WASHINGTON (Army News Service) -- When the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division deployed to Poland, the ships carrying the unit's gear and equipment were not configured for a combat offload, so it took an extra week to build out the needed combat power once they docked, said the Army's top logistics staff officer.
"It should have been organized and configured as they drove off the ship," said Lt. Gen. Aundre Piggee, the Army's G-4. He added there were issues with vehicle batteries being dead and said unit movement officers across the force need more training and experience.
"Before Afghanistan and Iraq, we were good at sustaining ourselves, but then Soldiers got used to being supplied," he said. "We lost our muscle memory over the past 20 years. We must return to those basics. Supply lines matter in war."
Piggee, the Army's deputy chief of staff for logistics, spoke at the Association of the United States Army's Hot Topics seminar "Army Sustainment," June 29.
The deployment to Poland was one of many learning experiences, he said. Subsequent deployments had decreasing timelines, he noted.
The G-4 then provided an example of a success derived from lessons learned: Logisticians, working with the U.S. Army Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, shipped the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade to Greece recently in a particularly efficient operation, he said.
Things went smoothly because the logisticians ordered the right ship with the right deck height, so that helicopter rotors didn't have to be removed and the cargo was correctly configured for combat offloading, he said.
Within just two hours of downloading the vessel, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were able to fly to their assembly area. "That was amazing," he said. "That's an example of getting it right for our planning. We have to get back to that and regain our muscle memory."
BACK TO BASICS
"Command maintenance and supply distribution is still not second nature to our Army today as it used to be," Piggee said.
For example, the inspector-general traveled around the Army recently and found that some units are not doing preventive maintenance checks and services, or PMCS, on their vehicles in the motor pool.
One of the reasons for this, he said, was the lack of updated PMCS manuals.
"We still update our sustainment system by sending out CDs via the mail to manually install on computers, assuming it's going to the right address and that it's not thrown into the trash by the receiving clerk," he noted. "It can take weeks, if not months for the updates to occur and this makes us vulnerable in today's environment."
He added: "Why don't we take advantage of the smart phone which all Soldiers use today? Why not put manuals on their smartphone?"
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
Piggee suggested that Army logisticians can learn how to work smarter by looking at how successful corporations operate and innovate; for instance, Wal-Mart and Amazon. He said the Army could also learn from companies like Circuit City that failed.
Two years ago a senior vice president from Starbucks gave a presentation at U.S. Central Command, Piggee related. For the better part of the morning before he spoke, Army logisticians explained how their supply chain network operates.
Upon hearing their presentation, the Starbucks representative "was flabbergasted," he said, meaning in a negative sense.
That afternoon, the rep explained how Starbucks does it, he said.
The rep said he can see one of their stores in Thailand on his computer monitor and know when they're running low on a particular coffee mix and before even that store knows that they are low, he can adjust the resupply status and have it delivered within 24 hours.
"He looks at us and thinks, you're the most powerful army in the world and it takes you weeks to do what we can do in a matter of hours," Piggee related.
The G-4 said that it's critical to take advantage of today's technology or be in danger of becoming obsolete. He then provided some examples of things the Army could be doing on a large scale.
Take advantage of 3-D printing to make replacement parts for equipment, he encouraged. Use technology to make water in the field instead of hauling it around. Take greater advantage of big data and artificial intelligence.
The Army should also be looking at potential points of failure during operations and ways to circumvent them, he said. For example, logistics communications is done over the NIPRNet. "These systems will almost certainly be jammed in the future, creating chaos that we've not seen in the past."
Another probable point of failure is the joint and combined nations' logistical and network capability, which needs to operate in sync across multiple domains, particularly in critical operations involving anti-access and area denial.
Currently, many of those network systems are still stovepiped, he said, meaning they cannot communicate with one another.
RECENT SUCCESSES
Piggee then mentioned some logistical successes and improvements.
This year, logisticians redistributed over 178,000 pieces of excess Class 7 equipment, he said, explaining that the Class 7 inventory is composed of big stuff like tactical vehicles. "These were transferred to a number of BCTs where we enjoy a 16 percent increase in readiness just because we moved equipment from units with excess to units where it was needed."
Additionally, "we've turned in another 360,000 pieces of equipment no longer required in the operating force," he added, thereby saving time and resources needed to maintain it.
The one thing that Piggee said keeps him up at night is a low inventory of "preferred munitions," meaning those used for the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems, as well as Hellfire missiles and Excalibur rounds used for howitzers.
They're preferred because of their precision, thereby limiting collateral damage, he explained.
Troops in the CENTCOM area of operations are "utilizing these munitions at a higher rate than during the surge in Iraq," he explained.
"We have enough for what we need today, although they're not always in the right place," he said, adding that the inventory is being built up to ensure the Army has enough to conduct two contingency operations simultaneously. Lawmakers and the industrial base are working to ramp up production and provide additional funding, he noted.
And finally, Piggee said the Army is implementing a $100 million program to ensure BCTs have a common authorized stockage list that is 100 percent mobile and that will provide 30-days' worth of repair parts in a combat environment. And, the Army is also teaming with the Defense Logistics Agency to have 45-days of supplies at their forward stockage locations.
(Follow David Vergun on Twitter: @vergunARNEWS)
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