ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Protection, deception and masking are key investments the Army must make as it works to ensure it can get to the fight—and stay in the fight—on a complex modern battlefield, according to the author of a new Association of the U.S. Army paper.

In “Contested Logistics: A Primer,” Lt. Col. Amos Fox writes that contested logistics are not a “new wrinkle of modern warfare.” Instead, it’s an issue that planners, strategists and industry have wrestled with “throughout the depth and breadth of armed conflict.”

The Association of the U.S. Army is hosting a daylong Hot Topic event focused on contested logistics.

Scheduled for Feb. 7 at AUSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the Hot Topic is scheduled to feature speakers such as Lt. Gen. Heidi Hoyle, deputy Army chief of staff for logistics, G-4; Maj. Gen. Michelle Donahue, commanding general of the Army Combined Arms Support Command; and Robert Watts, deputy director of the Army Futures Command’s Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team.

A new cross-functional team focused on contested logistics will get after a critical capability for the Army, senior leaders said.

“We can’t do what we do without logistics,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee during a March 30 hearing on the service’s fiscal 2024 budget request. “We’re seeing it play out in Ukraine.”

Sustainment soldiers operating on the future battlefield, particularly in a theater as challenging as the Indo-Pacific, will need the ability to move quickly and adapt to ever-changing conditions, a senior logistics officer said.

Just two weeks into command of Army Materiel Command, Gen. Charles Hamilton recognizes he has a big mission that could decide the outcome of future conflicts. 

Speaking March 30 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama, Hamilton said he follows a “string of superstars” at a critical time when the Army needs a way to provide precision logistics with the ability to predict when and where deliveries and resupplies must be made.

A new cross-functional team focused on contested logistics is being stood up in Huntsville, Alabama, the commander of Army Futures Command announced March 29 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition.

Douglas Bush, the Army’s assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, says his top priority is very simple: “The only thing that actually matters in the Army is equipping soldiers so they can fight and win.”

Speaking at an Army Aviation Hot Topic event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army, Bush said the Army has struggled in the past on designing, building and fielding new products. Times have changed, he said, with the Army on the edge of big changes.

On a future battlefield, where soldiers will be more dispersed and operating in smaller units, Army logistics must be more predictive and precise, a senior leader said. 

“Those units are going to be out there, not alone and afraid, there's going to be lots of sensors and lots of things going on, but they can only carry what they can carry,” Lt. Gen. Charles Hamilton, deputy Army chief of staff for logistics, G-4, said Dec. 8 at a breakfast hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army as part of its Coffee Series.

The Association of the U.S. Army’s Coffee Series will feature Lt. Gen. Charles Hamilton, deputy Army chief of staff for logistics, G-4, on Dec. 8.

The in-person event will take place at AUSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The event opens at 6:30 a.m. with registration, coffee and networking. Hamilton is scheduled to speak at 7:20 a.m.

It is free for military members, government employees and the media. All attendees are encouraged to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Masks are optional.