I'll put these here until someone says otherwise.
This is another fragment of a larger paper. It needs some proofing so if you spot something make a comment.
Moving the Goods
All the supplies in the world are useless if you cannot get them where they are needed, on the front lines. Every military service has units, usually company-sized, devoted to moving supplies from the DropShip or depot to the combat troops. Moving supplies can be done a variety of ways but the most common, once the DropShips are dirt side is still by truck, or more specifically wheeled cargo vehicles.
Methods of Transport
An inhabited, and contested, planet is large place but most combat operations revolve around a few key objectives which allow a commander to concentrate most of his forces in a few areas. This in turn allows most of the unit’s DropShips to ground close, close being a relative term, to the objectives. This is an important aspect of modern warfare because it limits the distances logistic units must travel between supply sources, i.e. DropShips or depots, and the combat units that need the supplies. As the distance between supply source and combat unit increases, the number transport assets required to bridge the gap increases. So most commanders strive to keep their grounded DropShips within a few hundred kilometers of the combat forces; this also allows the combat units to redirect quickly to protect their DropShip transport, if necessary.
There are other supply source/transport options however. One common one is aerial or aerospace resupply. Distance units, and isolated ones, are frequently resupplied by conventional aircraft, VTOL, small craft or even DropShip. Most of the time these assets operate from a ground base somewhere on planet that might even be on the other side of it but occasionally the aerospace craft simply operate from orbit.
The Team Concept
The basic units of ground based supply transport are the Truck/Driver team and the convoy. The truck and its drivers are considered a single unit, much the same way a MechWarrior and his BattleMech are considered a single unit, and these truck/driver teams are organized into convoys of anywhere between two trucks and twenty. There are two basic Truck/Driver Team concepts in use today: the driver and co-driver team, which is by far the most common and the 3-Person Sleeper Team.
Most supply trucks have two seats, one for the driver and the co-driver. During a typical day each member of the team drivers for four to five hours, while the other provides an extra pair of eyes watching for hazards and frequently mans a pintle mount weapon from a roof hatch in the cab. They usually work in ten to twelve hour shifts, sometimes even longer if you include turn around operations at either end of their trip, but no longer under anything but the most extraordinary circumstances, staying alert while driving and keeping watch for ten to twelve hours can be a very exhausting.
Three-Person Sleeper Teams are rare inside the military but can be useful in some circumstances. This team concept was adopted from civilian service where it was developed in extremely desolate areas to cover vast distances with reasonable cargo loads in a minimum amount of time. Most civilian 3-Person Sleeper Teams operate large support vehicle type land or road trains, which are very rare in military service but the concept also lends itself well to the larger long range medium class support vehicles. This team concept allows one person to sleep while one drives and a third keeps watch, manning a self defense weapon if necessary. Most transport companies that use 3-Person Sleeper Teams operate within planetary militias and it is rare for them to directly support a combat unit, rather they normally shuttle supplies from a major planetary or continental depot to smaller depots within a combat theater so that supply & transport units attached to combat units can pickup and deliver the supplies to the combat troops.
Most military trucks operate in convoys when conducting supply operations; it makes command and control easier and improves security for everyone involved. A convoy can consist anywhere from two trucks to every truck in the unit, but size generally depends on the mission.
Movement Rates
Convoys must operate at the same speed to avoid string itself out; maximum speed, is of course, depend upon the slowest vehicle’s maximum speed, but most convoys do not operate anywhere near their maximum potential. Convoys are planned to arrive at their destination at specific times as well as depart on time, they often cover very poor roads or areas with none at all and they occasionally must stop unexpectedly to deal with breakdowns, road blocks and even ambushes so average convoy speeds are slow compared to what most civilians are used too. For planning purposes most military services expect to travel at 22 KPH or less over poor roads and 32 to 43 KPH over good roads.
Supply transport units generally operate in one of two operating modes: Local-Haul and Line Haul. In Local Haul mode the unit is traveling a relatively short distance making two round trips per ten to twelve hour operating shift. During Line Haul operations the unit is making only one trip per shift and occasionally only making one leg of the trip per shift, either the outbound or the return leg. This is important to understand since the distance a combat unit can safely fan out from its DropShips or supply depot depends on how far its supply transports can move in a day and how much those transports can move. As a general rule of thumb as distance traveled, beyond the Local-Haul range, doubles, the supplies available to the combat unit drops by 50% due to the time involved moving the supplies forward to the combat unit. If the combat unit and supply & transport unit both rely on fuel powered vehicles fuel supplies will swindle even faster.
Sustained vs. Surge Lift Capacity
Vehicles need maintenance and personnel need rest; it is a simple immutable fact. When combat operations last more than a couple of weeks truck/driver teams need breaks for rest and maintenance therefore most military services rate a supply and transport unit according to there Sustained and Surge lift capacities. Basically the Sustained Lift Capacity is amount of cargo in can move at once, indefinitely, the Surge Lift Capacity is the amount of cargo it can move at once during a maximum effort, when all vehicles and personnel are moving cargo. Surge capacities are also listed with the amount of time a unit can reasonably be expected to maintain surge operations, usually about a week. Generally a unit’s Sustained Lift Capacity is about 85% of its Surge Lift Capacity. In other words one day a week a truck and its drivers can reasonably expect to be offline for maintenance during sustained operations, although this can vary as most military services base it on vehicle maintenance requirements, not human endurance.
Motor Transport & Supply & Transport Organization
Cargo transport units, regardless of vehicle type are generally organized along the same model used by the old SLDF; one company usually supports one combat regiment and is organized into three or four truck platoons, a maintenance section and a headquarters section. The headquarters section provides command and control for the platoons, acting as a central dispatch and information processing center. It is also responsible for keeping track of the supplies moved by the company. The maintenance section is, of course, responsible for the maintenance of the vehicles assigned to the company. They usually have several wrecker trucks so that one or two may accompany each convoy of transport trucks.
Each truck platoon is organized to function as an independent convoy, although it to may be split up into small convoys depending on need. Truck platoons can have anywhere from eight to twenty transport trucks assigned to it depending on the military service, what’s available and the combat unit it supports. Generally all the trucks assigned to a truck platoon are of the same type, except for one or two jeeps or similar vehicles used for convoy control. Most companies will have only one type of transport truck as well, although some units mix truck types to provide a variety of transport options.
Specialist transport units, such as a fuel transport company are organized along the same basic lines as a regular supply and transport company but, depending on their specialties, they may have additional equipment. Palletized Loading Systems are a common feature on military trucks today. They allow a PLS equipped truck to load a standard shipping container without assistance, but many units do not have PLS equipped trucks. They usually have equipment to help load whatever it is they were organized to transport. All-terrain forklifts and container loaders are frequently found in such units, along with standard loader-type exoskeletons, which are so common in all supply & transport units. They are also common in port control supply units that specialize in loading and unloading DropShips.
