Piece to the OMFTS Puzzle:

The Quad Tiltrotor,” Marine Corps Gazette

(November 2000), pp. 70–73; David A.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:14:43 AM
sions Family of Tiltrotors,” Aviation Week

and Space Technology, 23 December 2002.

246. Dave Ahearn, “Hagee Sees Need for Huge

Ship-Based Tilt-Rotor or Blimp,” Defense Today, 21 April 2004.

247. Andrew Koch, “Ship-to-Objective Lift Still a

Key Issue, Says U.S. Study,” Jane’s Defense

Weekly, 27 August 2003.

248. “Iraq Operations Accelerating Transformation, Cebrowski Says,” Aerospace Daily and

Defense Report, 4 August 2004; Dave Ahearn,

“Cebrowski Sees New Aircraft, Movable

Maritime Airfield,” Defense Today, 4 August

2004, p. 1.

249. Joshua Kucera, “Services Divided over U.S.

Joint Heavy Lift Aircraft,” Jane’s Defense

Weekly, 17 November 2004, p. 5.

250. John T. Bennett, “Army-Led Team Mulling

Possible Heavy-Lift Aircraft for Seabasing,”

Inside the Pentagon, 28 October 2004, p. 1.

251. Robert Wall, “Weighty Decisions,” Aviation

Week and Space Technology, 25 October 2004,

p. 38; Lisa Troshinsky, “New CH-53 Helo Will

Double Lift and Range, Expert Says,” Aerospace Daily and Defense Report, 20 July 2004.

252. “New Build CH-53X Performance,” AHS International: The Vertical Flight Society,

www.vtol.org/news/issues604.htm#ch53;

“CH-53X Super Stallion,” Globalsecurity.org,

www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/

aircraft/ch-53x.htm.

253. Jay Price, “Copters Recalled from Boneyard,”

News&Observer.com, 21 August 2005.

254. Dave Ahearn, “Young Says $800 Million

Needed for New-Build CH-53X Helicopter,”

Defense Today, 20 April 2005.

255. Fulghum and Wall, “Military Envisions Family of Tiltrotors.”

wing support in terms of “medium li

the CH-46 and the MV-22, and “heav

like the CH-53E. It is not clear that th

terms now make much sense in conne

with sea-based maneuver operations. 

DSB has made clear, the key requirem

effective sea-based maneuver operatio

aircraft with heavy lift capability. It is 

best, then, just to think of the future r

wing requirement in terms of a single 

base aerial connector. This is a view fo

a 1993 Marine Corps Command and 

per by Maj. G. Kevin Wilcutt, USMC, 

“Medium Lift Replacement,” available 

Globalsecurity.com, www.globalsecur

militarylibrary/report/1993/WGK.htm

257. As explained in note 175 above, the de

spotting factor for an MV-22 is 2.22 (

times that of a CH-46); for a CH-53 it 

258. See “EH-101,” Federation of American 

tists, www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/a

eh101.htm; “DoD Special Briefing on 

Award of the Presidential Helicopter 

tract,” available at United States Depa

of Defense, www.dod.mil/transcripts/

tr20050128-2044.html; “Personnel R

Vehicle (PRV)/Combat Search and R

CSAR Replacement Aircraft Program

Globalsecurity.org, www.globalsecur

military/systems/aircraft/prv.htm.

259. Based on interviews with Marine Cor

officials.

260. Twenty-four aircraft and a spotting f

2.22 give a 53.28 spotting factor. As d

scribed earlier, depending on the spo

factor used, an LHD equivalent range

tween forty-two and fifty-eight deck 

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List of Abbreviations

A A2/AD anti-access/area-denial

AABCT air assault brigade combat team

AAHSS Austere Access High Speed Ship

AAV amphibious assault vehicle

ACE air combat element

AEF Aerospace Expeditionary Force

AFB Air Force base

AFSB afloat forward staging base

AOE fast combat support ship

APOD air point of debarkation

APS-3 Army Prepositioned Stock 3

ARF Army Regional Flotilla

ARG amphibious ready group

AS submarine tender

ASCM antiship cruise missile

ASF Army Strategic Flotilla

AUTOVON/

AUTODIN

Automatic Voice Network/Automatic Digital Network

B BCT brigade combat team

BLT battalion landing team

BMEWS Ballistic Missile Early Warning System

BRAC Base Closure and Realignment [sic]

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C C2 command and control

CBA capabilities-based assessment

CFE Conventional Forces Europe

CLF Combat Logistics Force

CNO Chief of Naval Operations

CONUS continental United States

CPF Combat Prepositioning Force

CSG carrier strike group

CSL cooperative security location

CV aircraft (fleet) carrier

CVE escort aircraft carrier

CVN nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

CVV STOVL [qv] aircraft carrier

D DADC DLA [qv] afloat distribution centers

DDG destroyer, guided-missile

DESB distributed expeditionary sea base

DEW distant early warning; directed-energy weapon

DLA Defense Logistics Agency

DoD Department of Defense

DoN Department of the Navy

DPRI Defense Posture Review Initiative

DPRK Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

DSB Defense Science Board

DSP Defense Satellite Program

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E EFV Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

ESG expeditionary strike group

EU European Union

F FCS Future Combat System

FDNF forward-deployed naval forces

FMP foreign military presence

FOS forward operating station

FRP Fleet Response Plan

FSS fast sealift ship

FY fiscal year

G GDPR Global Defense Posture Review

GPS Global Positioning System

H HSV high-speed vessel

HULA hybrid ultra-large aircraft

I IDA Institute for Defense Analyses

IMA intermediate maintenance activity

IMET International Military Education and Training

ISB intermediate staging base

ISR intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance

J JCIDS Joint Capabilities and Integration and Development Sys

JETA-SPOD Joint Enable Theater Access–Sea Points of Debarkation

JFEO joint forcible-entry operations

JHSV Joint High Speed Vessel

JIC joint integrating concept

JOA joint operations area

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JROC Joint Requirements Oversight Council

JSF Joint Strike Fighter

JTF joint task force

L LCAC landing craft air-cushion

LCM landing craft medium

LCS Littoral Combat Ship

LCU landing craft utility

LHA amphibious assault ship (Tarawa class)

LHAR LHA [qv] replacement

LHD amphibious assault ship (Wasp class)

LKA assault cargo ship

LMSR large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ship

LPD landing platform dock

LPF Logistics Prepositioning Force

LPH landing platform helicopter

LSD dock landing ship

LSM landing ship medium

LST landing ship tank

LSV landing ship vehicle

M MCO major combat operation

MEB Marine expeditionary brigade

MEU(SOC) Marine expeditionary unit (special operations capable)

MLP mobile landing platform

mm millimeter

MOB main operating base; mobile offshore base

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MPF(F) Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future)

MRV Multi-Role Vessel

MSC Military Sealift Command

N NAS naval air station

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NDP National Defense Panel

NEO noncombatant evacuation operation

nm nautical mile

NPT Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

NSS National Security Strategy (of the United States)

NUDETS Nuclear Detonation Detection and Reporting System

O O&S Operation and Support [funding account]

OA 2003 Operational Availability 2003

OFT Office of Force Transformation

OIF Operation IRAQI FREEDOM

OMFTS Operational Maneuver from the Sea

OSD Office of the Secretary of Defense

P PRC People’s Republic of China

Q QDR Quadrennial Defense Review

R RAM rolling-airframe missile

RAND The RAND Corporation

RMA revolution in military affairs

RO/RO roll-on/roll-off

RRF Ready Reserve Fleet

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RSOI reception, staging, onward movement, and integration

S SDHSS Shallow-Draft High-Speed Ship

SIGINT signals intelligence

SLEP service-life extension program

SMART Strategic Multirole Aid and Replenishment Transport

SoCom Special Operations Command

SOSUS Sound Surveillance System

SPOD sea point of debarkation

SSAA supply support activity afloat

SSBN nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine

SSF Surge Sealift Fleet

SSGN nuclear-powered guided-missile [cruise-missile] submarine

SSN nuclear-powered attack submarine

STOL short takeoff and landing

STOM Ship-to-Objective Maneuver

STOVL short takeoff and vertical landing [see V/STOL]

T T-AKE cargo/ammunition ship [MSC (qv) manned]

T-AVB aviation logistics ship [MSC (qv) manned]

T-AO oiler [MSC (qv) manned]

T-JAVB aviation logistics support ship [joint, MSC (qv) manned]

TEU twenty-foot equivalent unit

TMD theater missile defense

TSV Theater Support Vessel

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U UA unit of action

UN United Nations

USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

V V/STOL vertical/short takeoff and landing [see STOVL]

VLS vertical-launch system

VTOL vertical takeoff and landing

W WMD weapon of mass destruction

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Contributors

Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr. Mr. Bloomfield is a senior adviser at the Center for Stra

and International Studies (CSIS) and president of Palmer Coates LLC. He served 

sistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs from May 2001 to January 

In twelve years of previous public service beginning in 1981, he held policy posit

the Pentagon, White House, and State Department

Andrew S. Erickson is a research fellow in the Strategic Research Department at 

U.S. Naval War College. He is currently a PhD candidate in Princeton University

tics Department, where he is writing a dissertation on China’s aerospace develop

His publications include “China’s Ballistic Missile Defense Countermeasures” in

China’s Nuclear Force Modernization, edited by Lyle Goldstein (2004).

Robert E. Harkavy is professor of political science at Pennsylvania State Universi

has also taught, performed research, or served at the U.S. Army War College, Cor

University, the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Kalamazoo College

the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He earned his PhD in international relatio

Yale University in 1973. He has written or edited numerous books, most recently 

fare and the Third World (2001) and Strategic Geography and the Changing Middl

(1997). The author wishes to thank Lucian Czarnecki, Penn State undergraduate

research assistance in connection with this project. An earlier version of this pap

peared as an article in the Naval War College Review (Summer 2005).

The Honorable Ryan Henry has served as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of De

for Policy since February 2003. Mr. Henry’s professional career spans twenty-four y

of military service, including tours as an aviation squadron commander, congressio

staffer, experimental test pilot, and technology/warfare architect. He graduated fro

U.S. Naval Academy in 1972 and from the National Defense University in 1992. He 

also earned advanced degrees in aeronautical systems (University of West Florida, 

and systems management (University of Southern California, 1982). Prior to appo

ment as Principal Deputy, Mr. Henry was Corporate Vice President for Technology 

Business Development at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). 

Henry is coauthor of The Information Revolution and International Security (1998)

paper also appears as an article in the Naval War College Review (Spring 2006).

Carnes Lord is editor of the Naval War College Press and professor of military an

val strategy in the Strategic Research Department of the Center for Naval Warfar

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most recently as assistant to the vice president for national security affairs (1989–91),

and has taught political science at the University of Virginia, the Fletcher School of

Law and Diplomacy, and elsewhere. His books include The Presidency and the Management of National Security (1988) and The Modern Prince (2003).

Lt. Justin D. Mikolay, U.S. Navy, is currently serving aboard the fast attack submarine

USS San Juan (SSN 751), based in Groton, Connecticut. A graduate of the U.S. Naval

Academy, Lieutenant Mikolay holds an MA degree in public affairs from Princeton

University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Robert O. Work retired as a Marine colonel after twenty-seven years of active service.

He is now a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington. Mr. Work holds an MS degree from the University of

Southern California, an MS degree in space systems operations from the Naval Postgraduate School, and an MA degree in international public policy from the Johns

Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He has authored several major CSBA monographs on maritime affairs, including “To Take and Keep the Lead”: A Naval Fleet

Platform Architecture for Enduring Maritime Supremacy (2006), on which his paper in

this volume is based.

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The Newport Papers

The Regulation of International Coercion: Legal Authorities and Political Constrain

James P. Terry (no. 25, October 2005).

Naval Power in the Twenty-first Century: A Naval War College Review Reader, edi

Peter Dombrowski (no. 24, July 2005).

The Atlantic Crises: Britain, Europe, and Parting from the United States, by William

Hopkinson (no. 23, May 2005).

China’s Nuclear Force Modernization, edited by Lyle J. Goldstein with Andrew S.

Erickson (no. 22, April 2005).

Latin American Security Challenges: A Collaborative Inquiry from North and Sou

edited by Paul D. Taylor (no. 21, 2004).

Global War Game: Second Series, 1984–1988, by Robert Gile (no. 20, 2004).

The Evolution of the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Strategy, 1977–1986, by John Hattend

(no. 19, 2004).

Military Transformation and the Defense Industry after Next: The Defense Indust

Implications of Network-Centric Warfare, by Peter J. Dombrowski, Eugene Ghol

Andrew L. Ross (no. 18, 2003).

The Limits of Transformation: Officer Attitudes toward the Revolution in Military A

by Thomas G. Mahnken and James R. FitzSimonds (no. 17, 2003).

The Third Battle: Innovation in the U.S. Navy’s Silent Cold War Struggle with Sovi

marines, by Owen R. Cote, Jr. (no. 16, 2003).

International Law and Naval War: The Effect of Marine Safety and Pollution Con

tions during International Armed Conflict, by Dr. Sonja Ann Jozef Boelaert-Suo

(no. 15, December 2000).

Theater Ballistic Missile Defense from the Sea: Issues for the Maritime Component C

mander, by Commander Charles C. Swicker, U.S. Navy (no. 14, August 1998).

Sailing New Seas, by Admiral J. Paul Reason, U.S. Navy, with David G. Freymann (n

March 1998).

What Color Helmet? Reforming Security Council Peacekeeping Mandates, by Myro

Nordquist (no. 12, August 1997).

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Problems and Prospects, by Frank Gibson Goldman (no. 11, April 1997).

Chaos Theory: The Essentials for Military Applications, by Major Glenn E. James,

U.S. Air Force (no. 10, October 1996).

A Doctrine Reader: The Navies of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and

Spain, by James J. Tritten and Vice Admiral Luigi Donolo, Italian Navy (Retired) (no. 9

December 1995).

Physics and Metaphysics of Deterrence: The British Approach, by Myron A. Greenberg

(no. 8, December 1994).

Mission in the East: The Building of an Army in a Democracy in the New German States,

by Colonel Mark E. Victorson, U.S. Army (no. 7, June 1994).

The Burden of Trafalgar: Decisive Battle and Naval Strategic Expectations on the Eve of

the First World War, by Jan S. Breemer (no. 6, October 1993).

Beyond Mahan: A Proposal for a U.S. Naval Strategy in the Twenty-First Century, by

Colonel Gary W. Anderson, U.S. Marine Corps (no. 5, August 1993).

Global War Game: The First Five Years, by Bud Hay and Bob Gile (no. 4, June 1993).

The “New” Law of the Sea and the Law of Armed Conflict at Sea, by Horace B.

Robertson, Jr. (no. 3, October 1992).

Toward a Pax Universalis: A Historical Critique of the National Military Strategy for the

1990s, by Lieutenant Colonel Gary W. Anderson, U.S. Marine Corps (no. 2, April

1992).

“Are We Beasts?” Churchill and the Moral Question of World War II “Area Bombing,” by

Christopher C. Harmon (no. 1, December 1991).

Newport Papers 4, 10, and from 14 on are available online (Acrobat required) at

www.nwc.navy.mil/press/npapers/newpaper.htm.

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