Readiness is a strategic priority at Joint Munitions Command and one component of JMC readiness is the ability to transport munitions to customers via sealift. Each year, JMC depots ship thousands of loaded ammunition containers to ammunition ports where they are then shipped to worldwide locations. Rail is an integral component of delivering ready, reliable and lethal munitions and is often used to move large volumes of containers efficiently and expeditiously to military ports.
Summer of 2020, JMC partnered with the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command to conduct a rail exercise from Tooele Army Depot to Naval Magazine Indian Island using the Rail Transfer Facility at Kitsap Bangor, Washington, to execute the intermodal move from rail to truck. The RTF had not been used since 2011 and experience executing a rail move from the RTF was very limited, but the end result was the successful shipment of more than 300 containers to the port via rail and truck.
Military Ocean Terminals are an integral part of providing munitions to units overseas. There are a limited number of ammunition ports, which could possibly become degraded due to manmade or natural occurrences. This makes it vital to exercise alternate ports to ensure JMC has other options to move munitions. The rail and truck shipments into NMII exercised the rail and line haul capabilities of the port using a live mission.
JMC and SDDC will continue to work together to identify opportunities to evaluate and improve the munitions shipment methods from depots to ports. This partnership increases organizational readiness, ultimately delivering ready, reliable and lethal munitions readiness at all levels of war.
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