Andrew Rolander
The solution to maritime logistics challenges may not be a purely military one but, rather, one pulled from the playbook used by ghost fleets, smugglers and other illicit networks.
Mobility, sustainment and logistics are the heartbeat of warfare because they are among the most important core functions that enable and empower operations, combat or otherwise. In other words, these functions help convert a nation’s resources into kinetic combat power. A military cannot fight effectively without the ability to move forces and maintain continuous resupply in an operational theatre. But in any war the unexpected and the overlooked can be relied on to assert themselves in ways that challenge commanders to think creatively about complex problems. In a future Indo-Pacific war, how can the United States military and its partners execute effective logistics in an environment which will almost certainly be contested from garrison to combat?
It doesn’t matter how excellent one’s weapon systems are if they are unavailable for operations where they are needed most critically. At 165 million square kilometres, the Pacific Ocean is larger than all the planet’s land mass. Logistics challenges in the Pacific theatre are already daunting even before the shooting starts.
Ghost fleet tactics offer solutions to these challenges. These fleets, deployed by countries such as China and Russia, employ deceptive practices to operate covertly, making it challenging to track their activities and ensure accountability. These vessels often disable or falsify signals from their automatic identification systems, avoiding detection and obscuring their locations and movements.
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