Frederick L Crist

Operational Impacts of Joint Seabasing Frederick L Crist

Exercising the strength of America's military requires the capability to project people, equipment, and supplies across the globe. The credible threat of military action demands the ability to thrust that power at will, with the necessary strength to locations and at the time according to our nation's choice. Achieving national policy objectives requires that America must continue to develop creative methods to deploy her military abroad in the execution of foreign policy. Unfortunately, the tyranny of distance combined with the security conditions at the destination are enough to create conditions which unhinge the support for deploying in the first place. This monograph proposes that Joint Seabasing may be able to provide the United States with a force projection capability which is able to meet the demands of the future operating environment, as long as the JSB is considered a component system of an overarching strategic mobility system. An analysis of the JSB concept must utilize a systems perspective in order to prevent creating vulnerabilities in component systems of the strategic mobility system in an effort to realize efficiencies in other systems. A systems perspective provides an appreciation of the complexities of the strategic mobility system. This monograph recommends that the Joint Seabasing debate continues before significant investment is made into building another deployment node at sea. In addition, improvements throughout the strategic mobility system are necessary before focusing on the Seabase in order to prevent the creation of vulnerabilities in component systems.