China's large commercial fleet and extensive supply system create vulnerabilities as well as advantages. Mercogliano argues that those dependencies deserve study alongside the country's shipbuilding output. He then identifies shallow American and British auxiliary capacity as a corresponding weakness, citing the Big Horn grounding and Red Hill's closure. His comparison with the fuel stocks spared at Pearl Harbor expresses the scale of his concern about losing a major Pacific reserve.
Notable Point · 1:02:09-1:03:19
Red Hill's closure and the problem of Pacific fuel reserves
The closure of Red Hill raises a question about the fuel reserves available to sustain a Pacific war.