vehicles and containers as part of the Army Pre-positioned Stock 3 Fix Forward (Afloat) from the U.S. Naval Ship Watson at Honolulu, Hawaii, Nov. 29, 2022. VIEW ORIGINAL
Gaps in Sustainment
The Army’s fight in a widely dispersed and geographically diverse Indo-Pacific presents many logistical complexities to sustain the high operational tempo required for campaigning and warfighting in the region. The Indo-Pacific is the most consequential region in modern history. U.S. Army Pacific Command (USARPAC) maintains its campaigning momentum through Operation Pathways while generating joint warfighting readiness through Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) rotations. The 8th Theater Sustainment Command (TSC) provides sustainment command and control to support USARPAC, including deterrence initiatives to prevent and prevail in crisis and conflict.
The 8th TSC actively campaigns to set the theater and develop sustainment networks to enable joint force operations. The Army’s current construct relies on the echelon above division (EAD) sustainment capability to execute mission-essential tasks for theater opening, theater distribution, and theater sustainment. The problem is that nearly 83% of the Army’s EAD units reside in the Reserve Component, degrading the Army’s ability to project strategic deterrence through readily available sustainment capability. Key decision makers often rely on Division Sustainment Brigades (DSBs) and Division Sustainment Support Battalions (DSSBs) to fill this operational gap to support reception, staging, onward movement, and integration activities; basing operations; line-haul transportation; etc.
Link Between Operational and Tactical Levels
In addition to fulfilling sustainment requirements to support the campaigning objectives of the theater Army, DSBs and DSSBs must remain prepared to support their division’s fight during the conflict. According to Army Techniques Publication (ATP) 4-91, Division Sustainment Operations, the DSB and its subordinate units provide sustainment support to all units assigned or attached to the division. The DSSB is a multifunctional battalion that is organic to a DSB and provides logistics support to a division. Supporting a division during conflict charges DSBs and DSSBs with the first step in the link of tactical logistics. In other words, getting bulk water into the canteen of the individual Soldier starts with the DSSB.
DSBs and DSSBs serve as the link between the operational and tactical levels of sustainment in the Indo-Pacific. With fluid requirements to support both levels, employing several forward logistics elements (FLEs) across an assigned area of responsibility would enable the agility and flexibility of these units. ATP 4-90, Brigade Support Battalion, highlights the primary use of an FLE to support fast-moving offensive operations in the early phases of decisive action. However, an FLE’s overarching concept of task-organizing multifunctional logistics assets for an assigned purpose is an extremely beneficial way for DSBs and DSSBs to increase responsiveness at the operational and tactical levels.
Sustainment during Operation Pathways
During the 2023 Land Forces Pacific Symposium, Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson expressed that I Corps will fight in the Indo-Pacific “with a postured data-driven force that assures its allies, partners, and friends they are ready to respond to any conflict or crisis” Operation Pathways is USARPAC’s primary approach to strengthen defense partnerships through training to increase capability and procedural interoperability. Subordinate units across USARPAC participate in several exercises and train with allies and partners in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, and many other countries along the region’s first and second island chains. Many of these exercises come with operational sustainment requirements, including port operations, line-haul support, area support maintenance, fuel distribution, and basing operations. Launching an FLE to support operational sustainment requirements for Operation Pathways offers plenty of opportunity for units to enhance training readiness on deployment/redeployment mission-essential tasks, validate infrastructure and port capacities, exercise command and control (C2) across their organic formations, and build partnerships with host nation sustainment organizations.
Talisman Sabre 23 is a great example of how the 8th TSC leveraged an FLE package from the 524th DSSB, 25th DSB, to execute operational sustainment tasks. During this exercise, the 524th DSSB FLE added, inventoried, and maintained Army pre-positioned stock, conducted convoy operations for mission-essential equipment, and ran the mayor’s cell for basing operations in support of (ISO) of the exercise. The 524th DSSB FLE also cultivated relationships with their Australian Defense Force (ADF) counterparts, the 1st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, by conducting joint convoy operations, driver training, and fuel training. These training events allowed the Soldiers of the 524th DSSB FLE to familiarize themselves with the northern Australian road network, along with ADF transportation and fuel capabilities. Lastly, the unit stressed its C2 capability between the FLE and main command post while hosting commander update briefs, conducting military decision-making process sessions on its upcoming field training exercise, responding to missions ISO civil authorities, and receiving a redeploying organic unit’s equipment. Deploying an FLE element west of the international date line (IDL) offered the best realistic and relevant opportunity to exercise the mission command systems in preparation for future deployment operations in the Indo-Pacific.
Multiple Functions of an FLE
Many senior leaders may argue the employment of FLEs is only for tactical levels of war. FLEs are doctrinally suited for quick tactical actions such as displacing brigade and division support areas to continue the momentum for the warfighters. However, during Operation Freedom Sentinel, leaders within the 101st DSB (Air Assault) cited circumstances where FLEs were augmented with Soldiers across several battalions and had a distinct structure with a direct connection to the 1st TSC to execute a wide variety of missions, including mortuary affairs, Army Post Office, and bulk fuel storage. There is a lot of value when DSBs and DSSBs apply this concept within the Indo-Pacific similarly.
Future exercises under the Operation Pathways umbrella, such as Valiant Shield and Garuda Shield, present opportunities for the DSSB FLEs to fulfill sustainment requirements ISO international partners in the region with joint petroleum over-the-shore, port support activities, and logistics C2 elements. Additionally, exercises such as Balikatan and Keen Edge are calling for FLEs to provide transportation observer coaches/trainers and joint sustainment cell planners to facilitate relationship-building and sharing sustainment expertise among the region’s allies and partners. The use of DSSB FLEs during Operation Pathways is congruent with Brunson’s comments on increasing capability and procedural interoperability. DSBs and DSSBs receive extra repetition on deployment tasks, mission command, and sustainment support activities in preparation for any potential conflict in the region.
Tactical Sustainment in the Region
Not only are FLEs beneficial at the operational level, in the event of conflict, Army divisions across the Indo-Pacific will face challenges maintaining supply lines during large-scale combat operations. A division’s area of operations could be within an archipelago that requires an FLE for each island to support brigade combat teams (BCTs). The 524th DSSB tested this concept during the JPMRC 24-01 rotation by launching an FLE to support 3-25 BCT troops and the 11th Airborne Division on Hawaii’s Big Island while maintaining C2 and supporting the main-effort troops back on Oahu. This FLE package consisted of retail fuel, bulk water, troop transportation, maintenance and recovery, and breakbulk transportation assets. During the decisive action, the FLE’s capabilities were key to supporting 3-25 BCT’s requirements for casualty evacuation and emergency water resupply along the 11th Airborne Division’s airdrop operations. During JPMRC, the 524th DSSB FLE enabled the supported warfighters to maintain a high operational tempo by reducing the time required for resupply and the logistical burden on external supply lines.
Getting water from the port or production site down to the canteen of the Soldier relies heavily on DSBs, DSSBs, and brigade support battalions. The vast amounts of water will require Army watercraft, and aircraft will be pertinent in transporting equipment and supplies between islands. With the possibility of a division’s tactical fight spreading across many islands, commanders will consider medium- and long-range fires and air-defense capabilities to facilitate ground assaults and airstrikes. FLEs will be necessary to operate forward arming and refueling points, ammunition supply points, Role II medical care, and logistical release points as units become more dispersed at the tactical level.
Supporting Warfighting and Campaigning
FLE elements are increasingly beneficial to support warfighting and campaigning across the Indo-Pacific. From a tactical perspective, a division can employ several FLEs to stockpile essential supplies, conduct maintenance and repairs, and provide medical support. This concept ensures the division’s sustainability in prolonged operations to prevail during war. At the operational level, FLEs fill gaps caused by the lack of operational sustainment units and help foster stronger partnerships with regional allies and partners to support Operation Pathways exercises. They also offer opportunities for increased interoperability and building sustainment networks. Ultimately, employing FLEs to provide operational and tactical-level sustainment during competition, crisis, or conflict is an optimal strategy to achieve USARPAC lines of effort and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command theater strategy.
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Maj. Cheston Hickman serves as the executive officer for the 524th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 25th Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade. He previously served as the S-4 for the 130th Engineer Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, and as an instructor for the Logistics Captains Career Course at Army Sustainment University, Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. Previous to that assignment, he served as the commander of the Sustainment and Distribution (A) Company, Group Support Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne).
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This article was published in the Summer 2024 issue of Army Sustainment.
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