The Four Logistics Dilemmas Awaiting the Army on the Modern Battlefield
Fred Brown | November 29, 2018
Before taking command of an airborne infantry battalion’s forward support company, the company’s second-in-command revealed its soldiers had not qualified on their weapons systems in over a year. In a matter of days, our brigade would become the nation’s Global Response Force and my supported battalion would be the brigade’s first unit to respond to unknown crises across the globe. I was aware of the battalion’s maintenance backlogs, the newly fielded (but untouched) capabilities sets and mission command systems, and the company’s previous struggles to perform the simplest sustainment tasks; but over-simplified criticisms of previous leaders and management did not suffice to explain the full scope of the problems. These problems stemmed from four common dilemmas that young logisticians supporting tactical formations must confront daily.
In a message to cadets preparing to commission as officers across all of the Army’s career fields, Lt. Col. Charles Faint challenged cadets to “own†their respective branches. In the coming months over 660 United States Military Academy and Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets accessed into the quartermaster, ordnance, and transportation corps will report to their respective units. For these future logisticians, their ability to do four things might determine the Army’s success on future battlefields: find balance between training and support, advise their maneuver counterparts on logistical matters, think creatively about the existing capabilities in their formations, and effectively integrate complex technology.
https://mwi.usma.edu/four-logistics-dilemmas-awaiting-army-modern-battlefield/
