Sea basing is a critical capability for the United States in a world where flexible, quick-response military action will be required in areas far from fixed bases available or suitable for American military use. The seabase replaces or augments the fixed, in-theater airports and seaports, on which past military operations have focused and depended, with a maneuverable facility at sea - a mobile base of operations, command center, logistics node and transportation hub. A commander can place a seabase where and when he chooses to exploit enemy weaknesses and employ the element of surprise, confusing enemy defensive preparations. A seabase can be a center for reconstitution and redeployment of forces in succeeding stages of complex operations. As a base for maneuver forces, it represents a far more serious threat than that of precision fires only, whether delivered by aircraft or cruise missiles. The force at sea threatens adversaries with destruction, invasion and ultimately loss of power. The sustaining power of the seabase can maintain the pace of military operations so that operational pauses characteristic of past expeditionary forcible entries disappear. The need to pause for supply and regrouping following entry and before moving to operational objectives is no longer necessary. Thus, the period of vulnerability, during which enemy forces organize and mount defenses, disappears.


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    Tactical Basing Issues

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