Can the Rail Industries Flatcar Inventory Support Two Major Theater Wars?

The ability of U.S. forces to change rapidly from a peacetime to a wartime force (to mobilize and deploy) is vitally important to national security. Successful execution of these movements depends, in large part, on the availability of the required transportation resources. Today's Army is heavily dependent on Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial rail car assets to move its wheeled/tracked vehicles from home forts to seaports of embarkation (SPOEs) to meet prescribed mobilization and deployment timelines. The primary research question answered by this paper is "Can U.S. military and commercial flatcar inventories meet DoD mobilization requirements for Army wheeled/tracked vehicles during two near-simultaneous major theater wars (MTWS)?" This paper compares commercial and military flatcar requirements as stated in DoD deployment plans with current/future flatcar inventories to determine whether rail car inventories (both commercial and DoD) are sufficient in number and type to meet a two-MTW scenario. The study shows that today's fleet of commercial and DoD flatcars is sufficient in number and type to support two near-simultaneous MTWs. However, future inventories of commercial, general-purpose flatcars will likely be insufficient due to current rail car production and retirement trends. Several recommendations are presented to ensure future inventories of militarily useful flatcars will be sufficient in number and type to meet DoD mobilization requirements in support of the two near simultaneous MTWs.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Can the Rail Industries Flatcar Inventory Support Two Major Theater Wars?', published 2000 under ISBN 9781423547563 and ISBN 142354756X.