Date of Award

3-2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Operational Sciences

First Advisor

Stanley E. Griffis, PhD

Abstract

As a result of global security environmental changes, the U.S. Army's posture has changed from forward deployment to power projection and resulted in the reduction of the Army force structure. These changes also reduce the possibility of the United States' involvement in a large-scale war, but require rapid and reliable deployment to stabilize a hostile area. Force projection is the demonstrated ability to alert, mobilize, deploy rapidly, and operate effectively anywhere in the world, and consists of three deployment segments: fort to port, port to port, and port to foxhole. Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, and Integration (RSO&I) is a detailed process of the port to foxhole segment. Onward movement is the process of moving units and accompanying materiel from reception facilities and staging areas to Tactical Assembly Areas (TAAs). This study employs simulation models to evaluate whether the current transportation infrastructure can meet the required force closure time and which transportation mode, train versus Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET), is faster to move M1A1 tanks in the Korean Peninsula in the onward movement process. Results show that the current transportation infrastructure in South Korea cannot meet required force closure time, and even the addition of one HET company to the onward movement process will not lower times enough to sufficiently meet required force closure times. However, it was shown that HET is a much faster transportation mode to move tanks in the Korean Peninsula for distances less than 470 km and adding one HET company decreases the mean time of the onward movement time from 8.4 days (201.83 hours) to 5.9 days (142.0 hours). This is a decrease in onward movement time of 30%.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GLM-ENS-03-06

DTIC Accession Number

ADA413019

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