Power generation, autonomous capabilities and more efficient operations are among the top efforts underway in the Army’s sustainment enterprise as it works to transform for the future fight.

“We are absolutely thinking differently about how we sustain the future Army,” said Maj. Gen. Michelle Donahue, commanding general of Army Combined Arms Support Command and the Sustainment Center of Excellence.

Speaking March 26 on a panel during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama, Donahue and her fellow panelists outlined recent lessons learned from the Project Convergence capstone event and the transformation in contact effort in the 25th Infantry Division.

The 25th Infantry Division’s sustainment brigade has been involved in the Army’s transformation in contact initiative for almost a year, when the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team was tapped as one of the first three units for the effort.

During that period of experimentation, leaders identified two key pieces of equipment—the Infantry Squad Vehicle and a Solar Stik that can be used as a solar-powered generator, said Col. Christopher Johnson, commander of the 25th Division Sustainment Brigade.

On a recent training rotation, soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, brought 95 Infantry Squad Vehicles instead of Humvees, Johnson said. The sustainment brigade was able to support the soldiers for 15 days of force-on-force training with 2,700 gallons of gas, he said.

Infantry Squad Vehicles “sip on gas,” compared to Humvees, which “drink diesel fuel like a college kid on spring break,” Johnson said. During a similar exercise the year before, to support the Humvees, the sustainment brigade pushed over 45,000 gallons of gas, he said.

Reducing the demand for sustainment items such as fuel “lessens the burden on the enterprise, and it makes our job easier,” Johnson said, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, with its far-flung locations and island nations.

The other addition that made a big difference was the Solar Stik, which Johnson described as a large power bank. It enabled the unit to go from running its generators 24 hours a day to just six hours a day, which meant a smaller and quieter footprint for the command post, Johnson said.

“Overall, it’s a big win,” he said.

Power generation and reducing soldiers’ load are critical missions, said Brig. Gen. Shane Upton, director of the Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team. “We’re figuring out how to produce things like power so we’re not hauling towed generators around,” he said. “We’re going to have a big power demand on some of the weapons we’re bringing to the battlefield.”

One example is the new hypersonic weapon, Upton said. “That power demand is not going to reduce,” he said. “We have to work with you in industry to figure out how we provide that power at the point of need or where we need it strategically.”