The document discusses alternatives to conducting maintenance of maritime prepositioning ships at Blount Island Command in Jacksonville, FL. It proposes relocating capabilities to the Military Ocean Terminal Concord in Concord, CA, which would reduce transit times and costs for ships traveling from locations in the Pacific. Relocating to MOTCO could save over $52 million in fuel and other costs over the long term. It would also better support the Navy's strategic focus on the Pacific region and help ensure the continued relevance of the Marine Corps in the Pacific.

1. Ideas & Issues (LogIstIcs)
Alternatives to
Blount Island
Move in order to save time and money
United States Law mandates
U.S. fagged ships must go
into dry dock in the United
States every 5 years for a hull
inspection.1 In compliance with this
law, on a recurring 36-month cycle,
each maritime prepositioning ship
(MPS) returns to Blount Island Com-mand
in Jacksonville, FL, as part of a
maintenance cycle where both equip-ment
and supplies are repaired or ro-tated
as necessary. The equipment is
offoaded, calibrated, maintained, and
modernized prior to being reloaded be-fore
the vessel returns to its forward de-ployed
location. The maintenance cycle
is a maintenance, supply, ammunition,
and embarkation operation focused on
the combat readiness of the equipment
and supplies. Most of these activities
take place at Blount Island, with the
exception of ammunition operations,
bulk fueling, and portions of depot-level
maintenance required for certain
equipment. Dry dock ship hull certif-cations,
when required, are performed
at a port contracted through Military
Sealift Command.2
Within the current fscal environ-ment,
the Department of the Navy
must effciently use limited resources
to maintain the ability to meet current
requirements. Relocating the capabili-ties
from Blount Island to the west coast
of the U.S., and consolidating pre-positioning
efforts with the U.S. Army
and U.S. Air Force will save millions in
underway costs and decrease off-station
time that will better support combatant
commander operational requirements.
Maritime Prepositioning Squadron-2
(MPSron-2) vessels located in Diego
Garcia transit to Blount Island heading
west around the Cape of Good Hope
by Maj Robert G. Barber
>Maj Barber is a prior enlisted Marine infantryman who received his commission
in 2000. He has various deployments to the Caribbean with Joint Task Force-160,
the Former Republic of Yugoslavia with the 26th MEU in support of NATO-IFOR,
Iraq with I MEF and the Multinational Force-Iraq, and Afghanistan with Special
Purpose MAGTF-Afghanistan. He has more than 8 years of experience in the
Pacifc Command theater and is currently the Maritime Prepositioning Offcer,
Marine Forces Pacifc, HI.
and the southern tip of Africa. MPS-ron-
3 vessels located in Guam/Saipan
transit east through the Panama Canal.
The transit time from both Diego Gar-cia
and Guam/Saipan to Blount Island
is approximately 33 days. During the
33-day transit each way, and for an ad-ditional
2 to 3 months during the main-tenance
cycle, the vessel and associated
equipment are unavailable for tasking
to support combatant commander de-mands.
Minimizing off-station time
is a priority during the development
of the maintenance schedule. Prior to
MPSron-1’s divestiture from the pro-gram
in September 2012, Blount Island
Command was centrally positioned to
support the global posture of the Mari-time
Prepositioning Force (MPF).
Establishment of a west coast al-ternative
to Blount Island would cut
transit from 33 days to 27 days for MP-Sron-
2 and to just 15 days for MPS-ron-
3. Using fscal year 2014 cost es-timates
provided by Military Sealift
Command for underway fuel costs by
The MPS maintenance cycle is time consuming and costly. (Photo by MSgt Chad McMeen.)
44 www.mca-marines.org/gazette Marine Corps Gazette • December 2014

2. vessel type, this reduction in steaming
days generates a cost savings upward
of $52 million across the Future Years
Defense Program (FYDP) in steaming
days alone. Operationally, it eliminates
transit through a single choke point of
the Panama Canal at a cost of approxi-mately
$300,000 per ship and, perhaps
more importantly, signifcantly reduces
off-station time by 10 percent for MPS-ron-
2 and by 20 percent for MPSron-3.
(See Figures 1 and 2.) The fgures show
a total savings of $26.26 million for
each maintenance cycle and $52.52
million across the FYDP.
The U.S. Army Military Ocean Ter-minal
Concord (MOTCO) is located in
Concord, CA, just off the Sacramento
River and services both the U.S. Army
and U.S. Air Force prepositioning ships.
Formerly the Concord Naval Weapons
Station, it consists of an inland area of
more than 5,000 acres and a tidal area
of more than 7,600 acres. When es-tablished,
the station functioned as a
World War II armament storage depot
and supported war efforts during the
Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the
Gulf War by processing and shipping
thousands of tons of materiel across
the Pacifc Ocean.3 Due to changes in
military operations, parts of the inland
area began to be mothballed, and by
1999 the station had only a minimal
contingent of military personnel, and
contained mainly empty ammunition
storage bunkers, empty warehouses, and
unused support structures. In 2007, the
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
U.S. Federal Government announced
this inland area of the naval station
would be closed.
Subject to approval by the U.S. Navy,
the City of Concord is in the process
of formulating a reuse plan for this in-land
area that includes residential and
commercial development while reserv-ing
approximately two-thirds for green
space and parks projects.4
. . . the City of Con-cord
is in the process
of formulating a reuse
plan . . .
MOTCO provides an excellent site
to shift Blount Island’s capability to
the Pacifc. The facility has suffcient
port operations, air, rail, and highway
infrastructure to accommodate the ship-ment
of equipment and sustainment to
various locations for retrograde, and $10
million in improvements to MOTCO
pier facilities was listed as the number
four priority on the Commander, U.S.
Pacifc Command’s Integrated Priority
Listing for fscal year 2015. MOTCO
is in close proximity to both a Defense
Logistics Agency hub just 51 miles away
in Tracy, CA, and the Marine Corps
Logistics Base in Barstow, CA, just 408
miles from where depot-level mainte-nance
is performed. In relation to the
distance from Blount Island to Marine
Corps Logistics Base Albany, GA, the
distance from MOTCO to Barstow is
just a mere 185 miles farther and di-rectly
connected by rail.
The explosive safety quantity dis-tance
(ESQD) restrictions at Blount
Island limit explosive-laden vessels to
approximately 800,000 pounds. The
T-AKE (auxiliary and ammunition
ship) carries approximately 1 million
pounds of explosives and must split
loading operations by loading sustain-ment
in Jacksonville, FL, then transit
to Charleston, SC, to load ammunition
where the ESQD restriction is 1 million
pounds. Because of increased costs to
load ammunition at other ports where
the ESQD is higher, the T-AKE ves-sels
in the MPF program are not fully
loaded and the 30-day requirement for
ammunition to sustain the MEB is not
met. MOTCO is sighted with an ex-isting
explosive waiver allowing up to
4.5 million pounds and can support a
single load out of the T-AKE, increas-ing
ammunition forward deployed for
the MEB, and further decreasing port
costs, transit costs, and off-station time.
There is growing concern by Marines
in the Pacifc as the Army is quietly,
skillfully, and strategically becoming
more relevant in the Pacifc than both
the Navy and the Marine Corps. The
Army has an extensive history of expe-ditionary
and amphibious operations
in the Pacific, including participa-
www.mca-marines.Marine Corps Gazette • December 2014 org/gazette 45

3. There is an alternative to Blount Island for maintenance. (Photo by MSgt Chad McMeen.)
tion in the Mexican War, the Spanish
American War, the Philippine Insur-rection,
the Boxer Rebellion, and both
World Wars. Historically, the Army
has shown it is more than capable of
conducting amphibious assaults, and
the Marine Corps takes great strides
not to advertise this fact. U.S. Army
Pacifc recently unveiled an initiative
titled “Pacifc Pathways” to establish
precedence for increased Army involve-ment
in Pacifc exercises. The concept
proposes to embark 700 soldiers from
regionally aligned units in the Pacifc
on Army transport watercraft and/
or MSC vessels to conduct 6-month
training deployments that includes up
to three Asia-Pacifc exercises such as
Cobra Gold in Thailand, Balikatan in
the Philippines, and Talisman Sabre
in Australia—all historically predomi-nant
exercises for the transiting MEU.
In the current fscal environment, the
budgetary and mission rivalry between
the Army and the Marine Corps will
only intensify.
In August 2014, the Offce of the
Chief of Naval Operations offered up
elimination of another MPSron as bud-get
effciency to save $418 million over
the FYDP. HQMC responded with a
rough order of magnitude estimate that
showed in order to offoad the equip-ment
embarked aboard MPSron-3
and provide the required storage and
maintenance ashore would cost approxi-mately
$331 million, thereby generat-ing
a savings of $87 million across the
FYDP. The U.S. Navy comptroller’s
response indicated that any savings is
signifcant. If so, then this proposal is
more than worthy of further analysis.
The proposed transfer of capabilities
from Blount Island to MOTCO would
undoubtedly require improvements,
new construction, and potentially raise
labor costs, but the $52 million in sav-ings
would not only fund this transfer,
but will also better support the Nation’s
rebalance to the Pacifc and ensure the
Marine Corps remains relevant in the
Pacifc.
Notes
1. Congress of the United States, The Merchant
Marine Act of 1920 (Public Law 66-261), Wash-ington,
DC, 1920, better known as “The Jones
Act.”
2. Headquarters Marine Corps, “Maritime Pre-positioning
Force Maintenance Cycle.” Mari-time
Prepositioning Force Operations, Washing-ton,
DC, 2012, p. 123.
3. City of Concord, Concord Naval Weapons
Station Reuse Information, Concord, CA,
2014?, date of information 13 August 2007??
4. City of Concord, Concord Reuse Project, Con-cord,
CA, 2014 Offcial Reuse Project website,
accessed 26 January 2010.
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46 www.mca-marines.org/gazette Marine Corps Gazette • December 2014