Mobile offshore bases (MOBs) refer to marine artificial platforms that usually support further national defense. They can include runways for the take-offs and landings of air forces, ports for the warships, and additional buildings. The platform can be anywhere in length from a single 300 meter-long module to multiple modules arranged to form a runway up to 2 kilometers long. All platforms would provide personnel housing, equipment maintenance functions, vessel and lighterage cargo transfer, and logistic support for rotary wing and short take-off aircraft. The longest platform, mostly 2 kilometers in length, would also support conventional take-off and landing, also known as CTOL aircrafts, including the Boeing C-17 cargo transporter.

This agenda is a trending issue in the Defense Department, but is mostly debated in the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC), the first committee of the General Assembly in United Nations. The committee mostly discusses about preventing wars, arms race, and dealing with threats that harm the international security. Therefore, mobile offshore bases can be an important issue for the UN because it includes the choices of the military forces for their transportation of supplies.

However, the real question is not whether an MOB could be built, but whether it could satisfy U.S. military requirements for appearance, crisis response, transition to war and actual combat. According to the International Development Association (IDA) report, in a dedicated logistics role, an MOB would not be capable of effectively replacing ordinary sealift. MOBs are significantly slower than the ships currently used or planned for the pre-positioning of equipment and munitions. Even if an MOB happened to be in the region at the start of a crisis or conflict, it would be too large to enter a port for cargo delivery.

MOBs would require significant numbers of barges, lighters, landing craft, helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft to move cargo to the shore. They would be the largest floating offshore structure ever created by maritime engineers. Because of its conformation and unprecedented size, there are possible modes of damage and failure that have never been considered before for a marine structure. They need an extraordinarily large investment compared to regular aircraft carriers that they can make instead.

Therefore, the UN should be aware of the advantages and the disadvantages of the further usage of mobile offshore bases. They can significantly damage a nation’s economic status if they are attacked in a war, while they can give unconditional help of reducing supply shortages in an emergency. Hoping that there will be an end to this constant debate about mobile offshore bases.


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