Feasibility of Integrating Contract Management Software in an NPS Curriculum

Abstract

The Navy’s Landing Ship Medium (LSM) program, previously called the Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) program, is intended to field an amphibious support ship designed to support the Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) conducting Stand-In-Forces and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). This thesis presents three distinct models of command and control for the integration of Landing Ship Mediums into the Navy and Marine Corps team using joint venture theory: a Marine-centric organization, a Navy-centric organization, and a shared organization. The three command and control structures were then evaluated through a PACOM-focused analytic wargame set in the South China Sea using players from the Naval Postgraduate School. From the wargame, we analyzed each command and control structure based on message traffic generated, information centralization and capacity, decision making ability, complexity, and flexibility. Ultimately, we determined the Commander Amphibious Task Force/Commander Landing Force (CATF/CLF) structure was the best option for future LSM and MLR integration.