DoD: Innovation Will Help Shape Future of Military Logistics

"The National Defense Strategies of 2018 and 2022 challenge logisticians to prepare for new conflicts that could become force-to-force fights unlike those of the past."

Department of Defense: Innovation in logistics is key to the nation's ability to deter aggression as it meets new and growing threats, a leader from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment said on the anniversary of 9/11.

One way to avoid war is being so prepared to prevail on the logistics front that the enemy understands the folly of aggression, Army Brig.  Gen. Stephanie Q. Howard, executive director of operational contract support for OUSD A&S, said at the Defense Logistics Agency's 4th  annual Industry Collider Day.  

The event connected industry and academia with research and development opportunities in areas like additive manufacturing, strategic materials, and green and sustainable technologies.

"We want our enemy to know that the logistics will be there, that when our warfighter turns to the shelf, those supply parts are there. The uniforms they need are there. The bullets they need are there," she said, adding that logistics also underpins the National Defense Strategy's fourth priority of building a resilient joint force and ecosystem.

Processes that worked in the past are no longer fast enough, Howard said, and only through partnerships with small businesses and other partners can organizations like DLA and the Army Materiel Command be successful.

"When our military needs the next weapons system, aircraft, ship,  delivery system, unmanned platform, predictive modeling or whatever it is, we cannot create another [Plan of Action and Milestones] and have an arrow going up to the right showing that two years from now we can get that capability into the hands of the warfighter," she said. "It will be  two years too late."

Wars Won or Lost on Logistics - (DOD Logistics Documents):