Changes on the way for Army logistics ops.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

The Army's goal to become a more "expeditionary" force will not be attained unless the service makes sweeping changes in logistics and support operations, officials said. Although the Pentagon deemed the buildup to the Iraq conflict a logistics success, the Army is not organized to rapidly set up a base of operations and launch a major campaign from an area that does not already have basic infrastructure.

To be expeditionary, a force has to be able to "open up the theater and set up a sustainment base" in a short period of time, said Lt. Gen. Claude V. Christianson, Army deputy chief of staff for logistics. That the service cannot do that today is a fundamental shortfall the Army must solve soon, he told National Defense.

Despite some notable improvements in logistics since the 1991 Gulf War, the Army still needed 90-120 days to mass the force that would launch Operation Iraqi Freedom, Christianson said. The current U.S. defense posture, however, requires that the services be prepared to deploy and engage in quick-response operations, where a 90-day buildup period would be unthinkable.

The Army currently does not have the means to quickly "open a theater," Christianson said. "We don't have the organization to do that now. The capabilities are in the Army, but nor in a single organization."

In future battles, the Army likely will not have the luxury of 90120 days to set up a logistics base, he said. "To be able to support expeditionary operations, we have to be able to go forward, and quickly establish sustainment operations."

In expeditionary operations, the Army will be "simultaneously deploying, employing and sustaining forces," Christianson said. "Our force structure is not designed to operate that way. We move in gradual steps."

The Army's long-term plan is to reform its logistics structure, so it can "go in very quickly, establish operations, without having to go through this very cumbersome and time-consuming task of building organizations to do it."

Christianson insists that changes are on the way. "We are briefing the chief of staff of the Army next month on how we are going to support an expeditionary force," he said in a February speech at the 2004 Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Conference, in Monterey, Calif.

The Army has talked about reforming logistics for the past five to six years, bur not much really has changed, Christianson said. "I defy anyone to tell me what we've done to make our Army a distribution-based logistics Army."

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