Pack It Up
Written by Steve Goodman
TRANSPORT CONTAINERS
The armed services can’t risk tons of essential military cargo being tied up in ports, or subject to theft or tampering. The key to moving military goods has been to use intermodal transportation. That means using several different modes of transportation to move the same unit of cargo, such as a ship, a plane or a truck. A container is the best way to accomplish that. Think of it this way: Suppose you had to move hundreds of anvils. What would be easier and more efficient, finding a container that you could put them all in and move around once, or trying to move each one at a time?
As early as World War II the military has used large, usually 20-foot, shipping containers to move gear and supplies. In addition to consolidation of cargo into a single unit allowing for easier shipping and unloading, there are many advantages to sea/land containers.
Containers provide protection and security in several ways. Most containers only have a single point of access, one door, which can be locked and secured. Additional security methods can be employed on containers such as numbered seals that will let cargo handlers know if the container has been opened or tampered with during transit. More recently, advanced technology such as radio frequency identification (RFID) has been used to monitor and ensure the proper delivery of supply shipments, by tagging loads within containers with the RFID chips.
Containers also provide protection against the ravages of weather and the environment, and prevent damage to shipments. As long as a container is loaded properly, the cargo within is generally protected from external damage by the walls of the container.
Most people think that the latest communications or weapons technology is what wins battles. Consider however what happens if that high-tech gear doesn’t perform as designed when it arrives, or of it is shipped to the wrong place. Containers may not be exciting, but they save lives and lead to successful operations by making sure gear and supplies get where they are going—and work when they get there. One man who certainly understands that would be Cody Baker, VP, general manager of Charleston Marine Containers Inc. (CMCI).
CMCI was originally known as Sea Containers America. The company has had a long and venerable relationship with the military in the supply of sea-bound containers, and is still based at the historic Charleston Naval Shipyard. “Around 2000 the company was awarded a very large indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity [IDIQ] contract with the U.S. Marine Corps for Quadcon containers,” said Baker. “As we started producing on that contract with the U.S. Marine Corps, we built approximately 17,000 containers under that contract. Now we are doing more business with not only the Corps, but also the Army; we do some business with the U.S. Air Force, and also do business with the Navy. We support all branches of the military including the National Guard.”
A Quadcon container is essentially a container that is onefourth, or one quarter the size of a traditional 20-foot ISO shipping container, hence the name. It represents the shifting paradigm in logistical military containers to smaller, more maneuverable modular transport containers. The concept also includes Tricon and Bicon containers, which are one-third and one-half the size respectively of the traditional ISOs. “There are two trends that I see,” said CMCI’s Baker. “One is the need to go from bigger containers to smaller containers, because they are more mobile. You can pack them easier, and then once you get them into forward positions, you can actually break them apart and move them with equipment that has smaller lifting capacity. This also means you can basically strategize your pack out and your load, as opposed to using larger containers where everything is in one container. The modular approach allows you to compartmentalize, lending itself to more rapid mobility.”
Sea Box Inc., located in New Jersey, has also been a supporter of the intermodal transport concept for many years and has several contracts with the military to provide containers of various sizes. Sea Box has a multiyear contract with U.S. Army TACOM to provide 20-foot ISO containers with single doors on one end and side doors of varying interior dimensions. Under the contract with TACOM, Sea Box is also providing the smaller “module” containers, Tricons and Quadcons, which Baker described.
Sea Box also has a similar contract with the U.S. Marine Corps for double-door Quadcon containers. While these are Sea Box’s current contracts, the company has been actively involved in developing a range of customized shipping and shelter solutions for all branches of the armed services and many primary defense contractors to meet the unique requirements of today’s rapid deployment strategies.
The other trend that Baker describes with these smaller containers is that the industry is beginning to see the need for, and opportunity to, add value to them. “We not only sell these modular containers,” he says, “but we are adding value to them by installing within them cabinetry, weapon systems, and things like capacity for storage of armaments.”
In this way these modular containers serve multiple purposes, not only getting equipment and supplies to theater, but in some cases delivered in ready-to-operate offices and/or storage buildings. Cars and trucks that transform into robots are the stuff of Hollywood blockbuster summer movies, but containers that transform into shelters, offices and field housing are a military logistical reality. CMCI’s Baker explains: “Our company has a unit that we put aluminum panels into; it’s an expandable Tricon, so actually once deployed you can open the doors, and it triples in size. And inside the container is actually a workable shower unit; it has four showers in it, it has laundries, latrines and a kitchen—everything you need to house and feed 150 men.”
Similarly, Sea Box military containers have been equipped to meet all electromagnetic interference/radio frequency interference requirements. They have been used for troop shelters and forward medical operations, as well as command and control centers. They come equipped with electronic and telecommunication equipment, and power generation—so that according to the company “your unique and individualized container is ready to be shipped anywhere in the world, and you can be sure that when it gets there, it will be a safe and secure shelter for your product. Just plug it in and start.”
STORAGE CONTAINERS
Making the most of the interior of modular containers as Baker described is the business of Stanley Vidmar Tough Storage Solutions. Echoing Baker’s thoughts is Melvin Hamner, government sales manager for Stanley Vidmar. “The traditional 20–40 foot sea/land containers are cumbersome, especially when you get into Third World countries. That’s where these Quadcons, Tricons and Bicons come into play.” He adds, “The Army is tasked with inter-theater transportation, centered around primary load systems [PLSs], trucks, flat bed trucks, etc.; a variety of vehicles are used once the stuff gets in theater. We are trying to meet the next great challenge for our military, and that is to give them a dual-purpose platform for their tools, their bench stock, nuts, bolts, etc.—where they can work out of these cabinets and containers back in garrison, but then pick them up with a minimum of effort, load them into these transportable containers, block and brace them for sea lift, and move forward to the war zone.”
The advantage of the modular concept of using the Quadcons, Tricons and Bicons is the ability to break down shipments to unit specific loads, i.e., a squad, a battalion or a company. So when the consignment arrives in theater and the battalion needs to split it up into various areas of responsibility (AORs), it is basically already done. “It’s a major man-hour saver,” says Hamner. “We used to spend days sorting out these containers when they’d arrive. There were many containers never even opened during Dessert Storm, because no one really knew what was in them.”
To avoid anything like that happening again, Hamner says changes need to be made, but you don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel. “Stanley Vidmar is partnered with several of the major container companies, and we work in unison with them, but our goal is to work with [the military’s] existing assets. We don’t want them to necessarily have to buy a container just to move their stuff, which is why we have developed these container inserts that also act as stand-alone cabinets, and combined tool boxes.”
EQUIPMENT CASES
From standard to special ops, today’s military deploys a lot of equipment. Much of that gear is sensitive and fragile. During the course of shipment or troop movement, essential communications and weapon systems will experience pounding conditions. Wind, sand, extreme temperatures, shock and vibration are just a few hazards to sensitive military equipment. A piece of gear does a soldier no good if it’s DOA, and that’s where specialized cases made “military tough” play an essential logistical role.
“Typically the real purpose of a case is to protect the equipment inside, and get it into the field in one piece so the soldier has the tools he or she needs to do his or her job,” said Paul Britton, national sales manager for Zarges, a major supplier of rugged aluminum cases to the military. He continued, “Increasingly over the years, more and more of that gear is commercial gear. So it just has not been designed to operate in the environment that it is going into. The case is there to make up the difference between essentially an office environment and the field conditions of the real world this equipment winds up in.” That means cases such as the ones supplied by companies such as Zarges need to be able to protect nonruggedized gear from environmental factors such as rain, dust shock and vibration. According to Britton, “[The case] allows this stuff to be manhandled, and survive being tossed off the back of a Humvee, that sort of thing.” The HMMWV became the military’s prime mover in conflicts since Desert Storm because of its ability to traverse on- and off-road at considerable speeds over great distances. Cases needed to be developed that could “keep up” with the vehicle. “In the old days,” reiterates Britton, “a lot of this equipment was permanently mounted into trucks and trailers, and that provided the protection for it. After Desert Storm, we found that those large truck- and trailer-sized pieces of equipment couldn’t keep up with our forces; things had to be smaller, faster and more mobile.”
Kevin Murphy, director of marketing communications with Pelican, agrees: “In Iraq and Afghanistan the equipment’s enemy is sand and dust. Once it gets into bearings, sleeves or hinges, it starts tearing gear up. You’ll find Pelican cases all over the theater of operations being used as storage containers, not just transport. That’s because the gear still needs to be protected from sand and dust, even while in storage.” He continued, “We’ve learned how to control the environment inside the case regardless of the conditions outside. For example, a government in Southeast Asia needed to protect parachutes from mold between operations, so our desiccant gel cartridge is used to absorb humidity in the case. And beyond the rubber o-ring seal, there is a pressure equalization valve. Every Pelican case allows air to breathe in and out of the case (to prevent vacuum lock), but the valve uses a Gore-Tex membrane to block water molecules from entering the case.”
Ruggedized containers such as those described by Britton and Murphy are not usually purchased directly by the military as an empty case, but rather are purchased by the primary contractors, the Boeings, the General Dynamics, etc., and integrated into a system. Hardigg Industries has been working with the U.S. military for decades, designing and providing rugged protective cases to protect anything from weapons to medical gear. In January of this year Pelican purchased its longtime competitor Hardigg. The transaction, valued at approximately $200 million, is said to be the largest acquisition in the history of the protective case industry. The Hardigg brand name has been retained by Pelican, and Hardigg’s line of high-end roto-molded shipping cases will continue to be sold by Pelican. Hardigg’s cases have proved themselves over and over again in the unrelenting wind, heat, sand and dust storms of Iraq. All of Pelican’s case solutions, the original, virtually indestructible injection molded cases, and the newly acquired Hardigg roto-molded properties are airtight, watertight, sandproof and dustproof—a must in the Middle East. Speaking about the acquisition, Murphy said, “Here are two great companies, building their products in the USA, serving two ends of the same market. Pelican brings about 50 injection molded cases for personal use and weapons transport, Hardigg with over 500 roto-mold sizes and an emphasis on custom solutions and heavy transport programs. Now we can connect the full scope of the military’s requirements, and make a difference that today’s warfighter will see.”
As case manufacturers put it, when developing and deploying a military system, more often than not, the case is the last thing engineers and contractors think about. But the demand is always the same: Make it strong, but make it light. According to Britton, “We constantly are getting pushed for lighter and smaller. Obviously weight and volume drive shipping costs, drive manpower and personal requirements, so on and so forth.”
Zarges sees aluminum as the answer to “tough but strong.” Other manufacturers such as Pelican and Hardigg rely on composites and plastics. “We concentrate on aluminum because it has the strength and the temperature resistance. The plastics are lower cost and some are just as strong [as aluminum], but they don’t have the range of temperature resistance,” said Britton.
Someone who might disagree with Zarges’ approach is Jason Fletcher, marketing director of Oregon-based ECS Composites. “The military operates in the most extreme environments in the world. As such we need to design cases to meet those conditions and standards. That is why we use the reinforced composites to manufacture our cases. They perform well in those extreme temperatures, both hot and cold.
Sterling Becklin, vice president of ECS, added, “We have three product lines today—two fiberglass lines and one rotationally molded line. Some of these cases that were originally produced by my grandfather in the 1960s are still in use. The use of composites also allows us to take a modular approach to meet the demand for shorter lead times and still deliver a custom product. By simplifying and engineering our products in such a way, we are able to in essence ‘assemble to order’ and deliver product in two weeks.”
But no matter how you approach making an equipment case light but strong, there really is only one goal of the design. “It all has got to work when it gets there,” said Britton. “Too often I see someone with a $50,000 piece of gear, and they’re balking at a few hundred dollars for a case.” Case manufactures like to make an analogy to insurance. They say you’d spend thousands of dollars a year to insure a $50,000 car, yet a case is a one-time purchase that will protect that gear for a lifetime. “More importantly,” Britton added, “unlike the car analogy—if the equipment gets into theater and it doesn’t work, lives could be lost. Our soldiers’ lives depend on this stuff.”
THE CLOSING “CASE”
Highly efficient intermodal shipping containers, super tough high-impact hardware cases, and prefab weather proof military storage containers alone may not seem like startling logistical developments. However, when looked at as part of a synergistic whole applied by the best trained and lead military in the world, you are looking at major increases in America’s logistical capabilities. Slowly and with little fanfare over the last several decades there has been a more modular approach to military logistics, one that sees the military better equipped than ever to move cargo through ports, airfields and depots much more quickly with a minimal amount of handling.
“We help move the warfighter,” said Baker. “It’s not glitzyglamour, it’s not high-tech, but ... we are able to support the warfighters in their ability to move, get there, and set up more quickly.”
Echoing similar thoughts is Pelican’s Murphy: “Sometimes the work isn’t glamorous, but when we take these little steps and apply them across thousands of military applications every day, the combined result is a tactical advantage that makes a difference in the battlefield.”
Or as Hamner added, “You know, [Nazi Panzer Division Field Marshal] Rommel lost a major battle in the Africa Campaign because he had no fuel for his tanks—logistics wins wars.” ♦