REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- If you are looking for an example of “transformation in contact,” you won’t find a better one than Army medical logistics, Maj. Gen. Robert Edmonson II told audience members at AUSA’s Global Force Symposium March 27.
The commanding general of U.S. Communications-Electronics Command stood alongside Col. Marc Welde, commander of U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command, as they spoke to attendees about the transformation of medical logistics from the Warrior’s Corner stage.
Since AMLC’s activation in 2019, the command has rapidly responded to multiple real-world missions, including Operation Allies Welcome and ongoing support to Ukraine -- all while executing pandemic response efforts around the globe.
Edmonson applauded the organization and its ability to balance a demanding operational tempo with Army transformation.
“Bottom line is that we must organize and integrate into the Army sustainment enterprise now,” Welde said. “We must train as we fight so that we can execute at the speed of war in multi-domain operations during Large Scale Combat Operations.”
The leaders were transparent about previous issues that have long plagued medical logistics, including a lack of a common operating picture, deficient demand forecasting, non-standard catalogues and an overreliance on non-deployable support structures.
To close these gaps, multiple stakeholders have come together in a whole-of-Army approach directed by the Army Campaign Plan 23-30 to integrate medical logistics activities into the Army’s existing sustainment enterprise, including structures, systems and processes.
The concept is known as MEDLOG in Campaigning, or MiC -- a name that acknowledges its close ties to the joint concept for integrated campaigning during competition, conflict and crisis.
“Because the future fight will have more demands on MEDLOG, we believe these changes will posture the supply chain to be more agile with more depth and endurance,” Welde explained.
The first phase of the MiC proof of concept will begin in later 2024 with participation by the 189th Division Sustainment Support Battalion and the 51st Medical Logistics Company, both located at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. The first phase, which will last six months, will focus on integration into existing Army systems, training and outfitting, along with the development of a curated catalogue comprised of medical materiel aligned with authorized unit assemblages.
“Commanders at echelon will have an integrated common operating picture for operational decision-making,” Welde said. “This will increase readiness and the survivability of the force.”
MiC also introduces a pilot process called Home Station Medical Maintenance Support, or HMMS, designed to bring critical maintenance expertise to the warfighter, improving the overall medical readiness of the force.
Because of the changes in military medicine over the past several years, many Army operational units no longer have medical maintenance support at home station, explained Welde. This has created a dilemma for units, such as combat aviation brigades, that don’t have organic maintainers to perform field-level maintenance. Disaggregated systems also mean Soldiers can’t manage maintenance records and order parts from the same system.
“As you can imagine, this impacts readiness and deployablity across the force,” Welde said.
The HMMS concept also will begin testing at Fort Liberty in later 2024, providing field-level support to select units that do not have authorized biomedical equipment specialists. During the HMMS pilot, participating units will process medical maintenance work orders through GCSS-Army, the Army's tactical logistics and financial management information enterprise resource planning solution.
Using GCSS-Army will give leaders access to data analytics that will improve fleet management and trend analysis. Leaders also expect HMMS to reduce medical maintenance turn-around times and transportation costs at the tactical level.
AMLC leaders underscored that MiC is about integration. Thus, AMLC is not focused on establishing new processes unique to the medical commodity. At the same time, MiC is not a complete separation from the rest of the military system of health.
“We can’t do this alone. We have to work in close partnership with [Defense Health Agency and Defense Logistics Agency] because … it is not our aim to break anything. It is our aim to move us forward,” Edmonson said. “This is a journey and I think we have gotten off to a pretty good start.”
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