It is therefore important that logistics correctly assess the short-term consumption expected by combat forces; that is, the "here and now", which are essential to facilitate combat readiness and the . Military Logistics: A Brief History - Logistics is a relatively new word used to describe a very old practice: the supply, movement and maintenance of an armed force both in peacetime and under operational conditions. 15. In fact, logistics often determines the course of a war, experts say. Prior to World War I, the German Army knew in detail what it would take to deploy the force via railroads to the frontiers. Equally absent since that time has been the need to apply combat power to preserve logistics capabilities. Perhaps not so obvious is the interconnectedness of supply readiness to all other aspects of unit readiness. Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND, and Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND. Secondly, the introduction of complex systems and machines will transform the way militaries will organise. Lovelace February 27, 2023. This study identifies the likely changes that will arise in global mobility requirements for UK Armed Forces between now and 2040. 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. Logistics is vital to any military campaign. While significant force-protection requirements affected the deployment of military capability to Kuwait for combat operations in Iraq, the U.S. and partner-nation forces did not have to fight their way to the fight in Kuwait. By late April 2003, more than 150 MSC ships had off-loaded in Kuwaiti ports.21. 28. 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. Improvements in logistics effectiveness require improved integrated capabilities and authorities that allow logistics challenges to be resolved at the lowest levels, leveraging shared awareness, and focused on effectiveness. The Army Strategic Logistics Plan ASLP is the Army Logistics communitys strategy to achieve the DCSLOGs Logistics Vision the Revolution in Military Logistics RML. While 10 percent of the cargo was delivered by other means, primarily aircraft, understanding the magnitude and significance of sea-based sustainment is critical to understanding what it takes to deploy and employ the U.S. military. Now imagine doing this in an environment devoid of modern infrastructure in a manner that defeats an adversarys desire to prevent our use of air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace to project military power, all in consonance within the complex interrelationships and intricacies that support current collective defense arrangements. The most important of these was to guarantee free daily rations for the soldiers, amounting to two pounds of bread or hardtack a day. Raison D'etre Importance of Logistics 5. U.S. forces initiated the deployment with Military Sealift Command (MSC), a USTRANSCOM subordinate command, prepositioning assets moving to Kuwait beginning in October 2002, with the off-load of increased military capability beginning in earnest in January 2003 and wrapping up in April 2003, completing the six-month force buildup. Logistics is critical not only to employing the force, but also (and perhaps even more importantly) to building the everyday readiness of the force. When the instability of funding that results from continuing resolutions and an inability to pass budgets on time is added to these challenges, one can see that the problems confronting the industrial base are magnified at a time when they most need to be reduced so that our ability to supply the force is responsive and resilient. Improvements in munitions and energy systems will directly improve the speed and reliability of the force and, thus, its logistical survivability and effectiveness. From the food on your table, through the clothes on your body and all the way to your business product or services. In concert with the diplomatic, information, and economic instruments of national power, the military helps to implement America's national security and defense strategies, 1 but success in. -- In medical logistics, there are many moving parts -- each as important as the next -- to . other words joint logistics. Since military equipment and supplies must be transported from one place to another, it's hugely important to create a comprehensive, fast and dependable logistics system that would work and deliver the value and results to support defense efforts nationally and internationally. Military Logistics Featured 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. Vision, sure. 1. 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. Military 80 Penn State program trains Marines on battlefield logistics DC Velocity DECEMBER 18, 2018 18. This situation will strain the systems, processes, and resources intrinsic in military logistics, and exacerbate the friction along the combatants' lines of communications. Which successful supply chain organizations use to execute operations efficiently and increase value for their end customers. 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. Throughout the past decades, the military helped revolutionize the world of logistics in a myriad of ways. For the U.S. to be able to sustain effective combat operations in the modern era, it must prioritize prepositioned forward stocks and munitions, strategic mobility assets, partner and allied support, as well as non-commercially dependent distributed logistics and maintenance to ensure logistics sustainment while under persistent multi-domain attack.16. Six months may seem a long time, but the volume of activity was immense. 2. The name . Logistics always over-promises and under delivers. The future fight will require significantly greater responsiveness and diversity in the face of a greater threat. 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). Developments in mechanized, aerial, and amphibious warfare made the logistic support of armed forces vastly more complicated and extensive (Nelson, 1992). the great importance the alliance attaches to the civil dimension and its impact on military operations. The use of unmanned platforms will be critical to the future of agile logistics. A logistics management system underpins that effort and includes inbound and outbound transportation management, warehouse management, fleet management, order processing, inventory control, supply and demand forecasting, and managing third-party logistics (3PL) service providers. It must coordinate with allies and partners to place combined force capabilities against the adversarys weakness and develop and sustain a broad array of overseas advanced bases that will change frequently and provide the responsiveness and effectiveness needed to prevail despite enemy efforts to prevent U.S. forces from getting to or operating within the theater of combat. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines logistics as the aspect of military science dealing with the procurement, maintenance, and transportation of military materiel, facilities, and personnel.2 The Joint Chiefs of Staffs Logistics elaborates on this definition and quotes Rear Admiral Henry E. Eccless 1959 statement that Logistics is the bridge between the economy of the Nation and the tactical operations of its combat forces. Logistics is the oxygen that allows military muscle to function, grow, and strengthen. In addition to ensuring that modernized logistics capabilities are appreciated as central to regaining our military advantage, logistics capabilities must be considered in the ongoing discussion of solutions to overcome the current readiness shortfalls of todays military. Read this work not for its focus on the sea but for its focus on national power. Integrating simulators and virtual reality capabilities into range design will also help to reduce the logistical impact of home-station training and generate much-needed efficiencies in major range training opportunities while also improving overall warfighting readiness. Lieutenant General Michael G. Dana, USMC, 21st Century Logistics: Designing and Developing Capabilities, Marine Corps Gazette, Vol. 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. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 95. 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). U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Logistics, Joint Publication 4-0, October 16, 2013, p. I-1, http://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/Doctrine/pubs/jp4_0.pdf (accessed May 29, 2018). The report also offers recommendations for improved distribution monitoring. US admits "We're not the clear [technology] leaders that we used to be" After the Cold War, U.S. logistics planners moved away from a focus on effectiveness to a focus on efficiency in the sense that little is left idle for significant periods and that commodities are delivered at minimum cost. "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) Logistics is primarily a military term, so the first applications were in military areas. While procurement is not exclusively a function of logistics, the countrys industrial capacity affects the availability of spare parts, the availability of technical support for contract maintenance, and the ability to replace warfighting platforms that are well beyond their service life, be they ships, aircraft, or major land-component systems (tanks, artillery, reconnaissance vehicles, personnel carriers, radars, ground vehicles, etc.). The force of tomorrow must be ready to defeat a peer competitor in a broad battlespace that requires security for each logistics movement, the ability to off-load across various widely distributed locations, with minimal infrastructure, and in a communications-degraded environment. /content/admin/rand-header/jcr:content/par/header/reports, /content/admin/rand-header/jcr:content/par/header/blogPosts, /content/admin/rand-header/jcr:content/par/header/multimedia, /content/admin/rand-header/jcr:content/par/header/caseStudies, How China Understands and Assesses Military Balance, Russian Military Operations in Ukraine in 2022 and the Year Ahead, Consequences of the War in Ukraine: A Bleak Outlook for Russia, RAND President and CEO Presenting to House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, RAND Experts Discuss the First Year of the Russia-Ukraine War, Helping Coastal Communities Plan for Climate Change, Measuring Wellbeing to Help Communities Thrive, Assessing and Articulating the Wider Benefits of Research, Military and Defense-Related Supply Chains, Common Authorized Stockage Lists for the U.S. Army's Brigade Combat Teams, Improving Precommissioning Assignments and Readiness on the U.S. Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutter, Rapidly Detecting and Correcting Degradation of Military Supply Distribution Performance: Algorithms, Visualizations, and Case Studies, The Problem of Intra-Theater Lift: Moving Things Around in the Pacific Area of Responsibility, Assessing the Effectiveness of Future Concepts in the U.S. Air Force: Application to Future Logistics Concepts, Supporting Combat Power Projection Away from Fixed Infrastructure, Retention of Enlisted Maintenance, Logistics, and Munitions Personnel: Analysis and Results, Implementing Variable Cost Pricing in the Transportation Working Capital Fund, A Tradition of Service: Q&A with Two Veterans, Achieving Global Mobility: Future Force Design 2040, Global Mobility: Future Force Design 2040, An Analysis of Alternative Approaches to Measuring Multinational Interoperability: Early Development of the Army Interoperability Measurement System (AIMS). It also outlines a range of options to deliver global mobility in dynamic threat and policy environments. The Movement Coordination Centre Europe commissioned RAND Europe to conduct a scoping study to understand constraints of operating in Africa, as well as barriers to the efficient coordination of airlift and other logistic support in the continent. The military is also going full steam ahead on hardware acquisitions, but when it comes to Revolution in Military Logistics (RML), most, particularly in the military circles, are in a denial mode. These interventions enable logistics capability development for new generations of warfare. At first glance, the challenges of military logistics may appear to be the same as, or at least very similar to, those experienced by FEDEX, Walmart, Amazon, DHL, or any other major supply chain operation supporting vast numbers of customers both internationally and across the United States. The Military Ensures Our Freedom and Safety Around the World From the battlefields of the American Revolution to the front lines of Eastern Europe, American service members have been ensuring the freedom of America and its allies for centuries. (ARL Magazine) One of the most important areas of every army is logistics. From providing the facilities that house the members of the force and the ranges where they train, to sustaining the equipment warriors operate and wear, to providing fuel and ammunition in operations and training, the interconnectedness of logistics inextricably links logistics to military combat power. U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Transportation Command, About USTRANSCOM, https://www.ustranscom.mil/cmd/aboutustc.cfm (accessed May 29, 2018). The span of that bridge was literally a ship every 72 miles from the US to Kuwait. In preparation for combat operations in Iraq, logisticians had six months to deploy the force and its associated sustainment. The term logistics was not commonly used until shortly before World War II, but the concept and understanding of logistics have been around since the earliest days of warfare. Friday, June 25, 2021 A supply ship unloads supplies at the Port of Pusan. 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. Carl von Clausewitz, On War, ed. The Military Health System will need to implement a portfolio of mitigation strategies to ensure an agile, resilient, and global network of capabilities and a robust industrial supply base to effectively treat combat casualties in future conflicts. Consequently, it is far more complex than even the most sophisticated global business enterprises. Strong operations professional with a Master of Science - MS focused in Human Resources Management & Development (CIPD) from The University of Salford. See, for example, The Honorable Mark T. Esper, Secretary of the Army, and General Mark A. Milley, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, statement On the Posture of the United States Army before the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, 115th Cong., 2nd Sess., April 12, 2018, https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Esper-Milley_04-12-18.pdf (accessed May 30, 2018); The Honorable Richard V. Spencer, Secretary of the Navy, statement on Fiscal Year 2019 Department of the Navy Budget before the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, April 19, 2018, https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Spencer_04-19-18.pdf (accessed May 30, 2018); Admiral John M. Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations, statement on Fiscal Year 2019 Navy Budget before the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, April 19, 2018, https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Richardson_04-19-18.pdf (accessed May 30, 2018); General Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps, statement on The Posture of the United States Marine Corps before the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, April 19, 2018, https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Neller_04-19-18.pdf (accessed May 30, 2018); and The Honorable Dr. Heather Wilson, Secretary of the Air Force, and General David L. Goldfein, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, USAF Posture Statement: Fiscal Year 2019, Department of the Air Force presentation to the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, 115th Cong., 2nd Sess., April 24, 2018, https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Wilson-Goldfein_04-24-18.pdf (accessed May 30, 2018). Before they became RAND researchers, Jonathan Wong and Joslyn Fleming served as U.S. Marines. 26. It also outlines a range of options to deliver global mobility in dynamic threat and policy environments. 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importance of military logistics