Healthy Supply Chain Keeps Army in the Future Fight

As the Army and the other services transform to meet the needs of future conflicts, the military’s logistics capability must also keep pace, the director of the Defense Logistics Agency said.
As the Army and the other services transform to meet the needs of future conflicts, the military’s logistics capability must also keep pace, the director of the Defense Logistics Agency said.
Asserting that the nation is “at a critical junction in national security,” a senior DoD official said that the defense industrial base is the “engine of strategic innovation.”
Speaking Jan. 15 at an Association of the U.S. Army Hot Topic titled “Connecting the Industrial Base to the Tactical Edge,” Vic Ramdass, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, said that industry and the sustainment enterprise must work with DoD to make a difference.
Some of the lessons learned so far from the war in Ukraine have come into play as the Army considers how it will fight in the Indo-Pacific, Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo said.
The Army’s ability to project power in a contested logistics environment starts at home, a panel of Army leaders said during a Hot Topic forum hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.
“Our ability to project combat power absolutely is a competitive advantage that we currently maintain,” said Maj. Gen. Gavin Lawrence, commanding general of Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command. “We are a global Army. We are a global Department of Defense. But if you look at our force posture, the reality is that we are a continental United States-based force.”
The Army must sharpen its ability to use data in more targeted ways as it works to build—and protect—its contested logistics capabilities, a panel of experts said at a Hot Topic forum sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army.
“What can the total Army do now to keep those supply lines open in the future, knowing that most likely cyber and information attacks are going to degrade operations?” said Col. Kristine Henry, who works on cyber and information operations special projects for the Maryland National Guard.
As the Army confronts an increasingly volatile operational environment, industry solutions will be critical to anticipating capabilities and shaping survivability in contested logistics, two senior logistics officers said.
During a fireside chat at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama, Maj. Gen. Eric Shirley, commander of the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, and Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly, director of the Defense Logistics Agency, discussed the need to anticipate the challenges of operating forward.
A lean, agile and resilient sustainment enterprise capable of delivering precision logistics across a dispersed, contested battlefield remains a top Army priority, a panel of experts said March 26.
“We have to develop solutions at the speed of relevance, and our adversaries are not on our timeline,” said Col. Shane Upton, director of Army Futures Command’s Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team. “Precision logistics is an Army effort. It is a priority to bring readiness to our combat formations, and precision is a must.”
Industry partners will be essential to supporting Army large-scale combat operations in a contested environment, said Gen. Charles Hamilton, commander of Army Materiel Command.
Speaking March 13 at a breakfast hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army as part of its Coffee Series, Hamilton called on industry to help the Army sustainment community meet one of the service’s top priorities—the delivery of ready combat formations.
Faced with an increasingly contested operating environment, the Army is working to deliver precision sustainment and incorporate autonomous vehicles for resupply missions.
“Everybody agrees that we’ve got to get after logistics in this contested environment,” said Rob Watts, deputy director of Army Futures Command’s Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team.
Speaking Feb. 7 during an Association of the U.S. Army Hot Topic on contested logistics, Watts said the Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team’s first “priority effort” is predictive logistics.