Mitigating Airlift Vulnerability: Building a Resilient Army Surface Deployment Capability

The Joint Force’s reliance on a limited strategic airlift fleet creates a significant vulnerability for deploying credible combat forces at the speed and scale required for a peer-level conflict. What are the most effective and feasible DOTMLPF-P changes the Army can make to its logistics enterprise to create a robust, responsive, and resilient surface deployment capability that meets combatant commander requirements while mitigating this vulnerability?

• Acker, Maj. Joseph M., "Not Going Alone: Agile Combat Employment as a Joint Mission," AFGC thesis, 2022.
  • Touches on the need for Army surface transportation capabilities to compensate for Air Force airlift vulnerabilities in contested environments. The paper argues that the Air Force lacks the necessary transportation assets to sustain distributed operations and should rely on the Army and Marine Corps to provide land mobility and logistics. It highlights that the Army could gain considerable experience by executing these surface transportation missions using both organic and host-nation capabilities during large-scale joint exercises.
• Aguon, LTC Romaine M., "Strategic Readiness: Accelerating USARPAC's Theater Logistics through Military Pre-Positioning," AWC SSP 2024.
  • Explores how the military can mitigate the overwhelming demand for vulnerable strategic airlift and sealift by utilizing Military Prepositioned Equipment (MPE). The paper highlights the successful employment of Army Prepositioned Stocks afloat (APS-3) during large-scale operations in the Indo-Pacific, which ensured rapid deployment and immediate access to equipment without relying on long-haul transportation from the homeland. To further enhance this resilient surface and afloat capability, the author recommends shifting the maintenance and reset cycles for APS-3 vessels from South Carolina to the Pacific theater, which would drastically minimize transit times and increase logistical agility for Combatant Commanders.
• Dennis, Col. Eric, "The Importance of Supply Chain Management," AWC SSP, 2021.
  • Addresses necessary changes to the Army's logistics enterprise to make it more robust and responsive for future conflicts. The author argues that the Army must abandon its traditional, linear logistics management structure in favor of modern Supply Chain Management (SCM) practices. Because the current logistics system's focus on efficiency has come at the cost of increased vulnerability and decreased redundancy, the paper recommends implementing agile, distributed supply chains downstream to the warfighter so the Army can effectively support multi-domain operations against a peer adversary.
• Herzberg, Maj. Matthew E., "Moving with a Purpose: Toward Access theory for Strategic Mobility," SAASS thesis, 2023.
  • Evaluates the strategic mobility triad of airlift, sealift, and prepositioning, explicitly warning against an over-reliance on the speed of strategic airlift. The research argues that while airlift provides a rapid initial response, it inherently lacks the massive capacity potential of surface deployment, and over-relying on airlift can dangerously delay the initiation of vital, high-capacity sealift movements. To create a more resilient logistics enterprise, the paper suggests the military must conceptually integrate these transportation modes and abandon rigid, path-dependent administrative structures, allowing for a more flexible response that properly leverages sealift capacity when airlift access is threatened.
• Rankin, Lt. Col, Sherdrick S., "The Application of Operational Design to Sustainment: A Case Study of Operation Enduring Freedom," AWC SSP, 2021.
  • Directly addresses the strategic vulnerability caused by the joint force's reliance on Air Force and Navy strategic deployment capabilities, noting that this dependence acts as a "significant restraint for planners". To mitigate this reliance on limited strategic airlift and build a more resilient logistics enterprise, the paper recommends several DOTMLPF-P-aligned changes. These include doctrinal shifts toward "push" versus "pull" logistics, organizational changes to develop future modular units equipped with organic strategic lift capabilities, the establishment of a Joint Logistics Command, and capacity improvements that leverage dormant rail and seaports to enhance surface and multi-modal deployment.
• Schooler, Col. Terrance L., "What Happened to the Last Tactical Mile?" AWC SSP, 2020.
  • Approaches the airlift vulnerability by examining the Army's Time Sensitive/Mission Critical (TS/MC) logistics requirements, which are often unmet by the Air Force's common-user airlift model. While focused on the "last tactical mile" rather than strategic surface deployment, it proposes structural and doctrinal changes to Army logistics to compensate for the limited availability of dedicated airlift. The paper suggests that to ensure combatant commanders' requirements are met, the Department of Defense should codify new joint doctrine that either places specific Air Force intratheater assets under the direct tactical control (TACON) of Army Aviation Brigade commanders or restarts acquisitions to provide the Army with its own organic fleet of direct-support cargo aircraft.
• Strabley, Maj. Joseph M., "A Contested Horizon: Conducting Logistics against a Near Peer Adversary," AFGC thesis, 2023.
  • Addresses the need to adapt supply chains for contested environments and specifically points to the Army's Prepositioning Stock Afloat (APS) program as a highly effective model for surface deployment. By maintaining critical assets aboard ships that can be downloaded at regional ports, the Army circumvents the vulnerability of waiting for airlift deliveries from the Continental United States. The research argues that utilizing water-based prepositioning provides greater flexibility for operational maneuver in theaters like the Pacific where strategic land is scarce, effectively mitigating the risks associated with airlift dependency.
• Young, Maj. Ryan H., "Hiding in the White Noise: Special Operations Logistics in the Pacific," ACSC EL, 2023.
  • Highlights that the military's reliance on air transport has severe limitations, especially when airlift becomes over-extended or vulnerable to anti-access/area-denial threats. To compensate for airlift vulnerabilities and the critically slow speed of traditional strategic sealift ships, the paper recommends procuring modified, low-cost "fast ferries" to establish a distributed, agile, and randomized network of surface logistics assets. By distributing these high-speed surface vessels across the theater, the military can achieve delivery speeds comparable to air transport but with significantly greater overall capacity and survivability.