Lieutenant General Michael G. Dana, USMC, 21st Century Logistics: Designing and Developing Capabilities, Marine Corps Gazette, Vol. "The cost of operating and maintaining a system over its useful life is driven primarily by system design, and reliability and maintainability decisions, which are typically made before production." - Ms. Christine Fox, Former Director, Cost Assessment & Program Evaluation (CAPE) Within logistics, the supply function is critical to equipment readiness. U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Logistics, pp. "Clearly, logistics is the hard part of fighting a war." "Gentlemen, the officer who doesn't know his communications and supply as well as his tactics is totally useless." "Bitter experience in war has taught the maxim that the art of war . The United States might look at its support of Ukraine as a potential model for future defense strategy. You simply cannot mount an attack or defence without a functioning logistics system. The Timelessness and Ever-Changing Nature of Logistics. Mattis, Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America, p. 1. The quotes are all related to war because logistics was practically invented by the military. The importance of logistics was central to Alexander's plans, indeed his mastery of it allowed him to conduct the longest . It is the Army's responsibility to position the right assets for the joint force to seize the initiative in large-scale combat operations. Read this work not for its focus on the sea but for its focus on national power. It should be noted that the current shipbuilding plan projects 11 more battle force ships than were projected in the 2017 plan. This trend is very similar across the industrial capacity capabilities that produce aircraft and major land-component warfighting systems. FORT DETRICK, Md. Experienced Logistician skilled in Logistic Support, Logistics Management, Military Logistics, Inventory Management, and Safeguarding. Highlights 6. Many logistical challenges will remain unchanged in the near future because of the sheer physics of distributing ammunition and bulk liquids and the requirement to move major ground warfighting equipment and personnel. The authors examine the logistics and sustainment aspects of an emerging operational concept for employing a family of unmanned aerial vehicles that can be launched, recovered, and sustained with minimal reliance on runways. It should be noted, however, that in the years since these tremendous accomplishments, the size of the force available to execute these missions has shrunk considerably. 169180. Alan Estevez, former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and a career Department of Defense Senior Executive Service logistics leader, recently stated, Logistics isnt rocket scienceits much harder!5 Logistics is fundamental to the readiness of the entire Joint forcethose at home, deployed in operational settings, and permanently stationed abroadgiven that it must operate around the world and across every domain of activity in spite of enemy efforts to frustrate its operations. The mix of ships encompassed all four of MSCs programs, and included the U.S. Maritime Administrations Ready Reserve Force, and more than four times the normal daily number of commercial ships. James Mattis, Secretary of Defense, Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America: Sharpening the American Militarys Competitive Edge, U.S. Department of Defense, p. 7, https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf (accessed May 29, 2018). In the modern era, the appreciation of logistics by Admiral Ernest J. The report also offers recommendations for improved distribution monitoring. other words joint logistics. Drawing upon decades of experience, RAND provides research services, systematic analysis, and innovative thinking to a global clientele that includes government agencies, foundations, and private-sector firms. Having greater logistics capability than the enemy is a force multiplier. Logistics is critical to success on the battlefield. Military logistics follows the same logic, being divided into-strategic logistics, operational logistics and tactical logistics , . http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrarsenalofdemocracy.html, (accessed May 29, 2018). Widespread military use for the word logistics came during the Second World War when countries realized how important it was to maintain the flow of arsenal to the infantry on the ground. Global Security.org, Sealift in Operation Iraqi Freedom, last modified July 7, 2011, https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/sealift-oif.htm (accessed May 30, 2018). To appreciate the challenge confronting Americas logistical capabilities, imagine having to execute a future operation similar in scale to the major deployment of U.S. combat power to Kuwait in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in March 2003. Mattis, Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America, p. 6. Imagine further that this must be accomplished against a force that has near-parity with our technological capabilities and the ability to engage us from fixed, friendly facilities with engagement timed on their terms. Logisticsthe transfer of personnel and materiel from one location to another, as well as the maintenance of that materielis essential for a military to be able to support an ongoing deployment or respond effectively to emergent threats. The Air Force needs better access to contractors' technical data to sustain core military aircraft assets and subsystems. Logistics is primarily a military term, so the first applications were in military areas. With a single command, the soldiers needed can be supplied by the drone wherever they are. They are delivered from the sea by means of modern connectors, platforms, processes, and concepts with the flexibility to enable multi-domain fires and maneuver. They also are applicable across the entire U.S. military from the strategic level to the tactical level. The U.S. military has not had to fight its way to the fight since World War II. Although many of industrys best practices and technologies are relevant and even vital to the modernization of military logistics, the agility, survivability, responsiveness, and effectiveness of military logistics require another level of integrated innovation in technology and operational concepts. These interventions enable logistics capability development for new generations of warfare. It grants broader visibility over the movement of merchandise from construction to consumption, identifying infrastructure and operational practices that help or hinder that smooth, cost-effective distribution. 13. U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Warfare Systems) (N9), Report to Congress on the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels for Fiscal Year 2019, February 2018, p. 3, https://news.usni.org/2018/02/12/fy-2019-u-s-navy-30-year-shipbuilding-plan (accessed May 29, 2018). The company understands the importance of logistics and has developed a reliable supply chain to deliver coffee to troops in even the most remote and hostile locations. To say the least, the challenges of military logistics are unique. Given the evolution of competitors abilities to threaten the logistical underpinnings of U.S. combat power, force logistics planning now requires innovation in both technology and operational concepts. Researchers conducted an analysis of alternatives of interoperability measurement systems to support the U.S. Army in achieving interoperability with partners. The success of military logistics during the past 16-plus years of overseas combat operations is partly to blame for anyones assumption that continued logistical success in the ever-changing national security environment is a given across the entirety of the military logistics enterprise. Broyles leads research on improving repair, Kenneth Girardini is a senior operations researcher at the RAND Corporation. Peter Dye, The Bridge to Airpower: Logistics Support for Royal Flying Corps Operations on the Western Front, 1914-18 Aircraft are complicated machines. The growing complexity and diversity of the needs of modern-day armies require supply and logistics efficiency, enabling militaries to achieve national goals. Efficiencies should be pursued to free resources for use elsewhere, but those efficiencies must never be taken at the expense of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, or Marines who have been committed to battle. Logistics is perhaps the most complex and interrelated capability provided by todays military. Fact Sheet, Civil Reserve Air Fleet, U.S. Air Force, July 28, 2014, http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104583/civil-reserve-air-fleet/ (accessed May 29, 2018). In coordination with USTRANSCOMs distribution functions, the actions of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) as supplier for the military are equally staggering in scope and scale. Carl von Clausewitz, On War, ed. Military units cannot perform their mission without the equipment needed to do so. The Pardee RAND Graduate School (PardeeRAND.edu) is home to the only Ph.D. and M.Phil. At the tactical level, one need only look at the various elements of readiness reporting reviewed by senior leaders to discern that the fundamentals of logistics directly affect the majority of elements that define readiness across the servicespersonnel, equipment, and supply readinesswhich in turn directly affect the ability of the services to meet the recurring needs of ongoing deployments and generate the forces needed for war. Perpetual optimism, believing in yourself, believing in your purpose, believing you will prevail, and demonstrating passion and confidence is a force multiplier. 24. I-5I-6. The name . As cyber and electronic warfare capabilities are introduced to the forward edge of the battlespace, individual capabilities represented by on-hand quantities of various technologies and trained personnel will truly define a units ability to execute the mission-essential tasks demanded in the complex warfighting environment of a peer adversary. King, Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations during World War II, is equally telling: I dont know what the hell this logistics is that [General George C.] Marshall is always talking about, but I want some of it.14 Similarly, in his timeless treatise on warfighting, Defeat into Victory, British Field Marshal Viscount Slim commented that building his theaters logistical infrastructure and supply reserves and maintaining his armys health were two of the three foundations of victory in his campaign in Burma and India. In assessing the true value of logistics, however, one needs to distinguish between efficiency and effectiveness, even though the former certainly affects the latter. 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