ARRC JOURNAL
INLAND WATERWAYS – EXPANDING THE CAPACITY OF MILITARY MOVEMENT
Maj Phil Lawrence( GBR-A)
The deployment of a large, complex conventional force requires a correspondingly large, multifaceted supply network to sustain that force, made all the more challenging with the multinational nature of NATO operations. Planning for future operations, whether they be Article 5-initiated or not, will have to provide a systematic response to the high degree of uncertainty that they will bring.
Movement and Transport( M & T) planning within this complex system will be undertaken within a highly congested battlespace( from the strategic to the tactical), competing with commercial and civilian interests. Within Europe, commercial businesses are broadening their logistics concept road and rail capacity is already stretched. M & T planning will require a greater emphasis on capability planning and feasibility assessments to ensure that the modal mix of transport meets the sustainment requirements of the deployed force. 1
Inter-modality of movement planning
Strategic and operational( and, it could be argued in some cases, higher tactical) movement will be by its very nature multimodal( sea, air and inland transport) and will link terminals together( Sea; Air; Rail Port of Debarkation / Embarkation( SPOD / E, APOD / E, RPOD / E)) to form the physical distribution network for materiel, fuel and personnel in support of the operation. When we think of inland transport we think primarily of road and rail, dismissing other modes as too slow or inconvenient; but this way of thinking may have to be adjusted in the future operating environment.
Challenges
It has long been accepted that there will be a finite availability of military resources to meet M & T requirements and the use of contracted support is a growing part of logistic doctrine, particularly for M & T. This in itself brings a number of issues to be considered, highlighted in MC 336 / 2 2:
a. Limited availability of M & T resources resulting from national and international market, economic and political circumstances.
b. Competing demands with the commercial sector.
c. Multinational acquisition of lift assets.
US Army Europe( USAREUR) has highlighted a number of freedom of movement issues to military traffic including timelines to get clearances, heavy equipment transportation, out of gauge transport and rail car capacity, to name but a few.
More recently the capacity and bottlenecking of the M & T infrastructure, both within the NATO area of responsibility( AOR) and out of area has been brought sharply into focus within the commercial sector, resulting in the inclusion of Inland Waterway Transport( IWT) into the commercial logistic concept.
Inland Waterways as part of the capability planning
Inland Waterway Transport as defined in AJP 4-4, can be operated on rivers,
Fuel Barge on the Rhine
1 MC 336 / 2 NATO Principles and Policies for Movement and Transportation. Dated 18 Feb 2002. 2 Ibid. 3 AJP- 4.4 ALLIED JOINT MOVEMENT AND TRANSPORTATION DOCTRINE 4 Edition B Version 1 MAY 2013) 3-6 5 Phillips C. Logistics and the BEF: The Development of Waterborne Transport on the Western Front, 1914-1916 In BJMH pp. 42-58, p. 56 6 The Rhine carries 310 MN Tonnes annually.
50 ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS