ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. -- As the Command Sgt. Maj. of the Joint Munitions Command (JMC), I have had the unique opportunity to visit and witness the outstanding work of our installations which provide munitions to our Joint Warfighters. We are a complex organization.
The Joint Munitions Command's mission is to provide the Department of Defense's joint forces with ready, reliable and lethal munitions to support global operations.
JMC's vision is to be the DoD's munitions sustainer and demilitarization expert, integrating and synchronizing global munitions readiness. However, do Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard personnel know how their ammunition is produced and provided?
The Joint Munitions Command serves as part of the Ammunition Enterprise triad. The Joint Munitions & Lethality Life Cycle Management Command aligns three organizations that execute the Army's munitions and lethality mission: the Program Executive Office for Ammunition, the Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center and JMC. The commitment of PEO Ammo's acquisition professionals, ARDEC's science and technology workforce and JMC's logistics and sustainment experts generate the success behind the JM&L LCMC.
The Joint Munitions Command receives, stores, issues, distributes and produces ammunition through its enterprise to enable outload support and power projection of munitions in support of COCOMs, contingencies, training and operation plans. JMC also executes foreign military sales in support of global strategic priorities and operations. Moreover, the Joint Munitions Command's impact to the "readiness" of the Warfighter is the difference between execution of strategic, operational, and tactical success of Decisive Action on a Multi-Domain Battlefield.
The Joint Munitions Command manages a nationwide network of organic industrial-base (OIB) facilities that sustain critical capabilities, meet current mission requirements and provide the ability to surge production of ammunition stocks as required. The OIB must be optimized to both maintain unit readiness across the force and the ability to surge in support of emerging contingencies.
The Joint Munitions Command footprint includes 15 Class V ammunition plants or depots, as well as two chemical weapon demilitarization facilities. JMC manages plants that produce more than 781 million rounds of ammunition annually and depots that store the nation's ammunition for training and combat.
The JMC is a subordinate to the Army Materiel Command whose overall mission "is to synchronize and integrate the total capabilities of the vast materiel enterprise in support of the Chief of Staff of the Army's priorities," said AMC Commander, Gen. Gus Perna. "The objectives behind those priorities are: provide materiel readiness, sustainable readiness, force projection, battlefield sustainment, Army-wide sustainment and materiel development."
"The overarching implication of JMC's mission is that failure is not an option," said Perna. The Joint Warfighter must have the appropriate munitions delivered to them via the fort-to-port framework, or via Force Projection Platform that is critical to the onward movement of tactical and operational organizations in support of training, contingency and operations other than war as required.
The Joint Munitions Command is responsible for munitions sustainment to the Warfighter while ensuring that our internal geographically dispersed munition projection platforms are in direct support of the Army's Sustainment Command's Logistics Readiness Centers and more than 86 Ammunition Supply Points across CONUS based installations and kept at a steady state for munitions availability in support of Combat Training Centers, Joint Readiness Training Centers, OCONUS based organic training and Multinational Training Centers. Our global reach is exponential and impacts every level of readiness, strategic, operational and tactical.
The totality of the Joint Munitions Command mission and execution thereof, is that munition readiness is the difference between Warfighters being prepared to engage the enemy in order to deter war, or being a tourist attraction abroad! We are steadfast in our responsibility to ensure the Joint Warfighter has what is needed, where it's needed, and when it's needed because JMC will always provide ready, reliable and lethal munitions. Munitions at the Speed of War!
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