Exploring the Reduction of Fuel Consumption for Ship-to-Shore Connectors of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade

The Marine Corps must prepare itself to operate without the benefit of readily available fossil fuels and supplies shipped in by trucks or home-based supply lines. As demonstrated in the current conflicts, the threats of IEDs and the expenses of obtaining fossils fuels make it imperative that the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) of the future must be able to bring its supplies with them or have them delivered by readily available and close-by alternate means. The team chose to build a stochastic model of the notional MEB architecture framework in ExtendSim to research tradeoffs to reduce fuel consumption, while still maintaining mission effectiveness. It was documented that fuel savings are directly proportional to the Seabase distance and sea state effects during operations, which may not always be able to be influenced by the landing force. The model validates planning considerations with respect to SSD and sea state offering statistical evidence to support a recommendation that these two factors should be minimized when practical to gain best efficiencies when conducting the assault.