JP 4-01.5 JTTP for Water Terminal Operations - BITS

Executive Summary
The Commander in Chief,
US Transportation
Command is responsible
for providing designated
geographic combatant
commanders with strategic
transportation support to
deploy and sustain their
forces.
Water terminal operations
must be planned and
coordinated to consider
cargo flow from origins to
destinations in the theater.
Ship arrival planning
schedules must be
coordinated in order to be
efficient and timely while
handling supplies.
Strategic sealift is the
principal means of
delivering equipment and
logistic support for land,
air, and sea forces in a
major conflict.
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The responsibilities of the USCINCTRANS also include
developing a system to assist the combatant commander
in tracking the movement of units and supplies into the
theater. The United States Transportation Command’s
(USTRANSCOM’s) Global Transportation Network, as it
interfaces with the Joint Operation Planning and Execution
System, will provide the combatant commander with force
tracking and in-transit visibility support capability.
USCINCTRANS uses its transportation component
commands, Air Mobility Command, Military Sealift
Command (MSC), and Military Traffic Management
Command to execute these tasks.
Water Terminal Operations Planning
Planning would typically involve the joint force staff and
Service components, in coordination with USTRANSCOM
and its Transportation Component Commands. The general
considerations for water terminal planning are geophysical
characteristics of theater, steps in water terminal planning,
and basic factors in planning discharge operations.
Different phases are needed to reflect changes in type and
volume of cargo that are more efficiently handled by different
types of water terminals. The four deployment phases are
initial or surge, tactical resupply, sustained resupply, and
build-down or redeployment. Terminal throughput capacity
estimation encompasses a careful evaluation of several factors:
reception, discharge, transfer, storage, and clearance.
The single most important factor in the efficient loading
or discharge of a ship is possession of an accurate hold
arrangement or capacity plan and cargo stowage plan for
the vessel in question. In addition to documentation required
by existing regulations, the water terminal commander will
normally require the following: passenger manifests, cargo
reports, ship traffic, workload projections, and personnel and
equipment summaries.
Water Terminal Operations
Water terminal operations can include MSC common-user
vessels, maritime prepositioning ships, commercial vessels on
charter to MSC or vessels provided by a host or coalition nation.
In off-loading these vessels where port facilities are less than
adequate lighterage or watercraft may be used. The three
sources of capabilities in an overseas area are: military assets
assigned to the combatant commander, host-nation support
negotiated through bilateral or multilateral agreements, or by
Joint Pub 4-01.5