Are Afloat Prepositioning Programs Putting U.S. National Security Strategy at Risk?

By Clarke D Henderson

In recent years, many factors have placed more importance on Department of Defense prepositioning programs, both land-based and afloat prepositioning programs. Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a nearly fifty percent reduction in U.S. military forces permanently based overseas, resulting in a greater reliance on strategic airlift and sealift to deploy forces from CONUS.1 The FY 2007 U.S. government budget includes measures to continue this trend through its Global Posture Initiative, a plan to reduce overseas bases from 850 to 550 and return between 60,000 and 70,000 military personnel to CONUS over the next six years.2 Allies and coalition partners are also under increasing pressure to avoid hosting permanent and temporary U.S. military bases as they try to maintain domestic and regional political support by taking more neutral positions in regards to U.S. foreign policy objectives. Furthermore, conventional and non-conventional threats against forward deployed U.S. personnel and overseas bases have increased in recent years, and threats against fixed sites are forecasted to become much more lethal in the future.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1288416059
• ISBN13: 9781288416059
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: Biblioscholar
• Length: 38 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"