Maintaining and building materiel readiness

By Gen. Gustave "Gus" PernaNovember 4, 2019

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Intelligent automation in the corporate arena is changing the landscape of business. One by one, The Multi-Domain Operations concept, released in December 2018, defines the strategic support area as the space where joint logistics and sustainment functions emanate.

It is where combat power is generated and projected into the support area, close area, and deep area. As such, dominance in the strategic support area is the focus and priority of the materiel enterprise.

Army logisticians must execute precision logistics and provide a reliable, agile, and responsive sustainment capability to support rapid power projection and independent maneuver across all contingencies and operations.

As we prepare to operate simultaneously across multiple domains--land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace--the requirement for these capabilities will increase in complexity and importance.

As the senior leader responsible for the strategic support area, I am focusing the critical resources of the materiel enterprise on seven key areas:

• Installation readiness.

• Supply availability and equipment readiness.

• Munitions readiness.

• Strategic power projection.

• Industrial base readiness.

• Soldier and family readiness.

• Logistics information.

Initiatives within these seven focus areas range from infrastructure upgrades, to energy independence on our installations, and modernizing our organic industrial base facilities to improve our ability to overhaul and maintain current and next-generation weapon systems.

We are simultaneously laterally transferring equipment, divesting excess to increase supply availability and equipment-on-hand readiness, and scrutinizing and synchronizing munitions production with on hand stocks and operational requirements.

Meanwhile, we are exploring predictive maintenance capabilities to better maintain our equipment and learning how to harness and leverage the power of big data by better understanding the capabilities resident within our enterprise resource planning systems.

All of these efforts are underpinned by caring for our Soldiers and families and stretching our limited resources to maximize those services they rely on most, from Army Community Service to child care.

In the coming months, I will highlight each of the seven focus areas and the critical initiatives within them. I encourage you to consider your role in the strategic support area and how you can improve materiel readiness in support of Multi-Domain Operations.

Our logistics and sustainment efforts at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels--across all domains--must be synchronized and resourced to best meet Army readiness requirements and, ultimately, support operations to win our nation's wars. The difference between being ready and reacting will be measured by the number of lives lost.

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Gen. Gustave "Gus" Perna is the commander of the Army Materiel Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

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This article was published in the April-June 2019 issue of Army Sustainment.

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