Influence of the Bridge’s Status on the Military Mobility in the Slovak Republic

Abstract

Military operations in the land based operating environment are linked to land-based communications – roads. Roads are essential for the strategic and operational mobility of units. Bridges, in terms of military requirements, are an exposed part of the roads and significantly affect the use of existing transport infrastructure. For this reason, the research problem represents the impact of the condition of bridges with a military load capacity of at least 60 tons of the road network of the Slovak Republic on military mobility in the territory of the Slovak Republic. The aim of the research is to identify the impact of the technical condition of bridges on the military mobility of military forces in the territory of the Slovak Republic. The first part of the paper is focused on defining the extent of the necessary military mobility in the conditions of the Slovak Republic, with regard to the potential requirements for the implementation of transfers and transports to the eastern border of NATO. In the second part, the article is focused on the evaluation of the current technical condition of Slovak Republic road network bridges.