THE President, and logistics?
Discussion
Just interested really, what with Obama and his gang being in town, what does it take to keep this show on the road. Logistics, vehicles and aircraft of any kind have always been of interest to me so I was just wondering if anyone here knew anything on facts and figures?
Whats involved when the President of the US of A is visiting foreign nations? Just what does he take with him for every visit, what are the must haves in terms of personnel, vehicles and aircraft? How far in advance would today's trips have been planned in advance? How do they get the vehicles and kit over here from the USA? I'm guessing an Osprey is a bit much for a UPS next day delivery.
Also, when they are all finally here, where is all the kit stored overnight?
Does anyone here have any idea?
Cheers.
Whats involved when the President of the US of A is visiting foreign nations? Just what does he take with him for every visit, what are the must haves in terms of personnel, vehicles and aircraft? How far in advance would today's trips have been planned in advance? How do they get the vehicles and kit over here from the USA? I'm guessing an Osprey is a bit much for a UPS next day delivery.
Also, when they are all finally here, where is all the kit stored overnight?
Does anyone here have any idea?
Cheers.
king for that 1?wildcat45 said:
IT is very impressive. I saw a bit of GWB's advance party once at Teeside Airspirt in 2003 I think. C130 a couple of H60 or whenever they were - Like Blackhawks - and I think a Learjet/Gulfstreaam type of business jet.
This was a few weeks before the visit proper.
For all it is impressive, to me it is nothing compared to the discrete efficiency of the Met Polices Special Escort Group.
I agree, the American thing is all very impressive but the Special Escort Group really are something else to watch.This was a few weeks before the visit proper.
For all it is impressive, to me it is nothing compared to the discrete efficiency of the Met Polices Special Escort Group.
Chrisgr31 said:
So if all the kit is in the UK how does it get to Germany for his next visit before he does?
Good question 
Is the planning done in such a clever way that it can all be moved from a2b on time, or maybe they have some sort of leapfrog system.
On some of the bigger tours i worked on, the stage was so huge that it wasn't possible to de rig after 1 show, get it all on the trucks and moved to the next show and rebuild it in the time required. The way they got around it was to have 3 separate stage systems throughout the tour, and each stage required 35 trucks to move it around.
Perhaps Mr President and his entourage have 2 full sets of kit?
Butter Face said:
aspender said:
Happened upon the motorcade heading out from Regents Park on Thursday afternoon, before he landed at Heathrow. A mix of US and MPS vehicles including two Discos loaded with heavily armed and very mean looking Met police - presumably SO1. There were two 'beasts'.
https://vimeo.com/164069795
Those chaps in the Discos look badass!https://vimeo.com/164069795
robm3 said:
We did the logistics for the 2005 G8 at Gleneagles.
The logistics are handled as part of the FCO (Foreign Commonwealth Office) responsibility. At the time we, DHL, held the FCO freight contract so they reached out to us to support.
I sent two Project Managers to the initial meetings, attending were local government, FCO, military and security personnel. The US team attended later meetings.
Most of the discussion was around avoiding protestors.
A polite way to describe the local government and FCO team was 'out of it's depth'.
For instance they suggested to land the leaders planes (can't recall which airport now), and process the arrivals and luggage through the airport, finally bringing the luggage down a carousel that would be roped off to the public, walked through the airport and put in vans in the arrival car park!!
Instead we met the planes airside and took the luggage to a local military base, totally avoiding the public.
(In doing so I got some great photos of a DHL van next to AirForce One that we used internally)
Secondly they envisaged a budget of 150K, we ended up billing a four times this.
There were three routes to the Base and onto the Hotel, the longest one was chosen to again, avoid protesters.
We sorted the luggage at the military base so that the bags could be taken directly to the rooms.
There was a very specific schedule of arrivals and departures. Near the end Gorge W woke up and decided he wanted to leave right then. We then worked with his head of Security and Logistics to move him up the schedule. Our point man, who was overseeing the loading, got to go on Air Force one as a thank you and took a pot of Strawberry Jam (Bush's favourite apparently).
As for security, they didn't tell us too much but all my guys had airside clearance previously anyhow, i don't think they checked more than that!
I can expand more but a little pushed for time at the moment.
Overall it was a really interesting experience.
Great post, thanks The logistics are handled as part of the FCO (Foreign Commonwealth Office) responsibility. At the time we, DHL, held the FCO freight contract so they reached out to us to support.
I sent two Project Managers to the initial meetings, attending were local government, FCO, military and security personnel. The US team attended later meetings.
Most of the discussion was around avoiding protestors.
A polite way to describe the local government and FCO team was 'out of it's depth'.
For instance they suggested to land the leaders planes (can't recall which airport now), and process the arrivals and luggage through the airport, finally bringing the luggage down a carousel that would be roped off to the public, walked through the airport and put in vans in the arrival car park!!
Instead we met the planes airside and took the luggage to a local military base, totally avoiding the public.
(In doing so I got some great photos of a DHL van next to AirForce One that we used internally)
Secondly they envisaged a budget of 150K, we ended up billing a four times this.
There were three routes to the Base and onto the Hotel, the longest one was chosen to again, avoid protesters.
We sorted the luggage at the military base so that the bags could be taken directly to the rooms.
There was a very specific schedule of arrivals and departures. Near the end Gorge W woke up and decided he wanted to leave right then. We then worked with his head of Security and Logistics to move him up the schedule. Our point man, who was overseeing the loading, got to go on Air Force one as a thank you and took a pot of Strawberry Jam (Bush's favourite apparently).
As for security, they didn't tell us too much but all my guys had airside clearance previously anyhow, i don't think they checked more than that!
I can expand more but a little pushed for time at the moment.
Overall it was a really interesting experience.
Funny how you get a load of "officials" who come along to explain to YOU what they expect, want, and how it should be done, whilst clearing showing they really haven't got a clue
I guess you just have to smile, nod your head, and make them think the things you ARE doing, were their idea
Are you still at DHL?
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