CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait --The Army's senior logistician recently reviewed the work underway to configure prepositioned equipment for combat.
Army Materiel Command's Gen. Gus Perna visited the 401st Army Field Support Brigade here, to assess the readiness of the Kuwait-based Army Prepositioned Stocks-5 on March 16.
"Second only to supply availability is getting Prepositioned Stocks in ready-to-fight condition," Perna said. "We will not send Soldiers into battle without ready equipment."
A vehicle that is combat configured includes all of its corresponding basic issue items, combat enablers, and Soldier technologies mounted on and inside the vehicle. The vehicle also contains high performance fluids and receives more frequent routine maintenance.
As a result, APS-5 vehicles achieve a higher state of readiness, requiring less movement and fewer maintenance hours. The improvements are realized throughout the process of issuing large equipment sets to gaining tactical units.
Perna met with leaders to discuss the ongoing effort and evaluate how the combat configuration improves the speed of issue.
"Army Prepositioned Stocks provide us a capability ready to meet any contingency. Units must be able to draw them quickly, and the equipment must be technologically advanced," Perna said. "The more we operationalize it, the faster we put the most powerful Soldier technologies into the hands of the world's premier fighting force."
Combat configuration of APS-5 equipment reduces the amount of time it takes to issue that equipment by a projected 78 percent.
The Army Field Support Battalion-Kuwait held a rapid issue exercise in January in an effort to prove the combat configuration concept works. They successfully issued 257 pieces of equipment within 96 hours' notice.
The transition of APS-5 equipment from Care of Supplies in Storage (COSIS) to combat configured is ahead of schedule and producing positive results regarding readiness, said Col. Carmelia Scott-Skillern, commander, 401st AFSB.
"This transition was tasked to us from the very top of Army Materiel Command, so it's extremely gratifying to show our leadership how much progress we've made and how hard our team continues to push forward," Scott-Skillern said.
"More importantly, it's gratifying to see results and know we're putting the best equipment in the warfighters' hands faster than ever before," she said. "We're logisticians. This is what we do. We've trained our entire careers to make sure that we do it well."
During the early parts of the transition, the Army Field Support Battalion-Kuwait also relocated combat configured equipment to a newer warehouse. The warehouse is one of nine new facilities that opened in 2016, which feature climate and humidity control, better visibility, and state-of-the art fire suppression and ventilation systems.
Storing the combat configured equipment in the newer warehouses is expected to save money over time and extend the service life of critical combat equipment.
Gaining tactical units can now draw large sets of equipment directly from the warehouses instead of having to go to a separate lot.
"The work this team has done throughout the transition has been remarkable," Scott-Skillern said. "With so many moving pieces, nobody has lost a step and we've been able to maintain excellent support to units across the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility."
Perna also participated in logistics roundtable discussions that included key Army logistics leaders in the operational area and presented coins to 401st AFSB Soldiers and Army civilians.
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