Hot racking, hot bunking or hot bedding is the sanctioned practice within military organizations of assigning more than one crew member to a bed or "rack" to reduce
berthing (sleeping) space.
History
The practice dates back at least to the sixteenth century, and today is particularly applied aboard
submarine
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
s, where maximization of space is especially important. Generally, the lowest ranking members of the crew are required to hot rack. Hot racking is sometimes used in jails and prisons to deal with overcrowding.
Depending upon the
watch system, two, or even three people may end up sharing the same
bunk. The term comes from the
military slang
Military slang is an array of colloquial terminology used commonly by military personnel, including slang which is unique to or originates with the armed forces. In English-speaking countries, it often takes the form of abbreviations/acronyms or d ...
use of the term "rack" for a bed or bunk. With more than one crew member assigned to a rack, it is possible that a crew member returning from a duty shift will lie down on a rack immediately after it is vacated by another crew member about to start a shift. The rack is therefore said to be "hot", that is, still warm from the vacating crew member's body heat.
See also
*
List of established military terms
This is a list of established military terms which have been in use for at least 50 years. Since technology and doctrine have changed over time, not all of them are in current use, or they may have been superseded by more modern terms. However, th ...
*
Hot desking
Hot desking (sometimes called "non-reservation-based hoteling") is a work office organization system where each space is available for any worker, rather than reserved for a specific worker, so different workers may use the same spot along the ...
*
Seabasing Seabasing is a naval capability to conduct selected functions and tasks at sea without reliance on infrastructure ashore. Seabasing can sustain large military forces during operations at large distances from traditional logistics
Logistics is ...
*
Work shift
References
Military life
Nautical terminology
Working time
{{navy-stub