Purpose
The Indo-Pacific region represents a uniquely complex operational environment for the Army, particularly in the context of large-scale combat operations (LSCO) against peer adversaries. As sustainment becomes increasingly contested, through cyber, kinetic, and electronic threats, artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a critical enabler of resilient, adaptive, and sustainable operations. This paper examines how AI-driven sustainment can transform logistics operations in the Indo-Pacific, aligning with the Army’s multi-domain operations (MDO) doctrine and ensuring combat effectiveness in a highly contested theater.
Introduction
The strategic shift toward LSCO in the Indo-Pacific reflects growing concerns over China’s military modernization, anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities, and regional assertiveness. The Army must prepare to operate across vast distances, with limited infrastructure and hostile domains. In this context, logistics is not merely a support function; it is a decisive factor in operational success. Traditional logistics models, reliant on centralized hubs and predictable supply chains, are vulnerable to disruption. AI-driven sustainment offers a paradigm shift, enabling logistics operations tailored to the Indo-Pacific, where traditional pathways may be degraded or denied.
Geographic Complexity
The Indo-Pacific spans over 100 million square kilometers, 65% of the world’s oceans, and includes more than half of the global population. The sheer distances involved, spanning over 6,000 miles from the U.S. West Coast to Guam or Japan, create long transit times and logistical strain. Many of the Indo-Pacific’s key maritime access points are situated in densely populated coastal areas, making them susceptible to disruption through both physical and digital means.
In the event of hostilities with near-peer competitors such as China, military planners must anticipate the loss or degradation of conventional port infrastructure. As a result, the use of expeditionary logistics methods such as joint logistics over-the-shore (JLOTS) and the development of flexible, redundant supply routes will be critical to sustaining operations in a contested environment.
Adversary Threats
China’s integrated A2/AD strategy includes long-range precision fires targeting logistics nodes, cyber capabilities aimed at disrupting supply chain networks, naval and air interdiction of resupply routes, and electronic warfare to degrade GPS and communications. These threats make logistics a primary target in LSCO, demanding a shift in contested logistics planning.
Contested Logistics Challenges and Vulnerabilities
Adversaries can exploit vulnerabilities in logistics networks through malware attacks on sustainment databases, GPS spoofing to misdirect convoys, and jamming of communications between supply units.
Ports, airfields, and supply depots are high-value targets. Precision missile strikes can cripple logistics operations. The reliance on sea and air transport in the Indo-Pacific makes logistics vulnerable to interdiction. Naval blockades, submarine threats, and air superiority challenges can affect critical supply lines.
AI-Driven Sustainment Capabilities and Applications
AI algorithms analyze operational data to forecast demand for fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, and spare parts. This enables just-in-time delivery, reduced stockpiling and waste, and enhanced responsiveness to battlefield conditions. For example, AI models simulate consumption rates during amphibious operations, allowing planners to pre-position supplies with precision.
AI technologies are reshaping how military logistics are executed by enabling precise, demand-driven distribution resources to operational units, thereby improving efficiency and battlefield readiness.
AI enables unmanned aerial and ground vehicles to conduct resupply missions in contested areas. These platforms help reduce human risk, operate in denied environments, and support distributed operations. Emerging systems like autonomous cargo drones are being tested for last-mile delivery in Pacific Island chains.
AI tools integrate real-time threat intelligence, terrain data, and weather forecasts to optimize delivery routes. This capability avoids ambushes and missile zones, enhances the survivability of logistics convoys, and supports agile maneuver forces.
Generative AI tools such as Thunderforge and Stormbreaker assist planners by simulating multiple courses of action, modeling sustainment under contested conditions and recommending optimal logistics configurations. AI tools help enhance logistics capacity through gathering and analyzing extensive data from various sources, including satellites, sensors, and other intelligence platforms. AI tools can also access systems of records data from various Army source systems. These tools can revolutionize the Army’s logistics future by reducing planning cycles, providing real-time information, advanced decision-support tools, and improving decision making under uncertainty.
AI-driven sustainment aligns with the Army’s MDO framework by enabling speed and precision in logistics execution, supporting distributed operations across joint and coalition forces, and enhancing interoperability through shared data platforms and predictive analytics. AI also facilitates convergence and the integration of effects across domains by ensuring that logistics support synchronized fires, maneuvers, and information operations.
Contested Logistics and Port Vulnerability
In the Indo-Pacific, contested logistics is not a theoretical concern — it is a strategic reality. As ADM Samuel Paparo said in his keynote address at the 2025 Land Forces Pacific Symposium, “effective sustainment isn’t just important, its existential.” The region’s reliance on maritime access and limited port infrastructure heightens the risk. AI can mitigate these vulnerabilities.
AI tools can monitor port conditions, predict degradation, and reroute shipments dynamically. When ports are unavailable, AI can coordinate over-the-shore logistics, optimizing beach landing schedules, vessel movements, and supply prioritization. AI systems can detect and respond to cyber threats targeting logistics command and control, preserving operational continuity.
Operational Integration and Future Outlook
To fully leverage AI in contested logistics, the Army must integrate these technologies into joint planning, training, and execution. This includes the following:
- Embedding AI tools within theater sustainment commands.
- Training logisticians in data-driven decision making.
- Collaborating with allies to share predictive models and logistics intelligence.
As Ronald Ti emphasizes in his article “Sustaining an Indo-Pacific Fight: The Contested Logistics Triad,” web-published by the Modern War Institute at West Point, the importance of designing logistics strategies reflects the realities of operating in the Indo-Pacific, where joint force integration, densely populated coastal regions, and compromised infrastructure are not exceptions but expected conditions.
Recommendations
To fully leverage AI in contested logistics, the Army must do the following:
- Accelerate AI adoption in sustainment planning, training, and execution.
- Invest in autonomous platforms for delivery and maintenance in denied environments.
- Develop resilient data architectures to protect logistics networks from cyber threats.
- Conduct joint exercises in the Indo-Pacific to validate AI-driven logistics under realistic conditions.
- Expand partnerships with industry and academia to innovate AI applications in military logistics.
Conclusion
In the Indo-Pacific, logistics will be contested across every domain. The Army must evolve beyond legacy sustainment models and embrace AI as a force multiplier. AI-driven sustainment is not a luxury — it is a necessity for LSCO in the Indo-Pacific. By harnessing predictive logistics, precision delivery, and autonomous systems, the Army can overcome contested environments and port vulnerabilities. Preparing for future conflict means embracing innovation today. As LSCO becomes increasingly likely in this theater, the ability to sustain combat power through intelligent, resilient logistics will determine operational success. The future of warfare demands not just smarter weapons but smarter sustainment.
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CPT Lydia Aguirre currently serves as the headquarters and headquarters company commander for an assault helicopter battalion, where she leads command and control operations while continuing to advance sustainment capabilities across aviation and logistical domains. She previously served as the division transportation officer, overseeing deployment and redeployment operations across six combatant commands. She has held a variety of leadership roles, including executive administrative assistant to the deputy commanding general-operations, executive officer, platoon leader, and assistant support operations mobility officer. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Saint Martin’s University, where she earned Distinguished Honor Graduate recognition in two honor societies.
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This article was published with the winter 2026 issue of Army Sustainment.
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