Transforming Sustainment for Armored Formations: Building Aerial Delivery Capabilities in the ABCT

The Spartan Aerial Resupply team, or SPAR, is executing aerial delivery to 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) by way of sling loads, tactical drones, and parachute insertion from rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. Working with joint partners and corps enablers, SPAR is changing the landscape of responsive and rapid replenishment in armored formations. SPAR is composed of mechanics, truck drivers, supply techs, and medics of the 703d Brigade Support Battalion (“The Heart of Sparta”).

A CH-47 Chinook helicopter silhouette suddenly flies over a clearing in a small valley. “Execute, execute, execute,” CPT Tori Basso mutters over her hand mike, straddling the dirt-caked running board of her Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. A rectangular bundle instantly disgorges from the aircraft, as a small black canopy twists and unravels above it. The load sways from side to side as the parachute blossoms and slows its descent. More bundles, each carrying MREs, are ejected from the Chinook as it thunders across the drop zone, forming a neat line of oscillating aerial pendulums and falling to the muddy valley floor.

Truck drivers and quartermasters, waiting among the pines, prepare to scoop the boxes from the sandy valley once the all-clear was given. The tankers, meanwhile, take in the show. Most stand atop the hulks of M1 Abrams tanks or Bradley Fighting Vehicles with their phones oriented skyward at the Chinook, which by now is arcing around the scene for another pass. This is an uncommon sight in the armored world.

Tank formations consume enormous quantities of water, food, fuel, ammunition, and vehicle parts. To satisfy the unquenchable thirst of armored crews and machines, ABCTs are tethered to networks of ground-based networks providing provisions and necessities from rear areas to the front. But the arterial architecture of armored sustainment is susceptible to be cut from a variety of threats. The most discernible are improvised explosives buried into roads, a tactic so effective at severing supply lines that it is sure to be repeated in future conflicts.

Large-scale combat operations introduce additional challenges. Long, lumbering convoys present massive and predictable signatures to enemies that can saturate roads, intersections, and rally points with high volumes of fire. Add the nearly ubiquitous presence of low-flying drones and enemy patrols orbiting the battlefield, and a far more menacing picture is presented to commanders. In short, contested ground lines compel sustainers to find alternate ways of supporting armored formations.

Vertical replenishment extends endurance and operational reach to remote or isolated units. Armored cavalry squadrons may operate 40 to 50 kilometers (25 to 31 miles) from the front-line trace — and even farther from logistical units. Aerial delivery bridges this supply gap from tooth to tail. Whether navigating jagged mountain passes, murky swamplands, or dense urban terrain, restricted ground corridors clot the flow of supplies to the front. Parachute or sling-load packages have the advantage of precision, speed, and responsiveness that ground-based logistical methods cannot match.

Nonetheless, some in the armored community squint at the sky with suspicion. For one, the lack of expertise within ABCTs challenges rapid and efficient supply support to tanks starved for beans, bullets, and gas. Air load planning, packaging, parachute rigging, departure airfield operations, and drop zone control are the domain of airborne and light infantry elements. Armored units have very little aerial resupply knowledge or capability.

Others argue that supplies cannot be delivered in the quantities needed to sustain the rapid tempo of an armored fight. Helicopters can deliver several parts, a day’s worth of rations, and perhaps several hundred gallons of fuel, but nothing to sustain a battalion in contact for over 24 hours.

To meet this challenge, 2 ABCT’s SPAR program expanded from low-cost, low-altitude delivery to high-performance containerized insertions. SPAR maximized the volume of support packages from several hundred-pound bundles to 16 bundles weighing up to a ton each. Tracked vehicle parts, tires, tools, several days of food, 1,000 gallons of fuel, and a battalion’s worth of medical supplies were dropped from a single C-130 aircraft flight. In all, two C-130 lifts delivered nearly 20 short tons of equipment to armored units during 2 ABCT’s brigade-wide tactical exercise. In the minutes between flight passes, forklifts, high-mobility trucks, and Soldiers swarmed the drop zone, recovered supplies, and hauled them into the waiting arms of tank crews and support counterparts positioned nearby.

It was proof of concept that with the right expertise, joint partners, and a little initiative, armored units could be supplied for enduring operations from the air.

In the lead-up to the operation, mechanics, truck drivers, supply techs, and medics worked side-by-side with parachute riggers from the 3rd Corps Sustainment Command to assemble tailorable loads. Quartermaster officers supervised uploading them into aircraft on the flightline. Ordnance officers combed over maps with pilots to mark restricted operational zones and flight paths.

On the ground, a group of officers with Pathfinder, Ranger, and Airborne experience established the drop zone with Air Force tactical elements, conversed with the flight crew, and marked points of impact. SPAR is a collection of sustainment officers and NCOs who are driven to learn, network, and execute these operations. But for the future of armored logistics, sustainment leaders must build a training and operational framework to fully use these capabilities.

Below are several proposals for sustainment leaders across the force.

Aerial Delivery Planners

Not everyone wants to jump out of planes or pack their own parachute, which is why the Aerial Delivery Materiel Officers Course (ADMOC) is not every young officer’s first choice for professional education. However, the initial portions of ADMOC contain the seeds for growth and development for all logistics officers, regardless of whether they have an inclination for the Airborne life.

We propose that the Army offer an Aerial Delivery Planner Course, principally modeled after the initial weeks at ADMOC. The ADMOC introductory blocks familiarize students with aircraft capabilities and cargo capacity, types of parachutes and delivery methods, and means of packaging containerized loads. Classroom instruction is augmented by hands-on training and exams that test students’ ability to build and rig loads with several variants of parachutes. The planner course would absorb this instruction and culminate with an airborne operation as the capstone event. In the final assessment, students would manage departure airfield operations, review flight plans and drop zone surveys, and deliver supplies by airborne insertion.

This type of training will attract far more talent, regardless of an officer’s heavy or light affiliation. It will likely broaden units’ tactical tool kits to present battalion and brigade commanders with a variety of resupply options across the battlefield.

Rigging and Recovery

The Army must expand familiarity, if not proficiency, with building and rigging bundles so that teams like SPAR are arrows in the quivers of aerial delivery planners. I propose that the U.S. Army Quartermaster School initiate an aggressive training plan to augment aerial delivery technicians across sustainment brigades to build aerial delivery capabilities throughout division support elements.

Sling Load Resupply

Sling-load capabilities must not be overlooked. SPAR teams effectively delivered flat racks full of critical tank parts, bulk water, and medical equipment across 2 ABCT support clusters. Sling-load teams provide unit commanders with greater supply depth in joint operations, too, because commodities can be rapidly dispatched from surface vessels, and vessel-borne containment can be circumvented by speeding distribution from land-based rear areas in an archipelagic fight. This unique approach was tested when SPAR sling-load teams worked with local law enforcement, the National Guard, and the U.S. Coast Guard to relocate deep-water buoys across islands within the Savannah coastal region.

Eyes on the Sky

Sustainers must keep their eyes on the horizon as new capabilities vault into the Army’s inventory from proving grounds across the force. Unmanned resupply offers simple, high-precision, and low-cost methods of logistic insertion without compromising warfighters. The TRV-150 heavy-lift drone prototype is one example. 2 ABCT’s medical company trained and certified a team of medics in a matter of hours in a TRV operation. While the TRV’s payload capacity is limited (only 150 pounds), its cargo in this instance was life saving. Spartan medics rigged and delivered blood to separate nodes across miles of training area as the TRV darted over the tree lines and marshy roads of Fort Stewart while maintaining a low flight profile.

Employing various methods of aerial delivery will open logistical valves for armored formations when sustainment ground lines are constricted. Giving flight to these initiatives requires an aggressive campaign by the Army Quartermaster School, continued initiative by tactical support elements, and a sustained demand signal for expertise from sustainment brigades across the Army.

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MAJ Patrick Smith is the executive officer of the 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team (“Sparta”), 3rd Infantry Division. He has served in staff, command, and enlisted assignments with the 82nd Airborne Division, 75th Ranger Regiment, and U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne School, Aerial Delivery Materiel Officers Course, and Jumpmaster Course. He holds a master’s degree in defense and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College.

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This article was published in the summer 2026 edition of Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin.

RELATED LINKS

Army Sustainment on army.mil

Army Sustainment on Line of Departure

Army Sustainment on DVIDS

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