While the front-line combat troops receive the lion's share of the coverage and credit in the war in Iraq, a critical and increasingly dangerous campaign to supply them is being waged behind the lines.
The ambush on Sunday of an Army maintenance company near Nasiriya illuminated the risks faced by the unglamorous but essential troops who carry food, fuel, water and ammunition to front-line troops.
The attack has raised questions about whether the force assembled to overthrow Saddam Hussein is not only large enough to accomplish its mission but also to protect its supply lines, which now run 482km north from Kuwait.
PHOTO: AP
Senior commanders in Washington and at Central Command here insist that the 300,000 troops in and around Iraq are adequate for both jobs. But they are now also shifting the focus of the ground campaign away from Baghdad and back to the south, with the goal of defeating the fedayeen and other Iraqi irregulars who threaten supply columns.
Even before this change in tactics, the threat of hit-and-run attacks on supply routes and the 18,927-liter tanker trucks moving fuel to combat formations had forced field commanders to divert some troops to protect those units ferrying war-fighting material to the front.
Commanders had already beefed up protection around the supply convoys, which can stretch for kilometers. The fuel tankers make especially inviting targets, so supply lines had been patrolled by attack helicopters and cargo vehicles accompanied by Bradley fighting vehicles.
Experts in military logistics agree that the rapid multi-pronged advance toward Baghdad and the guerrilla activity behind the lines pose significant risks to the supply lines and the soldiers who must keep them open.
"You have your lines of communication extended, in some cases for hundreds of miles, and that makes this problem very, very difficult to manage," said General John Coburn, the retired head of the Army Materiel Command. "It's exacerbated by the environment and my guess is you've got shortages of parts, people repairing equipment right on the battlefield and constantly being forced to adapt to the combat commander's maneuver plan."
In addition, Coburn said, leaders of logistical units must handle growing numbers of prisoners of war and provide food and other aid to Iraqi civilians.
"When you look at this task, you have to start with the lines of communication and ask how much force is being dissipated in protecting them and how much risk is being taken," said Major General William Nash, a retired officer who commanded a brigade of the 3rd Armored Division during the Gulf War.
"Some amount of potential combat power is being used to protect and secure those supply lines," Nash said.
It is difficult to conceive the volume of supplies required for a large combat force or the difficulty of delivering them where they are needed in a timely fashion.
Fuel is a critical concern. The tank battalions, helicopter squadrons, attack aircraft, Marine maneuver units and warships in the Iraqi theater consume almost 57 million liters of fuel a day, according to Major General Dennis Jackson, director of logistics and engineering at Central Command headquarters here at Camp As Sayliya, outside the Qatari capital of Doha.
He said in an interview on the eve of the war that it was possible that the fast-moving forces could outrun their supply lines, limiting the speed of advance. The sandstorms and high winds in Iraq on Tuesday limited combat operations, while providing some relief to beleaguered supply officers, giving them a chance to refuel vehicles and move food, water, ammunition and medical supplies up the line.
Current military doctrine calls for establishing relatively small battlefield depots or "supply nodes" near the front to quickly deliver critical supplies to front-line troops, rather than building large, semi-permanent warehouse complexes. Captured airfields are sometimes used for this purpose, allowing the use of C-17 transport planes and heavy-lift helicopters to bring in supplies rapidly.
"The issue," Jackson said, "is the last tactical mile."
The small depots are abandoned as troops move forward, or left with a small guard contingent to maintain them for the withdrawal of troops at the end of the conflict.
The Marines have established one such "forward arming and refueling point" not far from their forward lines. It provides fuel for the corps' helicopters and combat vehicles and replaces rockets and machine-gun ammunition consumed in the fighting.
Troops fighting in desert conditions also consume gigantic quantities of water, several quarts per day per soldier. For the most part, that is being hauled in on tractor-trailers, but logistics officers are also planning to deliver purification equipment so that local water can be used.
Coburn said that he believed that General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of the Iraq force, has enough troops to prosecute the war and protect his supply lines. He said that supply troops, mechanics and combat engineers are in many cases capable of defending themselves.
But there is a clear difference in the battlefield training of a combat soldier or pilot and that of a truck mechanic, even one in uniform carrying a rifle. As a result, commanders are moving to give the more vulnerable supply troops added protection.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS