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Old 01-14-2022, 01:50 AM   #1
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default What a Military Supply Depot Contains

For one of my games the PCs have found a National Guard supply depot in the States. What might it contain. I currently have:
  • Ammo (but how much?)
  • Weapons (ditto)
  • Food (both MREs and bulk shelf stable food to be cooked)
  • A couple of humvees

I've also decided they have a barracks, small machine shop, and of course supply buildings.

What am I missing? References to GURPS books with equipment a huge plus. A little help would be most appreciated.
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Last edited by Christopher R. Rice; 01-14-2022 at 01:56 AM.
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Old 01-14-2022, 02:30 AM   #2
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

  • First Aid and possibly more advanced medical supplies.
  • Fuel (for vehicles, generator)
  • Camouflage netting and similar
  • Repair manuals, guides, other information
  • Uniforms, webbing, packs, etc.
  • Tools for specific and general repairs and maintenance
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Old 01-14-2022, 03:47 AM   #3
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

Would it have a space that could be used as a bunker?
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Old 01-14-2022, 03:56 AM   #4
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

The depot will also have enough trucks to transport the attached squads as well as some supplies for field operations. The exeption is if it's so small there's only a single squad present, but I find that unlikely if the depot is large enough to have a repair shop.

Depending on size and distance to the nearest town, there may be a cafeteria/mess hall on site. Even a single-squad depot will at the very least have a kitchen and pantry. MREs are only used in the field. They may be edible, but they're not good for morale in non-combat situations.

A well stocked supply depot will have a large variety of spare parts for whatever weapons, vehicles, machinery and electronics are used by the garrison. They will likely not have everything and expensive components are likely to be missing or in low supply. Depending on the nature of them, fragile components may either be in abundance (for relatively cheap stuff that's expected to break) or non-existant (due to contracts and/or cost of individual components).

Spare parts for weapons will likely be enough to fully repair a large amount of the weapons expected to be in use. For vehicles expect enough major parts to fully repair at least one of each type of vehicle, but not much more than that. Small spare parts for vehicles are likely plentiful unless highly expensive.

As far as "how many" weapons, a rifle for each private and sergeant and a sidearm for each officer. Depending on the size and purpose of the garrison there will be an amount of specialized weapons (sniper rifles, mortars, etc.), a sniper rifle will as a general rule replace a standard rifle, while mortars and other such weapons will often be considered additions to a squad and not replace basic rifles. There will likely be enough spare rifles for a single squad. For weapons not in use at a well organized site, expect the firing mechanism to be stored separately (and under lock) from the rest of the weapon.

Depending on the size of the garrison, the ammo on site could fit in a small van or it could require several large vehicles. Actual amounts are almost certainly a military secret, but an estimate would be "enough to carry out an operation fit for the garrison's size". The security of the ammo depot can vary a lot (politics, location, leadership, etc.), but always expect it to be the most secure building (or room) on site unless there is something like a presidential bunker present.

But all that assumes a competent quartermaster and commanding officer.
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Old 01-14-2022, 05:08 AM   #5
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

Don't forget computer systems which give a complete inventory of the depot, including where each pallet and vehicle - all numbered, of course - is located and the destination, if already known. Very good chance that there are laptops and radio equipment in storage at the depot as well.

There will also be a "junk pile" or more accurately a series of dumpsters where wooden pallets, broken equipment, etc. are tossed

Also, there is a very good chance there are other vehicles there as well. A few MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) slated to replace Hummers are likely, as are a number of cargo trucks (used to transport to and from the depot) and armor recovery vehicles. In an extreme case, you'll have tanks, Bradleys, LAVs, APCs, and DPVs sitting there waiting to be deployed either to military or National Guard bases.

This may help:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_Armed_Forces


For ammunition, you can expect hundreds of pallets of each type, with the standard ball ammunition being most common. Each pallet will likely have twenty to thirty cases of a hundred rounds each. (Rough guestimate.)
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Last edited by Phantasm; 01-14-2022 at 05:19 AM.
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Old 01-14-2022, 05:34 AM   #6
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

It's going to heavily vary by type of depot, importance of depot, etc.

I grew up visiting what is an ostensibly national guard depot that my grandfather (and several uncles) were stationed at. I only later learned that it was the primary ordnance supply depot for much of the western US.

There were (and still are) many miles of ammo bunkers, that included, at the time, roughly 40% of the US stock of chemical weapons (most have been destroyed by this point in time, a project that took nearly 20 years).

There was, and probably still is, a rather large supply of conventional munitions along with other sundry supplies.

The visible part of the base is fairly small, perhaps enough for a company. But the less visible part stretches far enough to border on a much larger national guard base (and oddly state police academy), 40ish miles away.

To make it more interesting, the supply depot is nestled between two air force bombing ranges.

Maybe that can give you some ideas to play with as well.

Edit: At a guess, unclass, I'm aware of several sections of a hundred bunkers assigned to mortar, howitzer, etc. that would be packed floor to ceiling. An aerial image of just the area nearest the visible base.
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Last edited by sjard; 01-14-2022 at 05:39 AM.
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Old 01-14-2022, 05:45 AM   #7
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

Quote:
Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice View Post
For one of my games the PCs have found a National Guard supply depot in the States. What might it contain.
I presume this is some kind of post-Apocalypse setting, and you're not just trying to rob an active base (which would be very difficult, as you might imagine).

It depends on the nature of the depot, how big the state National Guard organization is, and how many other depots there are supporting it. In general, the depot should have all necessary expendable supplies to support the entire National Guard organization for 30-90 days in the field, split up among the total number of available depots.

It will also have on-hand replacements for durable items (weapons, tents, radios, GPS, NVG's, etc.) that might get damaged in the same 30-90 day period.

Quote:
Ammo (but how much?)
Literal truck-loads. Say the National Guard establishment is brigade strength. It will have a supply company, with an ammunition platoon of ~ 20 HEMMTs with trailers. Each battalion will likewise have an ammunition section with 4-5 HEMMTs with trailers. The depot will have enough ammo to fully load all those trucks, plus provide every vehicle and individual with their basic load of ammunition.

Specialty ammo (Patriot missiles, say) may be stored centrally somewhere else, but you probably don't care about that. There certainly won't be any nuclear or lethal chemical munitions, though there might be an excess of less-lethal chemicals (CS, etc.) for riot control/civil disturbance purposes.

Quote:
Weapons (ditto)
A couple of humvees
Spares for all weapons systems, including "float" spares for major combat vehicles (like tanks, but not aircraft). For the floats, probably 1-2% of the number of vehicles in the operational force.

Quote:
Food (both MREs and bulk shelf stable food to be cooked)
Again, literal truck-loads -- tons.

There will also be medical supplies, spare parts, and pallets with boxes of "personal demand items" ("sundry packs" with shaving cream, razors, lip balm, sunscreen, candy, etc.).

Quote:
I've also decided they have a barracks, small machine shop, and of course supply buildings.
A machine shop implies a General Support maintenance facility, which is fine. Barracks would normally be for mobilization and/or weekend training (at ranges on or near the depot), not for permanent party personnel, and so empty most of the time.

You might consider whether any of the local Guard units have their armories on the depot. Certainly, if the GS maintenance is a tactical unit (a battalion) rather than an administrative function, they will have at least one company stationed with the shop.

Quote:
What am I missing? References to GURPS books with equipment a huge plus. A little help would be most appreciated.
You could probably go shopping in GURPS High Tech for anything that is listed as "standard issue" in the description. You are more likely to find the last generation of equipment than the next generation of cutting edge stuff.

The hard part is going to be finding what you want. Ammunition will be stored in bulk by type, although there may be a few bunkers configured to unit basic loads for quick deployment. Just remember that everything is distributed in ways that make sense to logisticians, not operators: radios are in one bunker, batteries are in another one halfway across post.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Taneli View Post
Would it have a space that could be used as a bunker?
All of those tons of ammunition will be stored in buried concrete bunkers, but they only have one (big) door and very limited ventilation. Most of the other supplies will also be stored in bunkers, both for climate control and because there are probably more of them than are really needed (since the end of the Cold War).

Quote:
Originally Posted by WingedKagouti View Post
A well stocked supply depot will have a large variety of spare parts for whatever weapons, vehicles, machinery and electronics are used by the garrison. They will likely not have everything and expensive components are likely to be missing or in low supply. Depending on the nature of them, fragile components may either be in abundance (for relatively cheap stuff that's expected to break) or non-existant (due to contracts and/or cost of individual components).
The actual standard for what is stocked and what is not is demand. If a maintenance unit in the organization goes through 3 widgets in a six-month period, they will have a stock of widgets on hand. The depot will have a roll-up of all the demand items from all its subordinate maintenance units, plus a base-line stock of stuff that is rarely need but you don't want to be without. It's not an exact science, since no one has any experience fighting WWIII, but it works well enough to start a conflict.

Quote:
But all that assumes a competent quartermaster and commanding officer.
The supply system has enough checks and balances that it would take an actively incompetent or corrupt leadership, or an extended crisis that depletes stockage levels, to deviate much from what I've outlined. There isn't a lot of judgement involved.
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Old 01-14-2022, 05:49 AM   #8
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

4 Humvees per platoon.

1 m4 per soldier
1 pistol per officer
at least 1 m247 per team
at least 1 grenade launcher per team
radio supplies
tent supplies
MREs
clothing supplies
manuals for using all this stuff
lockers for each solider with what ever they leave there, usually all the gear they would need to deploy like flic, pouches, extra boots, bulletproof vest, etc.
computers/laptops


what would not be there: Ammo.

Ammo is held at a separate facility that handles only ammo.
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Old 01-14-2022, 06:31 AM   #9
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

Things that I haven't seen already mentioned:
  • Gym & exercise equipment, locker room
  • A classified information storage facility, even if it is only a safe in the communications room, with crypto gear, but possibly more
  • Ceremonial paraphernalia (flags, bunting, podium, speaker system)
  • Classroom & training materials, especially those specific to the type of organization the center/post/base supports.
  • Maps & GPS units
  • possibly night vision equipment
  • recreational library

Things that shouldn't be there but probably are
  • porn
  • alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs
  • items for gambling
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Old 01-14-2022, 06:59 AM   #10
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Default Re: What a Military Supply Depot Contains

Quote:
Originally Posted by WingedKagouti View Post
The depot will also have enough trucks to transport the attached squads as well as some supplies for field operations. The exeption is if it's so small there's only a single squad present, but I find that unlikely if the depot is large enough to have a repair shop.

Depending on size and distance to the nearest town, there may be a cafeteria/mess hall on site. Even a single-squad depot will at the very least have a kitchen and pantry. MREs are only used in the field. They may be edible, but they're not good for morale in non-combat situations.
If you do the math, it takes a minimum of 12 people working 40 hours a week (with time off for vacation, sick leave, and some off-site training) to keep two people on duty 24 hours a day; this assumes that the first-line supervisor will fill in for a subordinate that is sick or on leave. So, unless you just need two people to man the gate, the security of a depot will be at least a company-equivalent (~ 100 personnel). It may be contract security guards or an administrative military unit rather than a tactical formation, however.

Then the depot needs people to run all its material-handling equipment (forklifts, etc.) to unload supplies as they arrive or move them around as needed. With headquarters, figure the minimum is several hundred people assigned to the depot, most of them working weekday schedules.

On-base housing is very expensive to run and only technically needed for unmarried junior military personnel, so unless the depot is beyond commuting distance (up to ~ 60 miles) from the nearest town, there probably won't be much of anyone actually living on the base -- the depot commander and ops/chief of staff (in historic brick houses) and newly arrived junior enlisted who haven't found an apartment in town.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
Don't forget computer systems which give a complete inventory of the depot, including where each pallet and vehicle - all numbered, of course - is located and the destination, if already known. Very good chance that there are laptops and radio equipment in storage at the depot as well.
This is a place where you would be justified in throwing obstacles at the player characters. In my experience, automated supply systems are frequently the last dying place of obsolete, legacy (e.g. -- no joke -- DOS 3.0-based) computer systems and proprietary hardware. Upgrades are decades apart, because it's so traumatic to move everything to a new system. The new system, which was a compromise designed by committee and provided by the lowest bidder, was probably obsolete before it was fielded because it took so long to implement. And the cycle starts all over again.

The logisticians who use the system are resigned to its quirks and know the work-arounds to get the most out of it. Anyone else who comes in expecting to turn it on and go is likely in for a rude shock.

Similar comments apply to the organization and labeling of the depot itself. I have yet to see a depot (even, or perhaps especially, a small one) with all the bunkers clearly labelled on a plan which is posted in plain sight and with matching numbers on the bunkers themselves. More often, the bunkers are (e.g.) labelled with their building number in the facilities database (3361), but the supply software refers to them by block letter and serial number (A-44). The logisticians know what goes where because they do it every day, but no one else does.
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