| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the origins, formation, operations, activities and future of
10 Transport Company. It recounts that over six decades of service, the
company has continued to meet the demands placed on it to provide distribution
and transport support to the New Zealand Defence Force despite a number of
challenges. These range from personnel shortages, to equipment serviceability
and obsolescence, ever-changing command structures and threats to its unique
identity. Changes in the regional and global security environment have also
historically played their part, with lessons learned and doctrine from other
nations influencing and shaping activities, and experiences gained on exercises
and operations by the company’s own members providing much needed training
realism and validity.
Now in its sixtieth year, 10 Transport Company is one of only two remaining
specialist military transport providers available to the New Zealand Army, and
the only one located in the North Island. Its current structure and required
outputs have been driven by the changes undergone within the NZ Army over a
number of years; most noticeably effects are being felt through the advent of
Army Transformation, with its focus on modernisation and motorisation. The
company has continued to evolve from being part of a Divisional Supply Column
in a conventional war setting, to supporting infantry Brigade-sized operations in
a South East Asian environmental construct, to providing task-organised
elements to sustain disbursed motorised combat teams fighting in complex
terrain.
Acknowledging 10 Transport Company as an evolutionary entity, and within a
contemporary context, this thesis then examines the relevance of the company
to the New Zealand Defence Force’s anticipated future international and
domestic commitments, speculating as to whether 10 Transport Company will
still exist in another sixty years. | en |
