Quote:
Originally Posted by dvyws
Couple of comments on the shipping issues:-
Transport and shipping facilities could be a problem. The vessels will they be there?
I would assume that the same ships that were bringing reinforcements across would be used to bring this stuff back. You wouldn't need any extra ships - I don't see Europe exporting much (except casualties...) so basically you just take advantage of the "empties", as and when they arise.
Will they sit in harbor the extra couple days or weeks now to load them making prime targets for Pact air and sea forces?
You are assuming old fashioned general cargo ships, which I don't think would be used to transport most military stuff in these circumstances. Even if the container loading system is stuffed (primarily thos huge straddle cranes that put the boxes onb to the ships), the ramp on a Ro-Ro ship makes the turnaround time a couple of days max ( a definite boon when in Damman in Saudi, much less convenient in New Orleans or Kobe...). And in most cases, loading and discharging is carried out simultaneously, so the stay in port would be much less prolongued than you would think.
At sea, more comerce raiders, a laden vessel handles slower than a unladen.
Err, no, not really - in fact the difference is negligible, We never figured in cargo quantity when passage planning. And don't forget, an unladen vessel will take on a large quantity of water ballast, for stability purposes.
An d of course the facilities to load and unload such vesels, since many of the major port facilities were severely damaged.
Well, if you have the facilities to discharge the reinforcements, they will work for the backload. And don't forget, with a ramp, all you need is an undamaged length of quay, no cranes and surprisingly little infrastructure is needed.
So I think the logistics of the idea are reasonable - although personally I think the same effort put in to shipping wrecked NATO gear back for repair/upgrade/cannibalisation/scrap would prove more effective in the long run.
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I grew up in the tiny tiny tiny city of LOMITA. It was a hop skip and a jump from the port of Los Angeles/LongBeach and San Pedro. I worked in the area and my best freinds father was head of the long shoremans union <all winy bitches these days> who had a view of the harbor. It takes about 94 hours turnaround time for a vessel, true. Under modern times with the facilities. In T2K will we have those facilities?
I totaly agree that we should shit NATO gear back and that should have priority! They are reutilizing vehicles from Iraq the rebuild take a couple months, compared to the year it takes for a new one. In war time, I think we could probably pear down the build time to less no more than 3 months for an APC, if of course all things were running and the parts onhand. Call me optimistic, or just a tyrant, but I would providing the parts be on hand ensure the gear would be turning out a platoons worth of vehicles a week. This of course means running round the clock, no union BS! And the parts and aquisition were on hand.
But, the crux of the problem of hauling disabled vehicles off a pier or storeyard onto a vehicle hauler, is, you will have to lift them with a forklift or some other similiar vehicle place them and load. The roll on roll off vessels, well the vehicles rolling on and off are usualy mobile on their own. Not so with vehicles that have been blown apart. These need to be moved. And that poses a problem, the vehicles moving them need to be hooked up and unhooked, parts fall off, vehicles fall off their teathers and need to be reattatched and put in place. Alot of this takes a good five to ten minutes and more for a heavy mech vehicle. Even with a dozen of such vehicles, well figure 20 minutes per vehicle well we are talking an hour to load 12 vehicles. And the loaders both vehicles and men will need some downtime daily, let alone over a period of 96 hours.
That gives an idea in my mind of some of the issues one would face in such a tasdk, but it woudl be awesome to play. And I for one would love to have my team cruising through the US with a BRDM! It even gives me an idea for a campaign.