The division sustainment brigade’s (DSB’s) support operations (SPO) maintenance section stands as the division maintenance section’s primary support arm, entrusted with the critical task of ensuring materiel readiness across the area of support. Achieving synchronized materiel readiness remains a persistent challenge despite nearly a decade since its conversion. This article explores the complexities and importance of synchronized relationships within the DSB, particularly focusing on the integration of materiel readiness enablers to enhance operational effectiveness.
Effective Coordination
The relationship between a division maintenance section and the DSB SPO maintenance section involves coordination and support to ensure the division’s overall equipment effectiveness. Teamwork within and between these sections produces the integration essential to synchronize operations. Achieving this requires a shared understanding of these roles and responsibilities within each section and their respective leadership. We elevate and fortify this strategy by fostering trust, promoting a supportive workplace culture, and actively participating in boards, bureaus, centers, cells, working groups (B2C2WG), maintenance terrain walks, materiel readiness reviews, and sustainment review and analysis.
Roles
Understanding and employing efficiently within their respective positions are imperative to the success of brigade combat teams, multifunctional and functional brigades, and units in the area of operations (AO). If the DSB SPO maintenance section is focused down and in, it increases the risk to commanders at echelon who operate within the assigned AO. Internal maintenance management of the DSB and its assigned units is an inherent task within the DSB S-4, not the DSB SPO maintenance section, as detailed in Army Techniques Publication (ATP) 4-91, Division Sustainment Operations. When understanding roles and responsibilities as sustainers, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Gustave “Gus” Perna described it best in the May-June 2015 issue of Army Sustainment when he wrote, “The bottom line is that maneuver commanders should never have to worry about or be constrained by sustainment.”
The DSB SPO officer and staff in the maintenance section face a significant challenge. They must report to a DSB commander while relying on external sources, specifically the division G-4, for their current, future, and emergent requirements. Success also hinges on their ability to integrate with echelons above brigade (EABs), Army field support brigades/battalions (AFSBs/AFSBns), and expeditionary/theater sustainment commands (ESCs/TSCs).
Trust and Support
Failure to establish trust and understanding of roles and responsibilities can lead to breakdowns in support. The DSB SPO maintenance section performs a crucial role in identifying shortfalls and recommending solutions based on division priorities. It ensures compliance with maintenance plans, policies, and priorities set by division G-4, as outlined in ATP 4-91. When trust falters, the division maintenance section often reallocates personnel and resources, borrowing military manpower from a career management field 91/94 warrant officer or NCO, since they can no longer rely on the DSB SPO maintenance section. This reallocation has cascading effects, depleting unit commanders of manpower and straining the relationship between the division maintenance section and the DSB SPO maintenance section. It essentially severs the trust, because the division maintenance section then uses that individual for some of the efforts the DSB SPO maintenance section would have been providing.
Materiel Readiness Expertise
The DSB SPO maintenance section comprises personnel with specialized knowledge of The Army Maintenance Management System and extensive expertise in various equipment employed across the AO. By assisting the division maintenance section, they offer valuable technical insight to identify and address maintenance issues that affect multiple organizations that require support to enhance readiness. The DSB SPO maintenance section faces a unique and challenging requirement. Unlike any other Army unit, they are tasked with establishing maintenance support policies and plans for units across the AO. This responsibility demands the DSB SPO maintenance section operate at a higher level, serving as the crucial link between the EAB and the division, and with the AFSBn/AFSB.
In fiscal year 2022, a change to the DSB modified table of organization and equipment replaced the 913A Armament Systems Maintenance Warrant Officer with a 915A Automotive Maintenance Warrant Officer. This change resulted in a knowledge gap because the 913A was a functional area subject matter expert who was crucial for supporting the division’s external requirements. Despite this change, the DSB SPO maintenance section retains a significant amount of tacit knowledge and experience. Therefore, their focus should not be solely on addressing specific internal brigade issues. It is important to note there are considerable differences in manning between the division maintenance section and the DSB SPO maintenance section.
Their role extends to aiding in the development of the installation maintenance support plan, a plan that many installations lack. This is due to the dissociation of the materiel readiness enterprise; it requires collaboration to outline the relations between EAB tactical field-level maintenance and the tenant units within the AO that rely on other maintenance activities for support.
The division maintenance section focuses on resourcing, assessing, monitoring, determining, and coordinating maintenance-related actions to achieve the division’s objectives. They also assess the sustainment task organizations to identify gaps and develop recommendations to mitigate them. In addition, they determine the maintenance workload requirements. Suppose they are focused on the day-to-day materiel readiness tasks inherent in the DSB SPO maintenance section. Can they resource, assess, and monitor holistic maintenance operations?
Synchronization of Maintenance Efforts
Close coordination between the DSB SPO maintenance section, the division maintenance section, AFSB, and AFSBn SPOs, including the supporting ESC/TSC materiel readiness branch, ensures synchronization of maintenance efforts with the overall operation plans and contingency plans. This helps minimize equipment downtime and ensures maintenance activities align with the division’s mission objectives. This is done by resourcing those activities for their missions, coordinating, synchronizing, and sequencing their operations in time and space. The division maintenance section staff can only accomplish what they are required to do when they are fully supported by the DSB SPO maintenance section.
Lines of Effort
The DSB SPO maintenance section assists division G-4 in generating accurate equipment readiness reports. This includes tracking the status of maintenance and repairs, which is crucial for assessing the overall readiness of the division’s equipment and making informed decisions regarding equipment deployment and usage.
They are outlined in ATP 4-91 and summarized here:
- Collect and analyze maintenance materiel status data and perform liaison functions with the brigade support battalion, the AFSB, and the ESC/TSC.
- Forecast maintenance requirements and coordinate sustainment maintenance support to the division.
- Conduct fleet management projections on equipment to determine the root cause of its inability to meet the Army’s standard operational readiness rate.
- Conduct trend analysis of the division’s vehicles and equipment to identify systemic problems.
The ability to adapt to the complex environment during my tenure with the 25th Infantry Division (25ID) DSB and the 8th TSC (8TSC) amplified our ability to achieve success in areas while laying a foundation for future growth. The synchronization between the 402nd AFSBn, the DSB, 25ID G-4, and 8TSC led to several achievements:
- The precursor to the Modernization Displacement and Repair Site with its divestment unit support team, a 60-plus Soldier-manned centralized team that prepared, repaired, and processed over 650 tactical wheeled vehicles.
- An integrated installation support plan that laid out the support relationships and requirements of maintenance enablers across the U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii AO.
- A comprehensive theater sustainment review and analysis that gained greater visibility of materiel management and operational readiness across the U.S. Army Pacific Command AO (read more in the summer 2022 edition of Army Sustainment).
- Fleet management and trend analyses that identified root causes and gaps in field and sustainment resources on the M777A2 howitzers, the M105 Deployable Universal Combat Earthmover, and the M149A2 Water Buffalo.
- The first-of-its-kind DSB maintenance section standard operating procedure.
As you can understand, these tasks require experience and technical skills that can challenge the norms and establish effective relationships and lines of communication. To pull this together contextually, then-Col. (now Maj. Gen.) Ronald R. Ragin, in the May-June 2017 issue of Army Sustainment, wrote it best: “... a shared understanding will greatly enhance the ability of the joint force to generate readiness, project power, anticipate requirements, sustain readiness, and ensure operational endurance.” He made this statement while the 4th ID was designing the Division Materiel Readiness Center to offset the previous decentralization of key materiel integrators.
Transforming Support in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
As the Army transforms to a division-led approach, materiel readiness efforts must transform as well. The DSB SPO maintenance section’s support to the division maintenance section is essential for maintaining and enhancing the operational readiness of the division’s equipment in the AO, requiring technical expertise, fleet management, trend analysis, and reporting capabilities. Within the Unified Pacific Wargame Series (UPWS) and the DSB, efforts must emphasize synchronized relationships for operational readiness. The UPWS consists of events such as Operation Pathways, a joint/coalition logistics warfighting exercise at scale across the vast non-contiguous AO that stresses the logistics and sustainment enterprise at the operational level. Similarly, the DSB focuses on materiel readiness, emphasizing cohesive staff relationships and integrating enablers for operational effectiveness. Both stress coordination, teamwork, and trust to ensure consistent equipment readiness and to support joint operational endurance. Strengthening these relationships and enhancing synchronization will improve readiness and military operational effectiveness in large-scale contested combat operations.
Conclusion
In the pursuit of achieving peak materiel readiness, the collaboration and synchronization between the division maintenance section and the DSB SPO maintenance section are paramount. Their technical expertise, fleet management, trend analysis, AFSBn/AFSB-ESC/TSC synchronization, and reporting capabilities are critical elements in ensuring equipment is consistently ready to meet the requirements of commanders. This partnership mirrors the support that an ESC provides to the corps and that a TSC offers to the Army Service Component Commands. When these sections and their leaders understand and execute their roles effectively and adopt change management principles, they minimize the disruptive effects inherent to change, which can guarantee the division’s area of support equipment remains consistently ready for operational requirements.
Individual and organizational change must facilitate transition into the future state. Unique perspectives, biases, motivations, behaviors, and resistance must be addressed to increase acceptance and commitment. Strengthening these relationships and enhancing synchronization will increase readiness across the division’s area of support. As the Army implements Total Army Analysis 2025-2029, which will analyze the Army’s force structure, we must continually assess, assign, and codify sustainment roles and responsibilities at echelon. A mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities, coupled with codified B2C2WG inputs and outputs, with an effective change management strategy, vision, and implementation plan, will enable increased materiel readiness efforts to continue without interruption through transitions.
--------------------
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Michael Theroux currently serves as the Ground Readiness branch chief in the U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. He previously served as the senior ground maintenance warrant officer in the 25th Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and the senior ground maintenance warrant officer in the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Fort Shafter, Hawaii. He holds a master’s degree in transportation and logistics management from American Military University, West Virginia, and he is a graduate of the Theater Sustainment Planners Course.
--------------------
This article was published in the Summer 2024 issue of Army Sustainment.
RELATED LINKS
The Current issue of Army Sustainment in pdf format
Current Army Sustainment Online Articles
Connect with Army Sustainment on LinkedIn
Connect with Army Sustainment on Facebook
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Social Sharing