The Army’s success in large-scale combat operations (LSCO) within a multidomain operations (MDO) environment hinges on a modernized and agile sustainment enterprise. As maneuver forces rapidly evolve through Transformation in Contact (TiC) — a strategic initiative designed to increase adaptability, lethality, and operational overmatch — synchronized transformation within the logistics community is critical to sustaining momentum.
Logistics is no longer a rear-echelon function; it is a frontline enabler. As maneuver formations become lighter, faster, and more distributed, the Army must reshape its sustainment formations to deliver continuous support under fire, in degraded conditions, and across contested domains. This article examines the imperative of transforming logistics in contact and how the TiC initiative serves as a catalyst for sustainment reform.
TiC: A Sustainment Imperative
Launched in response to the rapidly changing operational landscape and the need to outpace near-peer threats, TiC is the Army’s framework for rapid transformation in the LSCO environment. TiC 1.0 initiated iterative change by creating the mobile infantry brigade and enhancing capabilities with the Infantry Squad Vehicle and new weapon systems. Recognizing the need to keep pace, sustainment units conceptualized and tested the light support battalion (LSB) — a modular, agile logistics formation designed to enable freedom of action and operational reach for transformed brigade combat teams (BCTs).
Aligning Sustainment Design with Maneuver Evolution
As maneuver units validated new concepts through exercises like Operation Lethal Eagle, Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Capability, and Combined Resolve, sustainment units simultaneously piloted redesigned support structures. These experiments revealed the need to transition from traditional brigade support battalions (BSBs) to more flexible LSBs, reshaping force structure by merging, converting, growing, or eliminating capabilities.
The transformation from BSB to LSB involves the following:
- Merging the headquarters and headquarters company and distribution company into a single headquarters distribution company.
- Transforming the field maintenance company into a maintenance supply company.
- Converting forward support companies to combat logistics companies.
These changes streamlined the logistical footprint, increasing agility and survivability — critical capabilities for sustaining dispersed formations in contact.
Division-Level Sustainment: Scaling for the Future Fight
TiC extends beyond the brigade level. As divisions expand with the division artillery and signal, engineer, and intelligence battalions, division sustainment brigades are also evolving. To mitigate potential shortfalls, U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command’s force developers split the composite supply company into dedicated division supply and petroleum companies, addressing the increased mission scope and complexity.
Additional adaptations include the following:
- Increased throughput by converting Medium Tactical Vehicle platoons to Palletized Load System platoons.
- Integrating postal and mortuary affairs platoons within sustainment companies.
- Integration of organic counter-unmanned aircraft systems (cUAS) capabilities.
- Enhanced protection through organic UAS security for convoys and forward nodes.
These adaptations prepare sustainment units for the high-tempo, contested, and dispersed battlespace characteristic of LSCO.
TiC 2.0 and the Sustainment Path Forward
TiC 2.0 builds on this foundation with a broader scope and deeper technological integration. It institutionalizes validated TiC 1.0 force designs while extending transformation to armored BCTs, Stryker BCTs, sustainment brigades, multidomain task forces, and Special Operations units.
TiC 2.0 incorporates systems like Next Generation Command and Control, cUAS, the Joint Tactical Autonomous Aerial Resupply System, and predictive logistics capabilities like Sustainment Enterprise Analytics, ParaLine (streamlined property accountability app), DISCOPS (disconnected operations app for maintenance) and DIGS (digitized preventive maintenance and diagnostics tool).
The future logistics fight will rely on autonomous resupply, resilient networks, artificial intelligence-driven predictive sustainment, and multidomain integration. TiC provides the framework to embed these capabilities at scale, ensuring logistics formations are as adaptive and decisive as their maneuver counterparts. The Army is investing in technologies to predict sustainment needs and to equip Soldiers with tools for better decision making in complex environments.
Conclusion: Transforming Sustainment to Win the Future Fight
The future battlefield will be dynamic, contested, and unforgiving. Static, slow, large, or digitally connected sustainment formations will be vulnerable. To win in LSCO and MDO, the Army must transform logistics in contact — not just logistics in the rear.
The TiC initiative is a logistics revolution, driving innovation through modularity, digital integration, and doctrinal change. By forging sustainment formations capable of delivering continuous combat power, the Army is positioning itself for success. Victory in future wars will depend as much on how and when support is delivered as on whose maneuvers are fastest. Logistics must move at the speed of relevance and evolve in lockstep with the maneuver force.
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MG Michelle K. Donahue serves as the commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command/Sustainment Center of Excellence at Fort Lee, Virginia. She has served as a sustainment brigade commander, support squadron commander, battalion executive officer, battalion support operations officer, battalion S-4, battalion S-2/S-3, and battalion and brigade S-1. She has also served as the 56th Quartermaster General and Commandant of the U.S. Army Quartermaster School at the Sustainment Center of Excellence; Deputy Director for Readiness, Strategy and Operations for the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff/G-4; and Special Assistant to the Director, Army Staff for the 2023 Army Transition Team. A Distinguished Military Graduate, she received her commission in the Quartermaster Corps from Duke University in 1996. She also holds advanced degrees from Georgetown University and the National Defense University.
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This article was published in the summer 2025 issue of Army Sustainment.
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