Allocating Marine Expeditionary Unit Equipment and Personnel to Minimize Shortfalls

📖 The Scoop

To successfully accomplish their missions, Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) must have both the right personnel and the right equipment, as well as access to the personnel and equipment. However, in many cases, the available space on an MEU0́9s ships falls far short of what is needed to transport the full set of required equipment. Thus, the MEU commander and mission planners must determine which equipment to take and which to leave behind. What is the impact of this shortfall on the MEU0́9s ability to complete the tasks associated with its mission? One way to identify the equipment and number of units needed for a given MEU mission is to deconstruct that mission into its component tasks and subtasks and then determine the equipment needed to complete each task. The process also involves prioritizing equipment based on its capabilities, as well as identifying the sequencing of equipment use and overlaps between tasks that require the same equipment. To assist commanders in making these difficult decisions in the context of limited equipment inventories, a RAND team developed a software tool, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Equipment Structural Assessment (MESA) application. The tool guides users through the decisionmaking process by comparing mission task needs to available equipment and allowing full customization of the mission timeline, component tasks and subtasks, sequencing, available equipment, and equipment and activity prioritization preferences. The application, still in development, currently features full functionality for four MEU mission types: humanitarian assistance, noncombatant evacuation operations, tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel, and airfield and port seizure operations. However, future versions will include a set of 15 missions. This report includes a user0́9s guide for the MESA application with step-by-step instructions for populating and modifying the tool to support mission needs.

Genre: Business & Economics / Organizational Development (fancy, right?)