Sea Basing

The security environment in the aftermath of the Cold War has been challenging. Despite its emergence as the world's lone Superpower, options for the US to exercise its global influence through forward basing are becoming increasingly difficult. Major US military installations overseas have closed for a variety of economic, political, as well as strategic reasons. Even the US bases that remain may at times be politically undesirable to use or operationally restricted. Furthermore, US land-based forces are vulnerable and virtually targets at all times for kinetic and non-kinetic weapons. The realities of decreased access and increased vulnerability have given new emphasis to the concept of sea basing. This paper advocates the emerging concept and capabilities of sea basing. As such, it builds a case to support the claim that sea basing should be vigorously pursued. Analysis includes discussions on what constitutes sea basing; the primary security challenges which are driving its development; how sea basing can effectively address these situations; possible alternatives; and finally, recommendations on how to proceed with sea basing. Research of the sea basing concept was conducted via a literature review of US Navy vision documents, resent Defense Department reports and articles in military professional journals. While most of the literature discussed both the strengths and limitations of sea basing, the overwhelming majority of the documents endorsed the concept. To this end, the paper concludes that the sea basing concept represents the key to joint operational independence in the challenging political and security environments of the future.