The demands of large-scale combat operations are clear: our warfighters at the tactical edge require consistent, reliable, and timely support to maintain a decisive advantage. The pace of the world requires continuous transformation. Speed changes the character of warfare. Sustaining combat readiness in theater means delivering the right capabilities at the right time to maximize freedom of action, operational reach, and prolonged endurance for the joint force commander.
With increasingly constrained resources, contested networks, and an accelerated operational tempo, successful sustainment demands a greater reliance on automation and data-driven insights. To meet this challenge, Army sustainment must transform into a data-centric enterprise, leveraging advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, or A3I, to streamline processes, maximize resources, and implement new tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Information is no longer just a support function. It is central to everything we do. Using data to build and sustain combat readiness starts at home with streamlining and improving property accountability. We are aiming beyond incremental improvements to fundamentally change how we account for and manage equipment, and two new applications are helping us achieve that goal. The Soldier Equipment and Asset Management (SEAM) system automates the removal of obsolete organizational clothing and individual equipment from a Soldier’s record. SEAM introduces automated inventory tracking and record management and relieves Soldiers from carrying, managing, and moving with excessive, outdated gear. Meanwhile, U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) directed the design of the ParaLine app to improve the accuracy of our property records, integrate with existing Army systems, and most importantly, cut in half the time it takes our Soldiers to inventory equipment. ParaLine is already freeing up Soldiers’ time, ensuring units have the gear they need without unnecessary administrative delays.
Complementing this effort is the establishment of select equipment redistribution and divestiture sites, which provide immediate property accountability relief for units undergoing force structure redesign as a result of Transformation in Contact learning demands. These sites allow for rapid processing and redistribution of equipment from the unit to the enterprise.
Another game-changing platform developed by our own sustainment community is Weapons System 360. The system provides a real-time, end-to-end view of the Army’s supply chain, allowing us to proactively identify and address bottlenecks before they become a problem for our units. We can now identify bottlenecks down to the part and supplier level. Weapons System 360 allows leaders at echelon unprecedented visibility of the global supply chain to help them make data-informed decisions that strengthen our sustainment capability.
We are also reimagining how sustainers drive operational readiness. The Operational Readiness Program (ORP) is a pilot program that proactively embeds maintenance teams from the organic industrial base directly with tactical units preparing for deployment. They provide onsite expertise, facilitate targeted fleet vehicle exchange, and teach skills to keep equipment running reliably, empowering our Soldiers to attain and sustain operational readiness throughout their deployment cycle. AMC works with the units to prioritize and select ORP equipment candidates using data integration and analytic tools. By leveraging the power of AI and machine learning, we support corps sustainers as they balance priorities and resources across their formation in preparation for demanding exercises like those at the National Training Center. This also allows us to proactively prepare the supply chain and ensure our forces are prepared to deploy, fight, and win anytime, anywhere.
Underpinning initiatives like SEAM, ParaLine, Weapons System 360, and ORP is a commitment to data-driven decision making, powered by A3I. Sustainers at all levels are proactively and organically developing end-to-end supply chain integration tools to provide units with the actionable information needed to make informed readiness decisions.
These efforts are reshaping the Army sustainment enterprise’s commitment to building and sustaining combat readiness. By aggressively leveraging existing data, streamlining processes, and empowering Soldiers with intuitive tools, we ensure our ability to sustain our troops in a contested global environment at the speed of war.
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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. 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 fall 2025 issue of Army Sustainment.
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