2014/09/14

The Economist: "The humble hero"

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The Economist, May 18th 2013
 
THE humble shipping container is a powerful antidote to economic pessimism and fears of slowing innovation. Although only a simple metal box, it has transformed global trade. In fact, new research suggests that the container has been more of a driver of globalisation than all trade agreements in the past 50 years taken together.



This is similar to how the myth of a very successful and essential Marshall Plan distorted perceptions towards the assumption that economies can be kickstarted with foreign aid (it wasn't that important). The belief in free trade is almost religious in some people (and especially so if their pay check depends on it).

An article about the importance of containerisation for maritime trade also reminds me of the containerisation issues of the military.
I won't write about this before I've done some more research, though. I haven't seen from the inside in a while how things are done. Most Western military forces seem to under-appreciate articulated lorry logistics and fuel tank pallets/containers, though. Civilian long-range truck logistics are being dominated by articulated lorries, but they have traditionally only niches in army logistics (mostly as tank transporters and heavy fuel trucks). I feel the armed bureaucracies are missing out on something here.
It's always nice to figure out some ideal military truck logistics solution, but the bulk of the supplies would need to be hauled by civilian trucks if our alliances really need to defend themselves some day. A fleet mix between milspec and civilian trucks would be used. Compatibility (moving cargo from a civilian truck to a milspec truck for the final 200 km between corps logistics hub and consuming units) would be of major concern.

S O

edit: A link to info on the special air freight container types (LD series) and another link to measurements for the ocean shipping/trucking containers.

13 comments:

  1. Articulated lorry logistics would be a nice article to read.

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  2. Sparky has written a lot about the "Battle Box" (as he call it) since ca. 10 years. Megalomaniac as he is, he wants to put the hole army into such boxes.

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  3. I'd hesitate to quote Sparky on anything as a 'good idea.'

    I agree with the basic premise here, that military logistics will rely on civilian trucking capacity. The last 200/250/300km will have to be handled by military vehicles, and compatibility between civ trucks and mil trucks will become a requirement, but adoption of the container system may very well be that solution - containerized stores using the standard 12.5m (~40ft type) container can be moved off ships, onto civvy tractors, up to the intermediate supply point and transferred onto military carriers for the last leg / second last leg. The obvious downside is that we have a 12.5m long huge rectangular thing to conceal, which if it's repurposed from civilian use will require at least a coat or two of paint. Seems simple enough, just need to intelligently decide where and how to repaint the container or otherwise conceal it (the underlying assumption here is that it would be an unacceptable delay to repackage the containers at the intermediate point to something safer to use in a mil application), so as not to put a bunch of NATO 3-colour or OD painted containers on a cargo ship which would then obviously be carrying mil cargo and a legit target for air or sub interdiction.

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    1. I am pretty sure that the big container houses would gladly paint their "Boxes" in "Flecktarn" if the governments/militaries would pay a "modest percentage" of procurement costs.
      So to be clear I don't see camouflage as an issue if there's serious support for the general proposition.
      And about smaller units [or "the frontline"] support: it's not like an ordinary infantry squad in the field has a bunch of 463L Master Pallets sitting around nowadays.

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    2. The containers could be sprayed in matte grey real quick, with netting applied when and while deemed necessary. Nobody would (need to) wait for bureaucrats setting up a contract.

      The compatibility question is rather between the civilian semi-trailer and the military rack self-loading/flat bed concepts.

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    3. I was thinking there are some benefits to not having mil-painted containers (all the ones I've seen in the port city I live in now have been red, blue or yellow) on ships for the sake of them blending into the traffic stream.

      The Canadians use the DAF XF as a tank transporter and the MB Actros Armoured Heavy Support Vehicle System (uparmoured MB Actros) as a cargo truck. Both could handle shipping containers on trailers, it seems.

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  4. check out this great book: http://www.mare.de/index.php?article_id=1579&setCookie=1 (german). also the works of monika domman on paletts.

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  5. I wonder what sort of combat vehicles could be rigged to be carried inside a shipping container. It could be really useful to have no obvious difference (from the air, say) between supplies/spare parts/civilian freight vs combat units being shipped around.

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    1. Interior width is about 2.34 m.
      Even armoured recce vehicles such as the new and light Sphinx are 3 m or more wide.
      I've wondered a long time why there are no double width containers to occupy two container slots on a container ship, though. The safety installations on some container ships might interfere, but it should mostly be possible if the cranes can attach and cope with the weight.

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    2. Yeah, I guess you're pretty much limiting yourself to light weapons carriers (tracked or wheeled), which probably shouldn't be considered combat vehicles. It might make for some interesting, heavily armed infantry battalions transported by container, though. I wonder if one were designer for container, what sort of actual combat vehicle could be designed with that in mind. Kind of like a tiny Panama Canal requirement.

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    3. The Russians have taken a similar tack with their containerized Klub missiles. I think SO here might even have a blog post on them. If not, there's plenty of data over at Australian Air Power on Soviet, Chinese and Russian ordnance and the Klub is amongst those articles.

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    4. Michael, no need to look that far. MBTs have their width still limited by maximum railroad cargo width!

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    5. Ah, I'd forgotten about that.

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