Because of the Army’s global demand, "You are our dominant customer," the director of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) said in the opening session of the Association of the United States Army’s Sustainment Symposium and Exposition May 11 in Richmond, Va.Navy Vice Adm. Alan S. Thompson, who has been DLA’s director since November 2008, said that while he’s in another branch of the service, more than 80 percent of his workday is focused on the U.S. Army.And the Army will continue to be a focus of attention with the ongoing drawdown operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention Army commitments to other global hotspots.Afghanistan provides a unique logistics challenge because of not only its austere conditions, but also because it’s landlocked and makes it sometimes difficult to transport supplies and equipment over land.Because of uncertainties with Pakistan in the south, and Iran to the west being a non-starter, the Northern Distribution Network with partnerships with the other "-stan" countries to the north has been invaluable in keeping the supplies moving in and equipment going out because of the drawdown, he said.Iraq is much easier because of the proximity to Kuwait’s ports in the Persian Gulf.DLA will continue to support the logistics road as the State Department comes in after the military drawdown is complete in both locations and will be "flexible to whatever the residual force size will be."Overall, DLA supplies 100 percent of consumable items for U.S. military forces, supports nearly 1,900 weapon systems and manages five million line items through eight supply chains, Thompson said.Concerns for the future include guarding against counterfeit parts, he said. This is becoming more of a problem with increased globalization, but he noted a system that has started to mark biological DNA on spare parts to ensure real parts are being used.Thompson has also stepped up to the challenge of reducing operating costs. In aggregate, 14 cents of every dollar is needed to run DLA, down from 25 cents in 2001.When he first took over DLA, he told industry leaders that with each purchase made through them, he vowed to make recurring purchases 10 percent cheaper over each increment. This led to over $200 million in cost reductions over three months.