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Wednesday, January 09, 2019

Air Bases in Boxes

The Air Force is having problems rolling out their idea to create "instant bases" with equipment sets in shipping containers that can get a rough base up and running quickly:

Due to poor planning and a lack of centralized management, it will take more time than originally expected for the U.S. Air Force to procure “base in a box” kits and forward deploy them in Europe, the Defense Department’s inspector general found in an investigation.

The Air Force began buying Deployable Air Base System—Facilities, Equipment, and Vehicles Kits — known more simply as DABS kits — in fiscal 2016 as it sought to push back on Russian influence in Europe.

This should work. And I mentioned it in the summer. The problem is management--or lack of it--and not concept, it seems.

I proposed a similar idea in Military Review of "bases in boxes on ships" for the Army (and it would work for the Navy and Marines, too, for that matter).