Defense Science Board Task Force on sea basing

"This report concludes that sea basing will be a critical future joint military capability for the United States. It will help to assure access to areas where U.S. military forces may be denied access to support facilities. To develop such a complex, enduring and far reaching capability as sea basing, the Task Force believes it is essential to undertake a spiral development effort -- one that accounts for evolution from current capabilities to tomorrow's needs. In addition, the development process must incorporate experimentation to identify and correct development concerns and train sea basing leaders for the future. The Task Force set forth twelve issues the Department must address in undertaking implementation of a sea basing capability. Three that are especially important to "make sea happen" are the development of a heavy-lift aircraft, advanced cargo handling capabilities, and ships whose design incorporates all the requirements of the seabase system-of-systems"--Memorandum.