The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is one of nine unified commands of the United States's Department of Defense. The mission of USTRANSCOM is to provide air, land and sea transportation for the Department of Defense, both in time of peace and time of war.

USTRANSCOM, located at Scott Air Force Base Illinois, was established in 1987. As the single manager of America's global defense transportation system, USTRANSCOM is tasked with the coordination of people and transportation assets to allow the US to project and sustain forces, whenever, wherever, and for as long as they are needed.

Composed of three component commands: The Air Force's Air Mobility Command, the Navy's Military Sealift Command and the Army's Surface Deployment and Distribution Command , USTRANSCOM coordinates missions worldwide using both military and commercial transportation resources.

Air Mobility Command, the air component of USTRANSCOM, is also located at Scott AFB. The AMC fleet can provide refueling capability and deliver people and cargo anywhere around the globe in a matter of hours. Aircraft assets of the command include: C-17 Globemaster III, C-5 Galaxy, C-141 Starlifter, KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-10 Extender, and C-9 Nightingale. Additional long-range airlift aircraft are available during national emergencies through the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, a fleet of commercial aircraft committed to support the transportation of military forces and material in times of crisis.

Military Sealift Command, USTRANSCOM's sealift component, provides efficient sea transportation worldwide for DoD in peace and war. Located in Washington, DC, MSC uses a mixture of government-owned and commercial ships for three primary functions: Surge sealift, principally used to move unit equipment from the United States to theaters of operations all over the world; prepositioned sealift, comes under USTRANSCOM's command once the ships have been released into the common-user fleet; and sustainment sealift, the life line to keep deployed forces continuously supplied. MSC assets include: Fast sealift and Ready Reserve Force ships. In addition, MSC charters and books space on commercial ships.

Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, located in Alexandria, VA, with its Operations Center at Fort Eustis, Virginia, is the overland lift component and primary surface distribution manager for USTRANSCOM. SDDC's mission is to provide global surface deployment command and control and distribution operations to meet National Security Objectives in peace and war. SDDC has a presence in 24 water ports worldwide. In an average year, SDDC manages and directs the movement of 3.7 million measurement tons of ocean cargo, 500,000 personal property moves, 600,000 domestic freight shipments, 72,000 privately owned vehicles and 518,000 passengers. SDDC assets include 10,000 containers and 1,350 rail cars.

Because USTRANSCOM must respond quickly in support of U.S. objectives worldwide, the command must focus its attention across the full spectrum of support from humanitarian operations to contingencies. During 1995, USTRANSCOM supported 76 humanitarian missions and 94 Joint Chiefs of Staff exercises, visiting approximately 80 percent of the 192 countries.

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This article includes text from the public domain USTRANSCOM Official Homepage.