LOTS TO BE DESIRED: WHY THE US ARMY NEEDS TO INVEST IN LOGISTICS OVER-THE-SHORE
Garrett Chandler and Matthew Carstensen | 04.28.22
LOTS to Be Desired: Why the US Army Needs to Invest in Logistics Over-the-Shore
On March 24, a sudden explosion hit the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk. As tanks at the end of a pier burned, satellite imagery confirmed that what the Ukrainian military claimed was a strike conducted by its forces had sunk a Russian logistics ship and damaged two others. Among the many lessons the US military should be learning from the way the war in Ukraine is unfolding, this episode highlights a particular one. To increase flexibility, enhance survivability, and reduce risk of impact to allied, partner, and host nations in future operations, the Army must invest in more logistics over-the-shore capability.
Logistics over-the-shore, or LOTS, is essentially about benefiting from a wider array of options when existing facilities are limited or unavailable—being able to load and unload ships outside of fixed ports. The US military’s own history further validates the need for more of this capability, particularly because it has one of the most sustainment-heavy tooth-to-tail ratios in the world. The Korean War, for example, exposed the two extremes of force structure composition when the American forces, as the cornerstone of United Nations Command, fought waves of Chinese forces. Supported by massive amounts of supplies brought by train and truck from major ports, American forces were effectively road-bound for logistics; meanwhile, the Chinese emphasized cross-country mobility to reduce impacts of the United Nations Command air interdiction. One key factor for success of UN forces’ offensives to reclaim the 38th parallel in the spring of 1951 was a steady stream of logistics arriving through major ports on the peninsula. Given the evolution of combat forces to a force structure optimized for Multi-Domain Operations and the accompanying high demand for just-in-time logistics, an approach used in 1950s Korea seems much less sustainable today to support large-scale combat operations.
https://mwi.usma.edu/lots-to-be-desired-why-the-us-army-needs-to-invest-in-logistics-over-the-shore/
