The Army Sustainment Command (ASC) is the "face to the field" for field- and sustainment-level maintenance. ASC has battalions, brigades, logistics readiness centers (LRCs), logistics support teams (LSTs), and brigade logistics support teams (BLSTs) located around the world and uses them to help improve equipment readiness.
LRCs at major installations can perform maintenance on most equipment in the Army, including everything from tanks to lawnmowers, radars to radios, and missile launchers to 9-millimeter pistols.
FIELD-LEVEL MAINTENANCE
Field-level maintenance is the foundation for keeping equipment ready. With thousands of Army civilians, contractors, and Soldiers, ASC supports and performs field-level maintenance through LRCs, LSTs, BLSTs, Army field support battalions and brigades, and the Distribution Management Center (DMC).
LRCs. ASC uses 64 LRCs to perform field-level maintenance for organizations that do not have the capability or capacity to perform scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. During a period from 2010 to 2013, LRCs reset more than 100,000 pieces of rolling stock and performed services and unscheduled maintenance on more than 75,000 pieces of equipment that were enrolled in the left-behind equipment program.
BLSTs AND LSTs. The first contact that units have with the Army Materiel Command's logistics enterprise is through one of the ASC's BLSTs for modified table of organization and equipment units and through an LST or Army field support battalion for table of distribution and allowances organizations.
A BLST synchronizes acquisition, technology, and logistics while providing logistics and maintenance support to a brigade combat team and the units in its area of responsibility. The BLST ensures warfighting readiness by resolving maintenance and supply issues. It provides on-site assistance for training, force modernization, and materiel fielding and technical, maintenance, and logistics support forward in brigade combat teams' deployed areas of operations.
An LST has some of the same capabilities as a BLST. During combined training center rotations, LSTs support BLSTs and other organizations that do not belong to a BCT.
THE DMC. The DMC is made up of four divisions: supply, operations and mobility, distribution integration, and materiel readiness.
The Materiel Readiness Division (MRD) and Installation Logistics Directorate (ILD) perform most of the maintenance analyses and assist in the validation of maintenance operations and requirements in support of LRCs, Army pre-positioned stocks, equipment for predeployment training, and equipment that has been specially issued to ASC because of maintenance issues.
The MRD's focus is to ensure these programs meet an equipment readiness rate of 90 percent. To ensure the LRCs were performing quality maintenance, from May 2015 through May 2016, the MRD analyzed more than 850,000 passback maintenance work orders from major commands and activities around the world.
SUSTAINMENT-LEVEL MAINTENANCE
The ILD is responsible for oversight and management of the LRCs. The LRCs' primary maintenance mission is to perform field-level maintenance, but some also perform sustainment-level maintenance for the National Maintenance Program. The MRD assists the ILD with performance-based analysis of the LRCs. The analyses are used to determine workload and manpower balance, resource requirements, and ensure Army regulations and policies are upheld.
The LRCs at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, all perform sustainment-level maintenance. In fiscal year 2016, these organizations repaired more than 14,000 items, including generators, engines, transmissions, heaters, and wheel assembles, in support of the wholesale supply systems.
LOGISTICS INFORMATION WAREHOUSE
The MRD uses several logistics information systems (LIS) to track and analyze equipment readiness. The Logistics Information Warehouse (LIW) is the go-to source for analyzing maintenance data. The LIW houses several critical tools that maintenance personnel need to succeed, such as the Materiel Common Operating Picture, the Modification Management Information System, the Army Oil Analysis Program, Federal Logistics Data, and data from test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment. These tools are used to determine if there is a supply or maintenance issue that is affecting the readiness rate. The MRD also uses the Army War Reserve Deployment System and the Global Combat Support System-Army for equipment readiness analysis because the information contained in these systems is not currently available in the LIW. Most echelon-above-brigade organizations use LIW to check their subordinate units' readiness. LIW is the Army's official repository for maintenance data. Company, battalion, and brigade maintenance officers must reconcile unit LIS info with LIW data. Higher headquarters do not have access to the subordinate unit's LIS if the unit is still using the Standard Army Maintenance System. What is displayed or printed from the LIS may not be what LIW is displaying, so leaders may see a different readiness rate.
ASC's subordinate organizations are the first level of entry into Army Materiel Command's worldwide enterprise system for modified table of organization and equipment units and table of distribution and allowances organizations. Using Army field support brigades and battalions, LRCs, LSTs, and BLSTs is a sure way to increase readiness in your organization.
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Chief Warrant Officer 5 Billy Jackson is the senior warrant officer adviser and maintenance officer at the Army Sustainment Command's Distribution Management Center at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. He holds a bachelor's degree in business management from Fayetteville State University and a master's degree in information technology management from Trident University International. He is a graduate of the Warrant Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Warrant Officer Staff Course, and the Warrant Officer Senior Staff Course.
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This article was published in the November-December 2016 issue of Army Sustainment magazine.
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