This research brief highlights the likely changes that will arise in global mobility requirements for UK Armed Forces between now and 2040. The combination of innovation and new technology is therefore critical to maintaining the competitive logistical advantage that U.S. forces have enjoyed since World War II. /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). This narrated presentation describes the project, including key findings. In the modern era, the appreciation of logistics by Admiral Ernest J. Not explicitly addressed in the NDS but fundamentally implied is the equally daunting challenge of winning the home games by having the critical militaryindustry partnerships and dedicated infrastructure that serve as the preparation and launching pads for our forces. Preparing for the Future of Combat Casualty Care: Opportunities to Refine the Military Health System's Alignment with the National Defense Strategy, Strategic Airlift in Africa: Understanding Challenges and Opportunities for the Movement Coordination Centre Europe. Alexander the Great noted with dark humor the importance and complexity of logistics during his campaigns of conquest nearly 2,400 years ago: My logisticians are a humorless lotthey know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.13 Alexanders ability to move a force from Greece to India and back, conquering adversaries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia and leaving functioning outposts along the way, attests to his logistical prowess. General Darren W. McDew, U.S. Air Force, Commander, U.S. Transportation Command, statement On the State of the Command before the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, April 10, 2018, pp. "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) Many of its theories and applications have been efficiently put into practice in the business world. In the MSC Sealift Program, 106 of 115 ships, including government-owned surge sealift ships, Maritime Administration Ready Reserve Fleet ships, and chartered commercial ships, were carrying equipment and supplies for the Armys 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions, 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, and V Corps and the Marine Corps I and II Marine Expeditionary Forces. The end for which a soldier is recruited, clothed, armed, and trained, the whole objective of his sleeping, eating, drinking, and marching is simply that he should fight at the right place and the right time. This requires both technological and training/conceptual change across the force, not exclusively in the logistics enterprise. From the farthest tactical edge to the economic system of the nation, military logistics has far-reaching implications for the nation and the military element of national power and therefore affects every aspect of organizing, training, equipping, deploying, and employing the force. DNA, Oxford Living Dictionaries, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dna (accessed May 29, 2018). In February, MSC Pacific provided direct support in the activation of 10 MSC cargo ships at various West Coast ports. 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 primarily a military term, so the first applications were in military areas. Logistics is vital to any military campaign. Data Rights Relevant to Weapon Systems in Air Force Special Operations Command, Strategic Airlift in Africa: Understanding Challenges and Opportunities for the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE) and Member Nations. 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. Read this work not for its focus on the sea but for its focus on national power. The military supply-chain can be divided into three distinct chains, note military logistics experts. In Clausewitzs words, getting the force to the fight at the right place and the right time1 is the true essence of military logistics. In late March 2003 MSC reached a peak of 167 ships in the Steel Bridge of Democracy, carrying the torch of freedom to the Iraqi people in the words of Rear Admiral D. L. Brewer III, Commander, Military Sealift Command. The Timelessness and Ever-Changing Nature of Logistics. The use of unmanned platforms will be critical to the future of agile logistics. Press release, MSC Area Commands Provide a World of Service to Military Forces in Middle East, U.S. Navy, Military Sealift Command, July 23, 2003, http://www.msc.navy.mil/publications/pressrel/press03/press34.htm (accessed May 29, 2018). Taken together, collaborative services and innovation stress the importance of a vibrant military logistics community that is externally connected. Robert L. Wilke, Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness, memorandum, DOD Retention Policy for Non-Deployable Service Members, February 14, 2018, https://news.usni.org/2018/02/16/new-pentagon-separation-policy-non-deployable-service-members (accessed May 29, 2018). Shipbuilding History, Large Naval Ships and Submarines, http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/navalships.htm (accessed July 27, 2018). Currently slated to graduate in . To say the least, the challenges of military logistics are unique. Stay on top of the latest RAND research highlights, news, and commentary with the official RAND email newsletter. The role and importance of logistics Perpetual optimism, believing in yourself, believing in your purpose, believing you will prevail, and demonstrating passion and confidence is a force multiplier. Hello Class. Logistics contributes to cost reduction and efficiency improvement By proactively monitoring inventory levels, Logistics management helps businesses to decrease expenses in a variety of areas, from shipping prices to the amount of storage space required. Keeping the Army's equipment ready to go takes a lot of personnel and financial resources: 20 percent of the soldiers in a heavy division (almost as much as the supply and services, transportation, and medical personnel combined) and an estimated $11 billion across the Army in fiscal year 2003. 22. The ASLP will achieve the goals of that vision by transforming Army logistics from a system based predominately on redundancy of mass to one based on velocity mobility and information. The success of military logistics during the past 16-plus years of overseas combat operations is partly to blame for anyones assumption that continued logistical success in the ever-changing national security environment is a given across the entirety of the military logistics enterprise. Failure to understand the implications of not modernizing logistics in a time of great technological change potentially spells doom for the success of the modernized force. Mattis, Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America, p. 1. The Honorable Alan Estevez, remarks at Marine Corps Association and Foundation 14th Annual Ground Logistics Awards Dinner, Arlington, Virginia, March 22, 2018. 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. The United States Marine Corps has implemented some proactive measures to respond to global events and crises. 18. In January 2003 momentum was really gaining and APS-3 downloaded several ships of equipment into theater. Researchers conducted an analysis of alternatives of interoperability measurement systems to support the U.S. Army in achieving interoperability with partners. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrarsenalofdemocracy.html, (accessed May 29, 2018). Carl von Clausewitz, On War, ed. With the coming in of COVID-19, global concerns are rising, and it is necessary to take proper care of everything. Logistics can be seen as the bridge between deployed forces and the industrial base, which produces the material and weapons deployed forces need to accomplish their mission. 9. Raison D'etre The term, first used by Henri Jomini, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and others, was adopted by the U.S. military in World War I and gained currency in other nations in World War II. Friday, June 25, 2021 A supply ship unloads supplies at the Port of Pusan. 16. 1. 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. In this companion report, researchers identify next steps toward implementing variable cost pricing for selected business lines funded by the Transportation Working Capital Fund. 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). 3. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 95. 28. However, the concentration on the military mission with regard to effects, while logical from a military perspective, is cause for a gravely misleading perception among civil actors. It grants broader visibility over the movement of merchandise from construction to consumption, identifying infrastructure and operational practices that help or hinder that smooth, cost-effective distribution. Patton's logistical experience before assuming command of the Third Army in 1944, examines how logistics successfully contributed to Third Army's 1944-45 campaigns, and suggests appropriate lessons for today's joint logistician. 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). In assessing the true value of logistics, however, one needs to distinguish between efficiency and effectiveness, even though the former certainly affects the latter. Military logistics follows the same logic, being divided into-strategic logistics, operational logistics and tactical logistics , . Not Sure if someone was looking for quotes on logistics so I will post a few here. The military transport drone, called the Joint Tactical Air Vehicle or JTARV and developed at the Army Research Laboratory, is compared to the "Amazon on the battlefield". With a single command, the soldiers needed can be supplied by the drone wherever they are. 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. 169180. The U.S. military has not had to fight its way to the fight since World War II. The shift in our military focus to competing in an era of great-power competition demands an even greater understanding of logistics and highlights the breadth of the requirement to support the entirety of the force in innovative ways, from training in the United States to deploying far from home. U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) provides daily examples of what it takes to keep U.S. forces and their sustainment moving around the world. Researchers identified approaches the U.S. Coast Guard could take to improve crew satisfaction with precommissioning assignments on offshore patrol cutters and overall fleet readiness, then evaluated the options using five criteria. Logistics always over-promises and under delivers. Military readiness is the capability of the military force to meet the requests of their designated assignments or missions. DLAs activity is spread across 48 U.S. states and in 28 different countries.12. The U.S. has only 23 designated Strategic Seaports17 commercially operated and six under military controlthat make it possible to sustain overseas forces daily and keep them sustained during wartime. Although many of industrys best practices and technologies are relevant and even vital to the modernization of military logistics, the agility, survivability, responsiveness, and effectiveness of military logistics require another level of integrated innovation in technology and operational concepts. 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. Ethiopia, some logistics principles were applied concerning the food-supplies taken there. 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