Deploying the army interim brigade combat team. A quick-look approach for strategic force closure assessments

The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) recently examined the U.S. Armyʹs Vision for future small-scale contingency deployments with a focus on airlift transportation. The main objective was to provide feedback to the Army on initial concept feasibility. When evaluating transportation scenarios for future concepts, many of the key parameters impacting force closure are not yet well defined, such as the size, location, and time phasing of the deploying force, the level of hazardous cargo processing required, the size and composition of the dedicated airlift fleet, the location of the conflict, the available en route infrastructure, etc. To assess the essence of future transportation challenges, closure estimates and constraints were examined for a number of representative future scenarios. This paper provides details of the development and use of a strategic airlift quick-look tool to support USTRANSCOMʹs study effort. The tool supports rapid closure assessments and constraint identification for up to 42 different scenarios simultaneously. It is especially useful for evaluating best available future data and planning assumptions when time phased force deployment data is unavailable or of poor quality for making more detailed assessments.