US-FLAG

CARRIERS EXERCISE Defense shipments to far-flung regions provide comfortable niche for shipping lines
MILITARY MIGHT

By R.G. Edmonson

DO TANKS FLY? Yes, when a supply chain of seven or eight days links Afghanistan with the Port of Karachi, Pakistan, and the military doesn’t want to risk M1 Abrams battle tanks falling into hostile hands.

But airlift is costly; sealift is a bargain in comparison. The overland route from Karachi is still the mode of choice for spare parts, food and other non-combatant commodities that land at Karachi. Even if the tanks fly, there will likely be enough cargo to keep U. S. ocean carriers busy as the U. S. winds down the war in Iraq and shifts its attention to the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense has integrated roll-on, roll-off vessels into its mix of civilian support vessels since the first Iraq war in 1991. Of the 60 ships in the Maritime Security Program fleet, nearly a third are designed to move rolling stock, the tanks, trucks, helicopters and