Nice Ammo Dump You Have There, Shame if ...
all your stores ashore belong to us
Now that everyone has spent the last three weeks of the Russo-Ukrainian war watching what modern, precision guided, long-range fires can do to large, static supply bases - specifically "ammo dumps" - I'd like you to take a moment and read this in a new light;
The Army in the Pacific had its first crack at testing out its APS-Afloat capability in March in the Philippines during exercises Salaknib 22 and Balikatan 22. part of Operation Pathways, a larger exercise in the theater. The 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division used it coming from ships designed to harbor complete equipment sets and spares the Army anticipates needing should a crisis unfold.
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The APS-afloat is maintained by Army Field Support Battalion-Charleston and is the only floating stockpile in the theater. There are four other land-based APS locations in the Indo-Pacific area of operation.
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Both land-based and afloat APS have their benefits, Bartholomees said., “but the key thing with Army prepositioned stocks is that the dispersion and the flexibility of them provide multiple options in the Indo-Pacom theater.”
The People's Liberation Army Rocket Forces are not just going to let American land-based supplies just sit there unmolested. Likewise, smart military planner does not place his supplies in quantity within range of an enemies artillery...but here we are.
In peace, afloat stockpiles are not as efficient - but they are movable and unpredictable to an enemy's targeteers.
Everyone likes to wargame things ... so wargame out what happens at D+1 that two of the four land based stockpiles are taken out. Then what?
Three of four? One?
Time is short, but there is a solution. We need more afloat stockpiles we can move. Supplies either need to move onboard, move west, or get a signifiant plus-up of anti-ballistic missile defense - now.
Given the likelihood of CHICOM development of effective AShMs, the concentration of any resource, be it be it Ammo, MREs, or Marines Ready to Employ would seem to place some urgency on effective anti-missile defenses. Stockpiles (of anything) are obvious targets, mobile stockpiles are obvious, but not necessarily easy, targets. The only "easy" answer is redundant, mobile stockpiles of all critical resources, somewhat akin to railroad mounted ICBMs
Did I say easy? My bad! I failed to consider the pennywatchers who are sure to observe that redundancy is expensive.
This will be a replay of WWII, if we're lucky. They'll slaughter everything in the Western Pacific, and we'll be lucky if we can hold at the West Coast. Not optimistic.