A railhead is a designated rail location where military cargo and vehicles are inspected, documented, loaded/unloaded and transferred between trains and trucks/other modes. Railhead operations involve site preparation, safety inspections, unit load teams tying down and securing vehicles to flatcars, documentation and coordination with rail carriers to move bulk equipment from base to training areas or ports—forming a key node in theater distribution and strategic mobility.
JPMRC 26-02 is a multinational Pacific-focused training exercise run by the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center that trains U.S. and partner forces in large-scale, joint and combined operations; participants typically include U.S. Army units and regional allies/partners though specific participating nations/units for 26-02 were not listed in the article.
The article does not name the specific Army units moved. Unit selection for rail is driven by mission requirements, unit equipment type/weight/size, readiness schedules and logistics planning; units with heavy vehicles (armor, Strykers, wheeled fleets) or bulk sustainment needs commonly use rail when available.
Typical "critical equipment" moved for exercises includes armored and tactical vehicles (tanks, Strykers, HMMWVs), cargo trucks, engineering equipment, containers, fuel and sustainment stores—heavy, bulky items that are more efficient to move by rail than by road or air.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) is in Anchorage, Alaska; it serves as the U.S. Army and Air Force joint installation that supports Pacific and Arctic training by providing ranges, staging areas, airlift and ground-mobility infrastructure for operations across the Pacific and Alaskan/Arctic environments.
Rail movements in Alaska face colder weather, extreme winter hazards (cold-soaked equipment, ice/snow on track and loading surfaces), more limited rail network and fewer alternate routes, and seasonal timing constraints (shorter construction/moving seasons). These factors require extra inspections, heating/anti-icing measures, specialized equipment and more deliberate scheduling compared with CONUS lower-48 rail operations.
Railhead operations are coordinated by installation transportation/movement control and Army transportation/rail specialists in conjunction with commercial rail carriers and U.S. transportation headquarters. Planning is led by unit movement planners, Installation Transportation Offices and higher echelons such as U.S. Transportation Command/SDDC for rail assets and scheduling.