Army senior leaders gathered May 1 - 3 for the U.S. Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM) Sustainment Week at Fort Lee, Virginia, to discuss the future of Army logistics with the recognition that the operational environment has changed.
The week was an opportunity for more than 120 leaders from the sustainment community to gather together to share ideas; find solutions; build on innovation; and present collaborative work based on the current and future contemporary operating environment.
"I encourage the sustainment leaders, at all levels, to become multi-functional logisticians who understand their place in the fight," said. Gen. Gustave F. Perna, commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command.
Ordnance, Quartermaster and Transportation, Adjutant General and Financial Management leaders were briefed on the proposed force structure changes and emerging doctrine. The Quartermaster, Transportation and Ordnance schools held their hall of fame and distinguished members of the regiment ceremonies on "branch" day May 1.
"This is an opportunity to look at ourselves (sustainment enterprise) and challenge ourselves to think critically about our ability to plan, synchronize, integrate and echelon transportation and commodities to support large-scale combat operations," said Maj. Gen. Paul C. Hurley Jr., commanding general, CASCOM and host for the sustainment forum May 2. "My staff has been working hard to determine what the sustainment force structure should look like and how to change the doctrine to meet future operations. This is your time to 'murder board' us and show us where the gaps are."
The changes came about as the Army rewrote Field Manual 3-0 Operations (published October 2017) after recognizing a lack of doctrine across the Army when conducting operations short of armed conflict through large-scale ground combat.
Discussions during the week focused on the new operating environment and the movement from brigade combat team-centric formations to division/corps as maneuver headquarters that can operate in an expeditionary manner, under austere conditions against a peer threat in a non-permissive environment.
"We are transitioning from COIN (counterinsurgency) operations to large-scale combat operations in a multi-domain battlespace," Hurley said. "We (sustainment) must move from enterprise FOB (forward operating base) operations to being more flexible, mobile forces.
"The enterprise approach (using force structure gaps with contract solutions) worked well with a modular Army focused on a COIN fight," said Hurley. "The enterprise approach cannot fully support large-scale combat operations."
According to an upcoming CASCOM white paper on sustaining large-scale combat operations, the future Army requires sustainment forces fully capable of deploying, supplying, and maintaining the force while moving large quantities of commodities throughout the battlespace. That battlespace is larger and more complex than at any other time in our nation's history.
"Now the threat is near-peer adversary - forces that have the same, if not better, capabilities," said Col. Sydney Smith, director, Capabilities Development and Integration Division, CASCOM. "We haven't had to worry about an air threat or a long-range missile threat. We may no longer have superiority in all of the domains.
"We are also looking at an Echelons Above Brigade Concept (EABC) that takes assets up to the division and corps level so they have their own formations and capabilities not only at the brigade level which is our current doctrine," Smith said. "We have to have the distribution lines and make the assumption we won't have the time or ground space we have had in previous operations."
As the joint force demands a more expeditionary, regionally aligned and globally responsive force, sustainment forces must adapt to sustain global joint combined arms operations in sufficient scale, for ample duration, with joint, interorganizational and multinational partners, to achieve joint force commander objectives.
"We recognize there is some friction between how a sustainment brigade operates and trains in garrison and how it is directed to operate in a deployed environment," Smith said. "We are working the modeling now to understand what we will need from all components (active, Guard, and Reserve)."
This shift in focus demands adaptation of sustainment mission command. The contested environment, with limited windows in which to deliver precision logistics, is the cornerstone for the operational challenges to overcome within the multi-domain battle fight.
"We must synchronize sustainment doctrine with maneuver doctrine," said Hurley. "We have to also look at all the components. We cannot sustain large-scale combat operations with just the active duty sustainment forces. We have to have the support of the Guard and Reserves."
Prior to the forum, Hurley and Perna, met with retired general officers who had served in the sustainment community to brief them on current and future initiatives.
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