Prepositioned Equipment

Military material that is stored in forward bases or forward-deployed ships and is available for immediate use in a theater of operations. The concept of prepositioning equipment makes preparing for a conflict situation much easier and faster because only troops and limited amounts of equipment must be flown in. During the Cold War, the U.S. rivalry with the Soviet Union created a need to respond to Soviet military challenges, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. At this time, most prepositioned U.S. equipment was stationed at land bases in Europe.

During the 1980s, the army recognized that their existing prepositioning strategy did not provide sufficient flexibility to meet challenges in places far from U.S. land bases. At this time, the military greatly expanded the seaborne prepositioning of equipment. During the Iraq War of 2003, the Army and Marines were helped immensely by the existence of ship-based prepositioned equipment, including most of the combat equipment used to fight the war. Congressional testimony later on, however, revealed some problems with older equipment and a lack of some supplies—problems that were overcome largely because of a long lag period between the movement of troops and the launching of the war.

The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union led to changes in U.S. prepositioning strategy. Troop reductions occasioned by the end of the Cold War have forced the Department of Defense to rely even more heavily on prepositioned equipment. Much equipment remains in Europe, but many items have been moved to potential trouble spots in the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, Korea, and the Pacific. As the military continues to transform and to adapt more mobile and technologically advanced models of warfare, planners will also need to consider changes in the use of prepositioned equipment in favor of less expensive and more effective options.