What does «Comando de Transporte de los Estados Unidos» mean in Spanish?
- One truth about modern militaries is that they always need people, equipment, and supplies to be moved from one place to another, which is the job of the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), which is one of the Unified Combatant Commands that is organized by function rather than by geographic area. Depending on the nature of the item, the speed with which it must arrive, the risks at pickup and delivery sites, etc., transportation planners must be able to choose between military and commercial operators of aircraft, ships, trucks, and, in some cases, horses and mules. The selection must be made with all military transportation requirements in mind, not just those of a service or regional command. During an average week, USTRANSCOM conducts more than 1,900 air missions, with 25 ships underway and 10,000 overland shipments operating in 75 percent of the world's countries. Through October 2004, the command has moved more than 1.9 million passengers; 1,108,987 tons by air; 3.7 million tons by sea; and delivered more than 53.7 billion barrels of fuel by ship. Extensive use is made of standardized intermodal containers, which can seamlessly transition from long-haul systems to tactical delivery systems such as the HEMTT truck. The USTC has options that the other commands do not. If a Navy M1 Abrams tank has to move from Quantico, Virginia, to Baghdad, Iraq, if a central organization knows that a cargo ship in Norfolk, Virginia, chartered by the Air Force, is scheduled to go to Kuwait City and has room for the tank, the USTC can send the tank to the ship and arrange to have it picked up by a commercial heavy equipment transport truck in Virginia and have its ship met in Kuwait by an Army heavy equipment transporter-that's very possible if someone has a global vision. That big picture has to consider both the long-range aspects of long-range transport deployment and the regional or local distribution needed to get the tank to Mosul, Iraq. In another situation, a shipment of electronic parts might be needed to get to Germany, but the unit that needs them is on the move, so arrangements have to be made to take the cargo from the aircraft, put it in a warehouse, and then deliver it when the traveling unit arrives.