Over the past several years Army Logisticians have recovered, redistributed, and Reset billions of dollars worth of warfighting equipment from Afghanistan, and as a result we are in good shape to meet the President's 2014 and 2016 timelines. Much of this equipment is the Army's most modern, up-armored systems and we are bringing it back to be Reset at our organic and commercial depots, then to be redistributed to units or to pre-positioned sets around the world, thereby increasing Army-wide combat readiness. We are divesting equipment which is not economically feasible to return/repair or are above Army or DoD requirements, and we're selling or transferring some to our Coalition and Allied partners. Our number one goal in G-4 is to assist the deployed forces with completing this huge and difficult retrograde mission.
This retrograde mission is only part of the work logisticians are doing to re-shape the Army to a leaner, more flexible, and globally responsive expeditionary force. In recent years, the G-4 focused on bringing two 'game-changing' technologies --- Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+) and Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-Army) -- into the Army's sustainment processes, and the effort is already paying off.
CBM+
Commercial industry studies have shown that America spends $200 billion annually to maintain equipment, and it is estimated about a quarter of that is spent on ineffective or unnecessary maintenance. If you assume similar results for the Army's large maintenance operations, you can see the potential for big cost savings by implementing improved predictive maintenance procedures such as CBM+. CBM+ maintenance will shift our processes from a time-based or reactive approach once equipment fails, to a more efficient and predictive approach by analyzing condition data automatically collected from on-board sensors and other similar technologies.
Over the past eight years the Army aviation community led the charge to implement CBM+ capabilities; as a result, a large percentage of the current aviation fleet is CBM+ enabled. This created significant improvements in aircraft availability and reliability, while reducing costs. CBM+ capabilities also directly contribute to the reduction of safety related down-time and prevent damage to aircraft, and most significantly reduce the risk to our Soldiers.
The ground system community is also making significant progress with CBM+. The Project Manager Armored Brigade Combat Team is setting the pace with the development of a comprehensive vehicle health management system strategy that will come to fruition with the first unit equipped in 2016.
The Army is already gaining several benefits from CBM+; however, we have a ways to go in order to achieve its full potential. A current point of emphasis is the fielding of a common CBM+ data delivery infrastructure that all Army systems can 'plug' into to distribute data to decision makers at the tactical to national levels. As these data pathways are established, the next big 'leap-ahead' entails integrating CBM+ data with high quality data available in the Army's emerging Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, GCSS-Army. This powerful nexus of information systems will provide tactical maintainers and national level life-cycle managers with unprecedented visibility and analysis to support their fleet management decisions, resulting in a knowledge-driven asset management capability for Army 2025 and Beyond -- creating a more ready Army at a lower cost!!
GCSS-Army
This month the Army achieved a major milestone in the fielding of GCSS-Army; 50 percent of all Warehouse Supply Support Activities now use this new logistics information system, replacing aging and 'stovepipe' computer systems. To date, we fielded GCSS-Army to 155 sites around the world, including Active, Reserve, and National Guard units, as well as the Logistics Readiness Centers of AMC.
When fully fielded, GCSS-Army will be the largest retail ERP in the Department of Defense, replacing thousands of local databases with one common master logistics web-enabled data 'warehouse'. The General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS) Financial Solution is embedded in the system, so for the first time logistics and financial actions are fully integrated, critical to achieving auditability as mandated by Congress.
Commanders and Soldiers are positively embracing GCSS-Army and accomplishing their missions with greater accuracy and effectiveness. GCSS-Army provides Soldiers a powerful tool to manage their stocks and supply chain; leaders get real-time decision-based reports, and have a record of who performed every transaction, another very important audibility criteria.
Units are also able to 'train on the system as they fight'. Late last year, the 82nd Airborne Division fielded GCSS-Army, and then in January of this year its 1st Brigade successfully deployed GCSS-Army to the Joint Readiness Training Center. 1st BCT Soldiers stated that it provided them enhanced visibility and excellent accuracy of logistics operations in a 'near-real' combat environment; and perhaps most significantly GCSS-Army is a logistics C2 system that operates 'on the move'.
Even with this great progress, we're still in the early stages of fielding; however, that is about to change. Starting in January 2015 we begin fielding to motor pools, property book, and supply room operations in every unit across the Total Army. Today, 5,000 Logistics and financial managers use GCSS-Army; by 2017 that number will grow to over 154,000 users, at which point we will truly achieve a revolutionary logistics transformation.
All 'logistics roads' will eventually lead to GCSS-Army. After 2017, we plan to bring other critical log functions into GCSS-Army and retire stand-alone IT systems. At the top of the list of capabilities to integrate into GCSS-Army are Army Prepositioned Stock management, ammunition, aviation, maintenance, and transportation.
The Path To 2025
For the past 12 years we have gone to war very deliberately. Soldiers generally knew a year out when they would deploy, and the Army became very efficient and effective at planned deployments to a Latest Arrival Date (LAD). However, the world is becoming more dangerous and less predictable, all in an environment in which our potential foes will use asymmetric threats, and will work to deny us access to logistic nodes and capabilities. So what are the things logisticians can do to help our Army mitigate and overcome Anti-Access/Area Denial, and other types of threats?
First, successful sustainment operations are all about partnerships, the shaking of hands ("HANDCON" if you will) between two or more organizations, agreeing that they will are support the mission regardless of who works for whom. Leader to Leader relationships is the glue that pulls everything together -- you don't have to 'own it to leverage it.'
Second, we need to invest in the enabling capabilities to rapidly project Army forces without relying on large and cumbersome staging bases. We have successfully focused recent war games on loading ships with equipment in ready-to-fight configuration, vice admin loading, and delivery of configured forces with organic sealift from sea based platforms to the point of employment with little time spent in the assembly area. Recent Army watercraft Logistics-Over-the-Shore (LOTS) exercises and intra-theater distribution over the long distances within the Pacific theater have put these capabilities to the test and proved their value. Additionally, we need to invest more broadly in Army Prepositioned Stocks (APS); these are go-to-war assets, strategically placed around the world. We have revised our strategy, creating smaller, tailored activity sets and multi-purposed ships. We are putting assets that have been Reset from Afghanistan into APS, and are beginning to source APS equipment and Activity Sets for Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) and Humanitarian Aid missions.
Third, we need to conduct a holistic review of contractors on the battlefield. We could not have successfully executed our logistics missions over the past 12 years without the partnership of our great contractor teammates. However, it could be argued that the 'pendulum swung' too far toward contracting in OEF/OIF, especially when you consider that for every Soldier on the battlefield, there also was at least one contractor (and sometimes many more). As a result, many Soldier skill sets and unit capabilities atrophied; we need to strike a more balanced approach between organic and outsourced functions in the future.
Fourth, we need to review how we train our Army Reserve partners. Seventy-five percent of our logistics capability is in the Reserve component, and as opportunities to build the Total Army team in combat become less and less, we need to find ways to keep the extensive RC logistics capabilities connected to the Active force and vice versa.
Over the past two years, we developed and funded the Rapid Expeditionary Deployment Initiative (REDI) to refocus the Army to provide tailored forces on short notice. This year we will publish new regulations, shifting more responsibilities from contractors back to units; units and installations will begin reporting their deployment readiness, allowing the Army to make more informed resourcing decisions; and we are returning to executing Emergency/Sea Readiness Deployment Exercises (EDRE/SEDRE).
The Army needs the flexibility to go into operations quick and light, and then ramp-up capability and infrastructure if the mission goes longer, and then ramp it back down just as quickly. That is where other tools come in, such as operational energy and contingency basing. More effective energy use means fewer convoys on the roads, fewer air drops, and lighter loads for Soldiers, all of which help achieve the mission and reduce the risk of IEDs and other enemy threats to our Soldiers.
In this austere environment, there will be calls to reduce the tail and go with a 'just in time logistics' solution. We must guard against this expedient option; however, we cannot have the opposite, 'just in case logistics' which is how we often solve logistics challenges -- with mass. To sustain the Army of 2025, we must find the right balance.
Finally, Army readiness will be determined in large measure by what kind of stewards we are of the precious resources the American citizens entrust us with. In 2010, we established the Army's Campaign on Property Accountability, to re-establish a culture of supply disciple. Soldiers have been hard at work re-accounting, redistributing, and turning in excess equipment, and the results have been remarkable. Since the program began the Army executed $312 billion in property transactions; of that, $62 billion in property went to fill Army-wide shortages, and $241 billion was redistributed internally to fill unit shortages; thereby increasing combat readiness while achieving cost avoidance.
While much remains to be done, we are 'off and running' and on the right path to having the capabilities in place to sustain Army 2025 and Beyond. The need for change is clear and is occurring. The hundreds of thousands of incredibly talented Logisticians who make up the 'Log Nation' look forward to bringing new technologies, processes, and cultures to the forefront, as we set conditions for a successful decade ahead, just as we have done over the past decade of providing world class logistics in two very challenging Theaters of War.
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LTG Raymond V. Mason served as the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, from November 2011 to August 2014. During his 36 years in the Army, he also served as the G-4, U.S. Army Forces Command; commanding general of the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Fort Shafter, Hawaii; 19th Support Command (Expeditionary), Daegu, Republic of Korea; and Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Defense Logistics Agency.
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