I’ve been able to spend some time at what we call the SPOD (seaport of debarkation). The main SPOD in Kuwait is the seaport of Ash Shuybah. There are over 20 berths for vessels – a huge number for a seaport. Many large seaports only have 7-8 berths. The U.S. military normally only uses 2-4 of the berths and usually only 1-2 concurrently now. During the major surge of Iraq operations in 2003, they sometimes used over 10 at a time.

There are many moving pieces of the operation to include security by the coast guard / Navy, physical loading / unloading by contracted 3rd Country Nationals, tracking by shipping labels and radio frequency tags, vessel load planning, staging cargo in the yard, hazardous material, customs inspection, tugboat operations, crane operations, etc. Many of the ships at the SPOD here are RO/RO ships. RO/RO is roll-on roll-off where a ramp comes down and vehicles and other cargo are driven on and off the ship.

The U.S. is looking at increasing operations at other SPOD’s in the Middle east to include Iraq, Jordan, and other locations. Since Afghanistan is land-locked, cargo headed there is often-trans-shipped at the SPOD Kuwait or other locations like the UAE. During trans-load operations, most cargo is containerized. Containers are off-loaded from a ship at the SPOD and then loaded into an aircraft for travel into Afghanistan. Some photos with captions from the SPOD. A smaller SPOD south of Shuaybah hosts the Kuwait Navy and some U.S. elements like Marine Corps and Army Vessels.

The American Tern, a Military Sealift Command container ship, is docked at the SPOD. 

KNB, Kuwait Naval Base.

RO/RO Pier

MRAP's trans-loaded from seaport, to be loaded on aircraft.

Army seaport operations personnel confer about loading helicopters at the port.

Operations at Umm Qasr, Iraq, SPOD Iraq.  Only deep-water ocean Iraqi seaport.