Project 2022-03
Smart, Secure & Resiliant
Trade Corridors
Mission Statement
An adaptive, efficient, secure, and resilient global supply network for dual use joint force deployment and distribution, commercial trade and transportation, and humanitarian response logistics transformation.
Strategic Mobility 21 Inc (SM 21) began as a spinoff of a partnership between the US Maritime
Administration (USDOT) responsible for maritime sealift and strategic seaports, US Transportation
Command (the functional global rather than regional transportation service provider to regional
combatant commanders worldwide such as US Central Command (CENTCOM) and the newly renamed Indo-Pacific (PACOM) command of increasing importance to US strategic interests across both the Pacific and Indian oceans., and California State University with a more limited focus upon dual use commercial and military support vessels and deconflicting joint force deployment and domestic port operations.
The lessons learned in dual use high speed vessel design, and use of strategic seaports for both concurrent deconflicted commercial and joint force deployment (reset and retrograde) cycle attracted the attention of Congress and DoD and elements of road, rail, and ocean transportation as well as port operations and Congressionally directed DoD Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) adaptive reuse of facilities with 12,000 foot dual runways, intermodal rail ramps, and integrated warehouse and distribution facilities with air, road and rail access.
SM 21 was perceived as a dual use (military and commercial) systems integrator hence the programmatic title and directive given by Congress to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and organizational purpose and outcome to convert former DoD facilities into a network of regional dual use transportation and distribution facilities connected by global air routes and sea lanes, interstate highways, and rail lines.
Later SM 21 emerged as the lead joint force logistics and transportation concept developer, education and training element integrator of the short lived US Joint Forces Command in Norfolk VA.
The key concept of a Joint (military and commercial) Deployment Distribution Support Platform
(JDDSP) incorporating road, rail surface and air distribution platform employing virtual and physical
integration was developed employing the Joint Capabilities Integrated Development System (JDDSP)
model and the DoD Architectural (descriptive) Framework (DoDAF). The joint development and experimentation plan and campaign followed the Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD)
regimen and the FEMA Consequence Management Incident Commander regimen for Humanitarian
Disaster Planning, response and Relief.
The entire process was incubated and continually tested in over a decade in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) though its Joint Interagency Field Experiment (JIFX) at Camp Roberts CA National Guard 50,000 Acre facility is the Joint Deployment Distribution Support Platform (JDDSP) as a smart multi-modal physical and virtual node in the Defense Transportation System interconnected with other similar former defense installations with new life as a physical interconnected network within the continental United States and integrated with similar entities globally.
The highly successful process was documented in the Joint Forces Command and OSD sponsored and Joint Staff J3 Joint Requirements Operations Committee (JROC) Joint Logistics Education, Training,
and Experimentation Transformation plan 2009.
Two key former DoD installations epitomized the concept individually and mutually: the former
George Air Force (fighter) Base in Southern California now Southern California Logistics Airport (SCLA) in close proximity to the National Training Center Fort Irwin and DoD’s largest rail ramp NEBO-YERMO rail ramp operated by the USMC, and the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field in Jacksonville FL. Both installations are connected by the I-10 all weather interstate highway system and the underutilized former Santa Fe Southern Pacific Sunset Line representing a wholly Us controlled alternate route to the Panama Canal for commercial, military, and increasingly important humanitarian assistance to civil authorities' DoD mission.
Both facilities need only minimal physical infrastructure investment consisting of an integrated dual access to adjacent main line rail access, rail staging and storage track, and in the case of SCLA only
one of two sections of track dual served by two domestic Class 1 railroads to reach their full potential as a staple physical element of a fully integrated domestic and global supply network. In the case of SCLA SM 21 invested its own program funds in the installation of secure T2 lines to DoD standards, a US Customs Facility and access to the ACE network as a backbone for routine air deployment of trained troops to CENTCOM by air the SW Asia theater of operations.
As a networked integrated rail hub, the strategic inland facility can push-pull rail unit trains to and from strategic commercial seaports and multiple container terminals comprised of destination designated multi-car blocks in so doing transload 20 and 40 foot sea commercial and DoD conex containers into domestic double stack 53 foot rail and truck containers and recycling empty sea containers back to awaiting vessels at strategic seaports at little cost and maximum efficiency in support of rapid deployment, sustainment, and time sensitive humanitarian support operations.
SM 21 as its mission developed the Southern California Agile Supply Network (SCASN) and Southeast Agile Supply Network (SEASN) as Smart Secure Resilient trade corridors with artificial intelligence support specifically to identify, address, and calculate the operational and economic benefits from adoption of the physical inland hub operational model.