Commanders ponder how best to mend battlefield logistics.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Up Front

A team of about 100 logistics experts dispatched to Iraq earlier this year pinpointed serious problems in the distribution of military supplies in the war zone, and is taking steps to solve them.

The ad hoc group--known as the deployment and distribution operations center--assembled at the urgent request of top Pentagon officials to help meet immediate needs, such as ensuring that supplies arriving at seaports and airfields got rapidly unpacked and delivered to Army and Marine Corps units in Iraq.

The DDOC has been in operation under U.S. Central Command authority since January. By and large, it has made measurable improvements, but if the Defense Department is serious about fixing endemic flaws in battlefield logistics in the long term, it will need to consider creating a permanent command structure strictly focused on supply management and distribution, said Marine Lt. Gen. Gary H. Hughey, deputy chief of U.S. Transportation Command.

Both the Transportation Command and the Defense Logistics Agency teamed to create the DDOC, which also includes representatives from the military services and Joint Forces Command.

The failures of the logistics apparatus during military operations in Iraq have been documented in various reports and studies. Soldiers and Marines have complained about shortages of basic supplies and difficulties in obtaining spare parts far ground vehicles and aircraft, among other gripes. As to why logistics has been a tough nut to crack, the explanation is that the system works very well at the "strategic" level, but collapses once the containers get unloaded from ships and cargo aircraft. The DDOC was asked to figure out how to make sure that supplies get through to the "last tactical mile" of the logistics chain.

Designed for the Cold War, U.S. logistics systems can track all shipments and deliveries from the United States in overseas port of debarkation. But it lacks full "factory-to-foxhole" visibility of the supplies once they enter a theater of war. That visibility is essential in today's battlefields, Hughey said during an Association of the U.S. Army panel discussion.

"The point of failure is at the seam between the strategic and operational level," he said.

Since setting up shop in January, the DDOC has made tangible contributions, according to Hughey. It identified, for example, 2,500 containers of construction materials that were about to get shipped to Iraq, even though they were not needed. The DDOC turned down...