GEN James E. Rainey, Commanding General of Army Futures Command, first announced the creation of the Contested Logistics (CL) Cross-Functional Team (CFT) in March 2023 at the Association of the United States Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. The team reached full operational capability later that year, charging forward with a vision to leverage technology and emerging capabilities to extend operational reach and endurance in a contested environment. Based in Huntsville, Alabama, at Redstone Arsenal, the team is strategically positioned alongside U.S. Army Materiel Command, the Army’s lead materiel integrator.
Army senior leaders began discussing the need to address potential threats or disruptions in resupplying critical supplies long before the CL CFT came to fruition. The need to enhance operational capabilities, improve efficiency, and integrate new technologies seamlessly into military operations was clear. This initiative was a response to a rapidly changing environment where agility, speed, and technological integration were essential to maintaining operational dominance.
This article reiterates the definition of contested logistics, provides a brief history of the CL CFT, describes our portfolios and operational concept, and explores the avenues where academia and industry can assist in amplifying capabilities.
Definition
The Joint Concept of Contested Logistics (JCL) defines contested logistics as “the act of planning, executing, and enabling the movement and support of military forces across multiple domains/environments across air, land, sea, space, cyber, and electromagnetic spectrum in a contested environment.” Many senior leaders have expressed the sentiment that contested logistics is one of the biggest warfighting challenges we face.
Portfolios
The CL CFT adopted a portfolio approach to address the operational and technological needs of future operational readiness. This approach allows the team to focus on broader problem statements without cornering objectives into narrow technologies or limiting the scope to current capabilities.
How can the Army and joint and allied forces use artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs), and machine learning (ML) to collect, store, process, and use key logistics and medical supply data to make better and faster decisions, while providing more options for the means and mode of distribution? This is how we define our first portfolio, precision sustainment: it enables rapid, data-driven, and resilient logistics by leveraging advances in AI, ML, and other technologies.
How do we autonomously distribute critical supplies, such as ammunition, fuel, maintenance, and medical supplies, to land-based formations dispersed over extreme distances in a contested environment, independent of stationary or fixed facilities? This is how we conceptualize the future of human-machine integrated (HMI) supply and distribution systems: it will develop HMI formations deployable by ground, air, and sea, incorporating autonomous capabilities, extending commanders’ operational reach and endurance, and reducing risk to Soldiers.
How do we reduce the need for consumable liquid fuels and batteries by integrating solutions in power generation, battery alternatives, hybrid drives, sustainable fuel technologies, and rapid fuel additives? This is how we define advanced power: it leverages new technologies in power generation, storage, and re-charge that are more efficient and that decrease logistics resupply requirements.
And finally, how do we reduce the frequency and demand for resupply and distribution of critical materiel such as ammunition, fuel, maintenance, and medical supplies to sustain warfighters and increase operational reach, endurance, speed, and ease? This culminates into demand reduction by using advanced manufacturing, alternative fuels, and new materials to reduce Soldier and platform weight and delivery times to meet requirements at the point of need.
Operational Concept
The future of Army sustainment starts on the front lines where Soldiers and weapon platforms, equipped with complex sensors, collect and transmit real-time logistic data. Data collected and transmitted includes consumption rates for Class III (fuel)/V (ammunition), current geolocation, speed, and direction of travel. Additionally, data may include real-time diagnostic information pertinent to the platforms themselves, similar to the modern vehicles we own and operate today.
Precision sustainment addresses the processing and analysis of this collected data by leveraging AI, LLMs, and ML to generate information that informs rapid sustainment decisions. Analysis from collected data combined with additional mission-specific variables, such as offensive or defensive considerations and the composition and disposition of the enemy, generate sustainment solutions. These solutions center around predicting upcoming demands of fuel, ammunition, maintenance failures, and medical supply needs; they also generate multiple distribution options at machine speed to ensure key commodities are delivered on time and at the (predictive) point of need.
HMI supply and distribution address the autonomous air, land, and sea platforms required to rapidly transport critical supplies to land-based formations dispersed over extreme distances in a contested environment. Autonomous platforms generate flexibility and resiliency in an intra-theater supply chain that operates in constant motion and is independent of stationary or fixed facilities. HMI ensures the distribution of key commodities and personnel throughout all domains at the volume required to sustain largescale combat operations (LSCO).
Central to the effective employment of HMI and autonomous distribution platforms is our ability to seamlessly control distribution assets. This is done via a centralized multilayered command and control architecture that synchronizes the activities of air, land, and open water autonomous platforms in parallel with sustainment solutions generated by precision sustainment capabilities. Capabilities in precision sustainment and HMI work in harmony, rapidly identifying and analyzing demand and informing sustainment solutions. They also generate and execute delivery solutions in complete automation, freeing warfighters to perform more critical tactical tasks.
Advanced power addresses our military’s increased energy requirements while considering the expeditionary nature of LSCO. Class III distribution generates significant strain on supply chains at all levels. Advanced power seeks to reduce transportation requirements for consumable liquid fuels through the integration of advanced energy solutions, including power generation (solar, wind, geothermal), battery alternatives, hybrid drives, sustainable fuel technologies, and fuel additive options. Integration of these emerging technologies will inevitably reduce Class III demand and provide commanders with greater operational reach, endurance, and freedom of maneuver and action.
Lastly, demand reduction addresses our need to reduce the frequency of resupply and distribution of Class I (rations), VIII (medical supplies), and IX (repair parts) to sustain warfighters longer, increasing their operational reach, endurance, protection, speed, and ease of deployment in a contested environment. Technologies in expeditionary water production and advanced manufacturing provide promising solutions to reducing future demand during LSCO. Leveraging the full potential of emerging technologies can provide solutions to rapidly producing critical Class I, VIII, and IX, reducing the burden on the supply chain. Advanced expeditionary water production directly impacts distribution velocities, Soldier survivability, and operational readiness rates by generating sustainment at the point of need while reducing risk associated with vulnerable supply chains.
Priorities
To deliver capabilities required to bring this vision to reality, the CL CFT developed six near-term priorities. These initial efforts are all equally important and aim to increase the lethality and endurance of Army formations while reducing logistical burdens.
One of these priorities is securing Army Requirements Oversight Council approval of the contested logistics initial capabilities document (ICD). This ICD will serve as an overarching reference document for developing future sustainment solutions. It will also provide the foundation for future requirements documents that close or mitigate gaps associated with operating in a contested environment.
Under the precision sustainment portfolio, we are working on the predictive logistics capability development document (CDD). Initially, we will focus on Class III, Class V, maintenance, and medical real-time data collection at the platform level. We will then push this data over Army transport networks and parse it using AI and ML tools to provide commanders and logisticians with a more holistic view of the tactical and strategic operational picture to enable faster decision making.
In our HMI supply and distribution systems portfolio, we prioritize two autonomous CDDs: an autonomous resupply vessel (ARV) and a cargo unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The ARV is an autonomous cargo vessel employed as part of an intra-theater HMI supply and distribution system. It will operate in unison with other manned and unmanned systems to move and sustain widely dispersed land formations deployed in littoral contested environments.
The cargo UAS is an autonomous unmanned aircraft that enables intra-theater container transfer from shore-to-ship, ship-to-ship, and ship-to-shore, and includes inland lift capability. The cargo UAS is a key component of offloading manned and unmanned vessels such as the ARV and of delivering supplies closer to the point of need. It will provide casualty evacuation capability, bypassing lodgment operations on beaches in a contested environment.
In our advanced power portfolio, the CL CFT is teaming with academia and industry to present science and technology (S&T) opportunities to tackle future power solutions for the Army. Solutions in this area include more efficient hybrid-electric power for vehicles and generators, new battery technology, and harnessing technology that improves energy consumption of electronic systems and transferability through modular designs.
Finally, in our demand reduction portfolio, we are teaming with academia and industry to present S&T opportunities to drive the Army to operate more leanly in austere environments. We are prioritizing water production at the point of need in the near term.
Partnering
The CL CFT’s success depends not only on its internal capabilities but also on the collaboration with external partners, particularly in academia and industry. The team is actively seeking expertise and innovation from these sectors to further its mission. The CL CFT invites academia and industry to collaborate on driving innovation and enhancing operational effectiveness. Together, these partnerships can shape the future of military operations, ensuring that the team remains agile, responsive, and at the forefront of technological advancements. Is your team ready to assist with the CFT’s mission?
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Amy Jones serves as the strategic communications lead of the Army Futures Command Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and marketing from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
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This article was published in the spring 2025 issue of Army Sustainment.
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