Transportation Analysis Exploring Alternative Shipping of Marine Expeditionary Brigade Forces to Seabase in Contingency Response Scenarios

Abstract

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words)As the U.S. national security policy shifts focus toward the Pacific theater and limited availability of amphibious shipping, Marine Forces Pacific must consider the augmentation of alternative shipping to deploy forces to a seabase location to support military operations in the Pacific Command area of operations. Implementing a model-based systems engineering approach, this capstone project examines the effects of augmenting amphibious shipping with commercial, allied nation, and military sealift command ships to achieve force closure at a seabase and reduce fuel consumption. Multiple shipping alternatives supporting a Marine Expeditionary Brigade in anti-access/area denial (A2/ AD) and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR) missions formed the basis for measuring the effects of augmenting amphibious shipping. A simulation was developed to model the operational scenarios, and statistical analysis was performed upon the results of each alternative to identify factors affecting force closure time and fuel consumption. Analysis indicated that the effects of augmenting amphibious shipping vary based upon the mission type. Significant statistical evidence suggests that augmentation of amphibious shipping reduces force closure time and fuel consumption for the A2/AD mission. Based on the research, further investigation into the effects of augmented shipping on the Assembly and Employ phases of seabasing operations is recommended. SUBJECT TERMS MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ENGINEERING SYSTEMS

The Naval Postgraduate School’s Department of Systems Engineering Approach to Mission Engineering Education through Capstone Projects

“…For several examples of mission engineering capstone projects, see: [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The vast majority of mission engineering capstone projects at NPS have DoD sponsors funding the efforts.…”