Army modernizes vehicle logistics

By Kristen KushiyamaOctober 7, 2015

LogIC Event 2015
1 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Sophronia Riley, chief, Data Fusion Group, Logistics Innovation Agency, stands with Army Reserve Soldiers from the 716th Quartermaster Company, who executed scenarios leveraging various logistics innovation technologies as part of the Logistics Inte... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
LogIC Event 2015
2 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
LogIC Event 2015
3 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Sgt. 1st Class Rodrecus L. Donnings demonstrates a fuel data tracking application on an Android device to Army G-4 Sgt. Maj. Rodger W. Mansker. The application enables a Soldier to scan a code with the handheld to automatically input the amount of fu... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
LogIC Event 2015
4 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Spc. Olajawon T. Dear and Pfc. Lauren E. McCrary demonstrate how special meter is able to track the transfer data of fuel passed from one tanker to another. The data from these meters was sent wirelessly and would enable fuel levels to be automatical... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
LogIC Event 2015
5 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Spc. Olajawon T. Dear and Pfc. Lauren E. McCrary demonstrate a special meter that tracks the transfer data of fuel passed from one tanker to another. The data from these meters was sent wirelessly and would enable fuel levels to be automatically trac... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (Oct. 6, 2015) -- More than 90 U.S. Army leaders in logistics and networks came together for the conclusion of a two-week integration effort aimed at modernizing Army logistics on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, Sept. 23-24.

During the Army G-4 Logistics Innovation Agency's inaugural Logistics Integration Capstone Event 2015, or LogIC E15, senior leaders got a firsthand look at operational scenarios that digitally captured asset logistics data at the source, then demonstrated how they moved that data to where it could be used, leveraging sustainment and mission command systems.

"The purpose of LogIC E15 was to identify innovative uses of current technology to improve sustainment management, emphasizing reduced Soldier touch points, process efficiencies and improved data quality," said Robert C. Klass, LIA acting director.

Soldiers of the 716th Quartermaster Company ran various refueling scenarios that looked at streamlining tracking and sharing of individual vehicle/individual tanker fuel levels and distribution data from the depot across the fleet of vehicles.

Today, the accountability portion of the fuel is all done by hand on paper.

"The fueler hand writes the amount of fuel being received, amount of fuel being transferred and the amount being issued," said Sgt. 1st Class Rodrecus Donnings.

"Currently, Soldiers have to climb on top of the vehicle, put a stick on a string in a tank to look at how much fuel is in that particular tanker. We want to remove that Soldier out of the process and let the system tell you how much fuel's in that truck or in that bladder and in doing so automatically have the data sent back to that fuel tracking manager," said Sophronia Riley, LogIC program lead, and chief, LIA Data Fusion Group.

During the presentation days, Donnings demonstrated how his unit used a hand-held Android device to manually scan in fuel data, which was then automatically sent over the mission command network to the support operations officer.

"From technology in general, what the Soldier wants in the field is for the processes to become easier, quicker, and to be more accurate," Donnings said.

The effort was not only useful in tracking fuel, but by leveraging sensors already embedded in vehicles -- though not currently active, the LogIC capstone event demonstrated the ability to automate a number of manual processes for maintenance, said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Paul McLaughin, Combat Arms Support Command Automotive Capability Developer.

"Currently, I have to wait for a platform to come back; the operator to identify there's a fault, write it down and turn it into me," McLaughlin said. "A self-reporting platform is going to tell me automatically that it sees a fault on the equipment data bus and that gives me insight into what is the fault. If the platform is reporting there's a problem, then there is value in knowing what the platform sees as an issue on its own network."

Enabling this type of visibility into tactical logistics assets across the tactical environment requires moving significant amounts of data across already constrained tactical and strategic networks. This has been a key focus for several years now as part of the Condition-Based Maintenance Plus program, said William T. Ward, CERDEC's CBM+ program lead.

"We have to determine how much data we can physically move over these networks and being in an environment like this with Soldiers operating the equipment, we're as close to a near-real life or 'real' fielded environment [as] we're going to get, short of going to the Network Integration Evaluation," Ward said.

The venue chosen for the capstone was the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, or CERDEC, C4ISR Ground Activity, a field-based risk reduction site CERDEC uses as an extension of its laboratories. The CERDEC CGA is designed specifically for the assessment and validation of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or C4ISR, technologies on the network.

CERDEC CGA differs fundamentally in purpose from a test and evaluation venue or the Network Integration Evaluation, said John Willison, CERDEC Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate director.

"CERDEC, being part of the Research, Development and Engineering Command and in turn part of AMC, [Army Materiel Command] our foundation and core competency is rooted in engineering as well as the research and development side. So what you get here is the tactical network and the engineers who helped to build that network ... invested in helping to make things work, as opposed to grading your paper and giving you a score at the end," Willison said.

Soldiers from the Combat Arms Support Command, participated in the capstone event in order to ensure ground truth, Riley said, and to capture what worked well in order to help develop specific requirements, which is part of the next phase of the project.

LIA will develop a roadmap by the end of 2015 for delivering these capabilities to the Warfighter.

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CERDEC is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

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