The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, recently stood up a new branch within its Operations directorate to better integrate its ammunition operations. The Global Ammunition Integration Branch provides Maj. Gen. Stephen E. Farmen, SDDC commanding general, and his staff with a single source for managing SDDC's ammunition planning and operations around the world.

Prior to the creation of the new branch, information about SDDC's ammunition mission was spread out across many of the command's directorates and was not always completely shared amongst the different staff sections. The Global Ammunition Integration Branch fills that void by creating synergy and increasing information flow within the command.

"Within my first 30 days of taking command, I had 10 different briefings on ammunition from as many different sources," said Farmen.

"We were missing a single, central point to integrate and synchronize global ammunition distribution operations for the movement of ammo, and we needed a way to integrate and synchronize the command's ammunition distribution operations holistically," he added.

According to Jimmy Wiley, ammunition branch chief, the new process will greatly improve ammunition operations planning, coordination and decision-making throughout the command.

"Our goal is to work across all of the different staff sections that impact ammunition planning and operations - not to replace, but to enhance what they do -- and to impact decisions that affect ammunition operations at SDDC's military ocean terminals," said Wiley.

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point on the east coast in North Carolina and Military Ocean Terminal Concord on the west coast in California are the largest strategic ammunition seaports in the world in terms of net explosive weight capability.

There are no other port facilities or combination of facilities, military or civilian, that can match their ammunition throughput capacity or net explosive weight limits. As such, they play a critical role in SDDC's mission to deliver warfighting readiness and lethality -- with speed -- around the globe.

Their mission is so important to SDDC that Farmen refers to MOTSU and MOTCO as "crown jewels."
Wiley says his new Global Ammunition Integration Branch is responsible for "all things ammunition," and Farmen agrees.

"You are not lethal unless you have ammunition," said Farmen.