Logistics superiority--improving a strong suit.

AuthorFarrell, Lawrence P., Jr.
PositionPresident's Perspective

The U.S. edge in military operations rests on three traditional strengths: superior quality of the fighting forces, advanced systems and technology and superb training. Superior logistics is another strength to be added to the list, as a subset of advanced systems. Both government and industry always have gone the extra mile to make sure our forces get the supplies they need. Our prodigious production and distribution in World War II had a great deal to do with the final victory. And since we do it so well, it has not been unusual for allied nations to send their military officers to the United States to learn how we manage and implement logistics operations.

The massive military buildup we've witnessed in recent months in the Middle East once again proves that when it comes to logistics, the United States is on top of its game.

But like elsewhere in the defense business today, change is in the wind and logistics too is transforming, for a variety of reasons. Our traditional practices and techniques for supplying our forces, although effective, are not efficient. The "just in case" logistics practiced in the past featured a kind of brute-force push logistics. Lots of stuff is pushed to the theatre, tracking is poor and, more often than not, supplies are ordered multiple times, just in case the previous orders got lost in the shuffle, or delayed in the transportation pipeline. When supplies arrive in theatre, a major effort is required to match the right supply with the right unit.

The new thinking at the Pentagon today is that, to win the wars of the 21st century, we must be able to conduct "effects-based operations," where the criteria for success will be operational effects, rather than traditional metrics, such as the number of targets or vehicles destroyed. In effects-based operations, usually the goal is to achieve strategic and political objectives, preferably without collateral damage. For logistics, this means new ways of doing business.

Specifically, the traditional measures of success--such as customer wait time and supply availability--may not be relevant in effects-based operations. This will require new metrics and new ways of thinking about how we support soldiers in a "non-contiguous" battlefield. Recall that the strategy of projecting expeditionary forces into anti-access environments--as outlined in the Quadrennial Defense Review--demands new methods of logistics and new criteria for logistic success.

To its credit, the...

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