Abstract:
The Congressionally Mandated Mobility Study (CMMS), completed in 1981 by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, examined the capacities of the American military to transport troops and material to Europe and the Persian Gulf. The study was commissioned by Congress during controversies over the purchase of the C-X transport plane. Deborah Christie and Marty Suydam, senior mobility specialists at OSD, organized and directed the analysis of military transport plans and capabilities for each of the services. The study examined three conventional ways of solving transport needs--air cargo, ships, and the prepositioning of materials close to potential trouble spots. The completed study presented Congress with a coordinated plan for improving mobility which had the support of all three services. The methodology of CMMS, its database, computer programs and models remained in place after the study as the basis for further Pentagon mobility planning.
Learning Objective:
This case illustrates a variety of ways in which the study's assumptions--chosen explicitly and implicitly--at the outset of the CMMS shaped its conclusions. The case likewise illustrates ways in which analysts, by selection of methodologies and organizational procedures, influenced the substantive and institutional outcomes of the study. The case is designed to focus on the role which studies play in policy formation.
