Today’s operational environment has shown that the speed and complexity of large-scale combat operations (LSCO) are unlike anything we have experienced in the Army’s 250 years. In this light, the Army sustainment enterprise must think differently about how it does business to support the Army, the joint force, and our allies and partners around the world, both now and in the future.
The Army sustainment enterprise must deliver what our warfighters need, when and where they need it, at the speed of war in a contested environment. While this concept is not new, we are finding innovative ways to leverage new technology, from both factory-to-foxhole and foxhole-to-factory, using current operations and exercises to learn, anticipate need, and prepare theaters.
The war in Ukraine has presented the Army with opportunities to leverage forecasting techniques and algorithms to estimate repair parts and ammunition ahead of real-life wartime requirements. Advanced analytics allows Army leaders to see the bigger picture: how continued LSCO affects readiness, not just of systems, but of units. For example, our Army can now map transportation networks and joint interior lines starting at the joint strategic support area to the point of delivery. The Army is working to implement lessons learned to enhance capabilities at echelon, across the force.
Meanwhile, remote maintenance solutions allow logisticians well above the tactical level to provide real-time diagnostics and reduce equipment downtime for Soldiers, partners, and allies on the front lines and around the world. This minimizes the impact of maintenance on warfighters regardless of their location, from the widespread Pacific Islands to the vast forests of Eastern Europe.
Advanced manufacturing is also a game-changer for our maintenance capabilities — a true disruptor of traditional supply chains — mitigating delays and empowering Soldiers to efficiently solve maintenance problems at the point of need. Army Materiel Command (AMC) is working across the sustainment enterprise to deliver a repository of advanced manufacturing data that is easier to access and more intuitive to use, enabling a new, faster process for repair parts to be produced and certified. Together, we are building irreversible momentum, keeping our weapons systems in the fight until the supply chain can catch up.
The Army is also making significant strides to simplify, streamline, standardize, and unify business operations while improving auditability. Enterprise Business Systems-Convergence (EBS-C) is set to start piloting a modern ammunition management capability this year. This program is aligned with our warfighting system transformation, enhancing sustainment through improved software and data access. EBS-C also has the potential to improve predictive logistics and reduce contested logistics risks, benefiting nearly all warfighting domains.
It is critical that we ensure that units have the highest level of operational readiness as they leave training rotations to head into deployment. Through AMC’s operational readiness program, we use data and analytics to predict equipment that is most likely to fail. We do this while units are training and then deploying fly-away teams from our depots so we can fix that equipment and train Soldiers how to better maintain it. In addition, we are selectively swapping out the dogs at the fleet with 10/20 assist from the organic industrial base. While forward mobile teams are not necessarily new, we are adapting the way we do business to codify a process that uses data to make smarter decisions about where best to position our sustainers. This will inform the future of maintenance and how we will fight and win wars.
Continuous transformation enables our Army to remain dominant against rapidly evolving and emerging threats. As the Army continues to modernize, predictive sustainment and analytics are the future of our enterprise. We cannot afford to cease advancements. Changing how we do business today is necessary to keep up with the speed of Army modernization and to best support our warfighters now and in the future.
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LTG Christopher O. Mohan currently serves as the deputy commanding general and acting commander of U.S. Army Materiel Command. He also serves as the senior commander of Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. He was commissioned into the Army from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, where he graduated as a Distinguished Military Graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice. His military education includes the Ordnance Officer Basic Course, the Combined Logistics Officer Advanced Course, the Naval College of Command and Staff, and the Army War College. He holds a Master of Science degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College and a Master of Science degree in military strategy from the Army War College.
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This article was published in the spring 2025 issue of Army Sustainment.
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