The Army sustainment community, particularly the ammunition community, has long struggled with outdated hardware, systems, and manual processes, restricting their ability to efficiently track requests, view available assets, and manage stockpiles. Users are challenged with cumbersome workflows, multiple system logins, and tedious manual reporting, while frequently facing last-minute requests for critical items. In today’s digital age, where seamless transactions and instant information access are the norm, the Army has significant opportunities to enhance the sustainment community’s ability to see and create operational readiness and lethality through advanced technology and modern processes.
Imagine being able to order supplies, manage ammunition, and complete transactions with the same ease and speed as ordering a food delivery or paying bills on your phone. The Army is working to deliver that level of operational readiness with the Enterprise Business System-Convergence (EBS-C) program. EBS-C is a modern, agile, cloud-based solution designed to deploy sustainment capabilities quickly, reduce costs and risks, and provide easy access to users at all levels. It will converge five of the Army’s current logistics and finance systems into one platform with the opportunity to replace dozens more. By leveraging a commercial-as-possible, military-as-necessary approach, EBS-C will use commercial industry software with simplified and standardized business processes to update the Army’s logistics and financial operations. An open-architecture design means the EBS-C solution will evolve and grow with the Army’s changing needs while keeping up with technological advancements, ensuring that the system remains relevant and effective for Soldiers and users from factory to foxhole.
What Can Ammunition Operators Expect to Gain from EBS-C?
Bottom line: EBS-C will allow sustainment operators to see a true, real-time picture of supplies, ammunition, parts, and equipment from one platform. It will provide end-to-end visibility of those assets, from the tactical level to the national level, ensuring that every supply decision aligns with the bigger picture. This visibility will empower commanders, civilians, and Soldiers to allocate supplies more effectively and to respond more quickly to emerging needs. Additionally, as a cloud-based solution, EBS-C will resolve accessibility and connectivity issues that the sustainment community currently faces, while having a centralized data repository that enhances collaboration from units to ammunition supply points and offers advanced analytics to support data-driven decision making.
EBS-C will provide ammunition operators at more than 80 supply points with one system for all ammunition management, whether it is for training or deployments, tanks or rifles. It will also improve data accuracy, provide unmatched visibility into ammunition activities’ more than $60 billion worth of Class V munitions at all levels, automate workflows, and simplify access and requests. For example, suppose an ammunition stock control civilian at Fort Campbell issues a can of 5.56 mm rounds to a Soldier on post for training. Currently, the paper process requires them to print the Standard Army Ammunition System (SAAS) file and give it to a munitions handler, who then goes to the building where the can is located and pulls it off the shelf. They take the can to the issue warehouse, where it is given to the Soldier and all the paperwork is signed. The munitions handler returns to the ammunition stock control civilian with the signed paperwork, which must then be manually entered into SAAS to complete the transaction. EBS-C will automate this workflow using tablets, software, and a standard process to follow the can of 5.56 mm rounds from issue to receipt.
When Will Operators Be Hands On?
This year the Army will launch its first capability release to two pilot sites, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Camp Shelby, Mississippi, tackling the challenge of managing ammunition through manual processes. This release will focus on improving the management, storage, and transportation of Class V ammunition worldwide via ammunition supply activity management and Army organic transportation. From there, EBS-C will continue to deliver small and frequent capabilities, eventually scaling to nearly 200,000 users and providing an integrated logistics and financial solution for all classes of supply.
It is important to focus not only on when operators will use EBS-C but also on how they are involved in its development. This solution is not being created in the isolation of the Pentagon by engineers, architects, and non-sustainers. The EBS-C team collaborates closely with the sustainment community to co-create the system. Through interviews, user experience surveys, user videos, and virtual sessions observing users at work, the team gained first-hand insight into how sustainers perform their jobs and the challenges they face. Additionally, with two chief warrant officers on staff, the EBS-C team has direct access to Soldier expertise and experience, enabling them to quickly pull in Soldiers at all levels to ask questions and ensure the solution meets user needs.
EBS-C is more than just a system upgrade — it is a mission-critical Army transformation effort aimed at streamlining and improving the continuous flow of supplies, ammunition, and equipment to support large-scale combat operations and multidomain operations. Through both technology and improved back-end workflows and processes, EBS-C will provide sustainment Soldiers and civilians with a modernized platform that strengthens operational readiness and lethality, improves sustainment operations, and saves their most valuable commodity: time.
The platform will also empower users to work with greater efficiency, accuracy, and speed while enabling leaders to make swift, informed decisions to ensure Soldiers have the resources they need anytime, anywhere. By sharing insights on current challenges and opportunities for improvement, the ammunition community plays a critical role in shaping a solution that meets their needs, equipping the Army of 2030 to outpace adversaries and meet the demands of the modern battlefield through EBS-C.
In all, EBS-C is transforming the way the Army sustainment community sees and creates operational readiness and lethality with unprecedented clarity, while continuously adding and modernizing its features to get equipment and supplies to Soldiers where and when they need them, more rapidly than ever before, and with the most accurate and analytical data the Army has ever seen.
For more information about EBS-C and to learn how you can get involved, visit:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/75494523/admin/dashboard/
Web: https://www.eis.army.mil/programs/ebs-c
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Nikki Cabezas serves as the acting director of the Enterprise Business Systems-Convergence Multi-Functional Capabilities Team, a cross-functional team
chartered by the Undersecretary of the Army. She also serves as the director of Financial Information Management, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management and Comptroller) (ASA[FM&C]). She was a project manager on the DoD Information Technology and Business Systems Reform Team. She is a certified Scrum product owner and knowledge manager. She graduated from the College of William & Mary with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting.
CW2 Chris Cummins serves as the ammunition warrant officer for 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg. He also serves as the U.S. Army Forces Command appointment subject matter expert for Enterprise Business Systems-Convergence. Before switching to the Army, he was the U.S. Air Force combat air forces munitions automation manager. He completed the Warrant Officer Advanced Course. He also maintains Information Assurance Technical Level 2 and Information Assurance Management Level 1 certifications. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in information technology from American Public University.
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This article was published in the spring 2025 issue of Army Sustainment.
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