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21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies

Coordinating Military Deployments on Roads and Highways:
A Guide for State and Local Agencies

This publication is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information.


Letter


Federal Highway Administration logo Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command logo

May 2005


Road and Highway Deployment Planners and Operators:

Recent world events have required a greater use of U. S. based military assets. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), other government agencies, and commercial vendors have responded to this challenge by moving materiel and personnel rapidly and safely to meet military needs, contributing significantly to the success of military operations worldwide.

This rapidly changing environment has created new and unanticipated challenges for effective military deployment, particularly in coordination between Federal, State, local, and military planners and operators during domestic military deployments. To meet these challenges, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and, on behalf of the DoD, the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) worked together to create a primer on military deployment practices for State and local agencies. It is hoped these agencies will find this guide particularly informative. The guide offers useful checklists, guidance, and recommendations for coordination among agencies and organizations before, during, and after deployments.

We realize there is no "one size fits all" solution to coordinating highway and road movements. This guide, based upon recent lessons learned, is meant to provide information for planners and operators at all levels, to assist those who are less familiar with this important aspect of supporting national defense, and to improve the planning and operations capabilities of those new to deploying forces on roads and highways.

The guide is being distributed in multi-media formats to each State; Puerto Rico; Washington, DC; and key military deployment agencies. It is also available electronically at the FHWA (http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/opssecurity) and SDDCTEA (http://www.tea.army.mil) websites. As always, we welcome your comments, which can be directed to the FHWA Emergency Coordinator at 202-366-4628 or the SDDCTEA Highways for National Defense Coordinators at 757-599-1117.

Sincerely yours,

William J. Cooper signature
William J. Cooper
Special Assistant for Transportation Engineering
Military Surface Deployment and Distribution
Command Transportation Engineering Agency
Jeffrey F. Paniati signature
Jeffrey F. Paniati
Associate Administrator for Operations
Federal Highway Administration

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