Transportation is the key to successful military operations in peace and war. At both the strategic and the tactical level—on land and sea and in the air—transportation provides the essential means for assembling men, equipment, and supplies at the critical time and place. Military transportation includes planning and executing the movement of personnel, equipment, and supplies to the theater of operations (
strategic transportation), within the theater (
operational transportation), and on the battlefield (
tactical transportation). Effective and efficient transportation involves
movement control and the use of all modes of transportation: human and animal, transoceanic and inland water transport, rail, motor, air, and such other methods as pipelines and aerial tramways.
Movement control encompasses the planning, coordination, and supervision of military movement of all types and includes such subfunctions as scheduling personnel and cargo movement to maximize the use of available carriers and ensure that men and materiel arrive when and where needed; tracking the progress of movement; and regulating the frequency, speed, and density of movement in order to avoid congestion at any point along the route.
Human and animal transport have been used to move military forces since prehistoric times. Well into the twentieth century, most armies relied almost entirely upon human and animal bearers. Even today in more primitive areas, porters and pack animals are still the most effective means of moving military supplies. Able to operate under most weather conditions on all sorts of terrain, a human bearer can carry 60–80 pounds for fifteen miles in a day. Pack animals (horses, mules, bullocks, and camels) can carry about 200–250 pounds, and the standard U.S. Army four‐horse wagon of the
Civil War period could haul over 1 ton of cargo. Human and animal transport is often critical to the success or failure of a military campaign. The terrible privations suffered by Washington's
Continental army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777–78 during the
Revolutionary War were due more to the lack of adequate teams, wagons, and teamsters than to any absolute lack of food, clothing, and fuel in the rebellious colonies. However, by the end of the Civil War less than 100 years later, wagon transport had become a particularly effective means of moving supplies under the control of competent logisticians.
Water transport is essential to move men and materiel overseas, and both transoceanic and inland water transport can move large numbers of troops and supplies in bulk over long distances. However, most water transport is relatively slow, and its effective utilization depends upon adequate loading and unloading facilities. Water transport has played an important role in all America's wars, especially since 1898, when overseas campaigns became the norm for U.S. forces. Beginning in 1948, the U.S. Navy assumed responsibility for managing water transport for all military services, but until after World War II, the army operated its own fleet of seagoing transports and cargo vessels under the direction of the Quartermaster Corps and, after 1942, the Transportation Corps.
Rail transport can haul large tonnages over great distances in all sorts of weather, but it is manpower‐intensive, restricted to established routes, and quite vulnerable to enemy attack. Railroads were first used for military transportation in the United States during the
Mexican War of 1846–48, and they became an important factor in strategic and operational mobility during the Civil War. American railroads carried almost all military troops and cargo within the continental United States in World Wars I and II, but in recent years military rail movements have been largely supplanted by motor and air transport. Until the formation of the Army Transportation Corps in 1942, U.S. military railroads were operated by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Motor transport is now the principal mode of military movement at the operational and tactical level. Such transport is flexible but requires a high expenditure of manpower and other resources, not only to operate and maintain the vehicles themselves but also to maintain roads capable of handling sustained military traffic. Motor transport is also relatively vulnerable to the effects of weather and enemy interdiction. The U.S. Army, which purchased its first motor vehicles in the 1890s, was one of the first armies in the world to achieve full mechanization of its tactical and logistical forces. Until 1942, motor transport was the responsibility of the Quartermaster Corps, although a distinct Motor Transport Corps existed for a short time in World War I.
Air transport first became a factor in modern warfare during World War II and has since assumed great importance. The rapid long‐distance movement of substantial numbers of men and large quantities of cargo by air has revolutionized the strategic mobility of military forces. At the same time, tactical mobility has been enormously improved by the use of
helicopters. But air transport is very expensive and generally requires improved terminal facilities. The air force provides U.S. military forces with worldwide strategic airlifts and tactical airlifts of men and materiel, effecting deliveries by both air landing and parachute drop. The other services also operate their own tactical airlifts, principally in the form of troop and cargo‐carrying helicopters.
The Persian Gulf War demonstrated the capabilities of adequate and properly managed air transport.
Pipelines, aerial tramways, hovercraft, and other means of transport supplement the principal modes. Pipelines, operated by the Army Quartermaster Corps, are particularly useful for the movement of bulk liquids and solids suspended in liquid (e.g., coal dust). They are, however, relatively inflexible, vulnerable to enemy action, and require substantial resources to build and maintain.
Since most modern military movement of any consequence involves more than one service, management at the highest levels is a joint undertaking. The U.S. Transportation Command, a joint headquarters established in 1987, provides movement control and the allocation of strategic transportation resources for all the services. Close links are maintained with civilian enterprises (shipping and trucking companies, the railroads, and commercial air carriers), which in fact own and operate under government contract most of the equipment and facilities needed to meet military requirements, particularly within the United States and to the overseas theaters.
Modern military forces possess great destructive power, but that power must be positioned at the decisive time and place if
victory is to be attained. The only means for achieving the necessary concentration is transportation—by land, sea, or air. A military force without adequate transportation cannot achieve overwhelming superiority on the battlefield and is thus doomed to failure.
[See also
Armored Vehicles;
Logistics.]
Bibliography
Headquarters, Department of the Army , Field Manual 55‐15: Transportation Reference Data, 1963.
James A. Huston , The Sinews of War: Army Logistics, 1775–1953, 1966.
Headquarters, Department of the Army , Field Manual 54–10: Logistics—An Overview of the Total System, 1977;
Headquarters, Department of the Army , Field Manual 700–80: Logistics, 1982.
Charles R. Shrader