The Logistician’s Dilemma
Logisticians are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of manual data collection and aggregation, leaving them with minimal time to analyze and anticipate future requirements. This dilemma is compounded by manual, analog, or obsolete processes that compromise the accuracy and timeliness of logistics data. As a result, logisticians spend much of their time and effort working to understand the sustainment situation, leaving them with limited time to develop solutions to complex problems. To address this problem, leaders, logisticians, and data engineers within the XVIII Airborne Corps are currently using artillery ammunition as a starting point to develop new experimental solutions.
The XVIII Airborne Corps Approach
Scarlet Dragon (SD) is a recurring exercise founded by the XVIII Airborne Corps that focuses on data-centric warfare, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies to enhance target identification and engagement. As part of this exercise, Corps staff are challenged to approach warfighting functions in new and innovative ways. Adopting this mindset, the G-4 (logistics) planners at the XVIII Airborne Corps started addressing the logistician’s dilemma on a specific focal area: fires. The ability to effectively employ fires is directly tied to the availability of ammunition, and without a clear, real-time understanding of what has been expended, logisticians cannot accurately forecast future needs.
In previous XVIII Airborne Corps training and exercises, a recurring challenge emerged: establishing and maintaining situational awareness of magazine depth, i.e., the quantity and availability of ammunition reserves (Class V). This is critical to the Corps’ targeting decision cycle in large-scale combat operations (LSCO). Tracking magazine depth, however, requires the Corps G-4 to constantly communicate with subordinate units and manually aggregate information just in time for the target working group and target decision board. This cumbersome experience was significant for the planners and drove nearly a year of experimentation to find a better way to tackle the problem.
The Search for a Solution
In the spring of 2025, the Corps G-4 planning team identified a potential data source in the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS). As an automated command and control system, AFATDS manages all aspects of fire support, from planning and coordination to the technical control of firing elements. The system’s primary function is to minimize the sensor-to-shooter timeline by providing a fully automated process for executing fire missions.
By leveraging AFATDS’s ability to log expenditures from each fire mission, the Corps G-4 planners found an opportunity for an aggregated, near-real-time visualization of ammunition consumption. If this process is executed correctly, this capability allows the Corps to capture and track all ammunition fired from batteries at any echelon. Once integrated into Maven Smart Systems (MSS), which is the primary mission command system of XVIII Airborne Corps, a more accurate and updated Class V data point can be achieved.
This approach is novel because it repurposes a fires system to directly inform logistics. Traditionally, logistics and fires systems operate in separate silos, requiring manual data handoffs that create delays and inaccuracies. By linking AFATDS to sustainment visualization tools, the XVIII Airborne Corps G-4 has created efficiencies with establishing situational awareness of magazine depth where, as combat forces fire ammunition, sustainers can see the rate of consumption and the remaining quantities in near-real-time. This insight enables logisticians to proactively anticipate future needs, plan resupply missions, and position assets to prevent shortages.
Leveraging Past Innovations
Previous G-4 innovation efforts focused on building a Class V visualization tool to plot on-hand ammunition quantities against forecasted consumption and resupply. Based on foundational training from the Corps’ Office of Data Transformation, G-4 planners developed this tool as a user-created Workshop within the Foundry application in MSS. Foundry allows users to build custom low-code or no-code applications and then build data pipelines to transform that data for the performance of tasks. In this case, a Class V visualization tool was created in Foundry and tested in SD 25-2, from May 5 to 9, 2025. After collaborating with Palantir data engineers, a link was briefly established between AFATDS and the Class V visualization tool. However, this connection proved to be unstable; the AFATDS terminal’s dynamic Internet Protocol (IP) required Palantir data engineers to constantly reconfigure and troubleshoot the connection to maintain it.
The IP connection issue highlighted a key technical challenge that had to be overcome for the next iteration of the exercise. During SD 25-3 (August 11 to 15, 2025), the Corps G-4 again partnered with Palantir representatives to create data links from AFATDS to further refine the Class V visualization tool within MSS. This approach was also adopted by two industry partners, Govini and Rune Technologies. In this iteration, a successful connection was created and maintained for the duration of the exercise for all three experimental sustainment mission command systems, MSS by Palantir, Ark by Govini, and TyrOS by Rune Technologies. A major success was that TyrOS generated resupply courses of action based on the expenditure data being captured from AFATDS.
Shortfalls
Despite the success of the experiment, several inherent shortfalls in the methodology must be acknowledged. The most significant challenge stems from AFATDS itself, a piece of legacy software that is over 30 years old. This likely contributed to the IP connectivity issues experienced between AFATDS, MSS, and the experimental systems during the last two SD iterations. While the future development of the new AFATDS Artillery Execution Suite may mitigate these problems, its connectivity remains untested. Additionally, the AFATDS relies on a human in the loop to manually input round type and quantity at the gun. This reliance on manual input remains a potential point of failure and is a key limitation of the live data that can be captured, necessitating the continued use of traditional logistics status reports to verify on-hand quantities of Class V.
Another key shortfall lies in the methodology used for forecasting. Our current approach for forecasting consumption, based on the controlled supply rate (CSR), is flawed because it assumes units will fire their entire CSR every day, regardless of operational tempo. Similarly, our replenishment forecast is based on the flawed assumption that all planned resupply missions will be successful, which is unlikely in LSCO. Ultimately, this static forecasting method cannot adapt to the dynamic and unpredictable nature of combat, where a sudden surge in activity could instantly render it inaccurate.
Future Direction
While the methodology used has inherent shortfalls, it was a necessary first step that provided a clear and actionable roadmap for future SD iterations. For instance, the difficulty of connecting a single AFATDS terminal during the initial experiment highlighted the critical need to connect multiple AFATDS systems from different echelons. In a LSCO environment, this is essential for a Corps-level command to prioritize engagements with its finite strategic munitions. Attempting these connections will likely present difficulties similar to those seen in the first experiment, but the lessons learned will be invaluable for future integration and a necessary capability for the Corps.
For expenditure forecasting, the Corps G-4 is looking to integrate weaponeering tables, used to determine what is required to engage a target successfully, directly into the XVIII Airborne Corps targeting process. The Corps manages its targeting lifecycle through the Target Workbench application within MSS, which serves as a centralized platform for target management from identification to execution. By integrating weaponeering tables directly into the Target Workbench, both fires and sustainment planners can have a better understanding of the projected munitions required for a target. This functionality would provide a clear and immediate forecast of expenditures, much like an online shopper seeing the cost of an item before purchase. Ultimately, this integration would create an opportunity to feed projected fires data from the Target Workbench into a visualization for expenditures, enabling proactive logistics planning.
Conclusion
By aggregating near-real-time consumption data across the Corps, logisticians can achieve a more comprehensive picture of sustainment needs. This data aggregation would allow planners to predict the massing and convergence of fires and pre-position resources accordingly. Furthermore, this is a significant step toward aligning AI with the analysis and predictive functions that can hasten the decision-making cycle and enable success in LSCO. By continuing to develop these interconnected mission command tools, the Army can move closer to a future where logistics is no longer a reactive process but a proactive force. This data-centric approach represents a crucial step toward a proactive logistics enterprise, ultimately paving the way for a future where a battery’s ammunition expenditure could automatically trigger a new production requirement at a factory.
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MAJ Michael Brent Payne currently serves with the XVIII Airborne Corps Assistant Chief of Staff G-4 as a logistics planner and operations officer. He previously served as the 11th Quartermaster Company commander, 173rd Brigade Support Battalion support operations (SPO) officer/executive officer, and as the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command SPO officer defense industrial base chief. He commissioned as an Ordnance officer and completed Jumpmaster School and the Aerial Delivery and Materiel Officer Course. He has a Master of Science degree in management from the University of Maryland Global Campus and is currently working on a master’s degree in cyber operations and resiliency from Boise State University.
MAJ Hansen Tan is a Canadian Army exchange officer currently serving with the XVIII Airborne Corps Assistant Chief of Staff G-4 as the supply and services deputy and a logistics planner. He has previously served as the 2nd Service Battalion transportation officer, the Canadian Forces Base Kingston rations and quarters support services officer, the Joint Task Force X adjutant, and the Canadian Joint Operations Command J-4 Middle East and Africa planner. He has completed courses within the Royal Canadian Logistics Service, including Transport, Supply, Food Service, and Quartermaster. He has also completed the Combat Service Support Convoy Commander Course and the Canadian Basic Parachutist Course. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in military psychology and leadership from the Royal Military College of Canada.
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This article was published with the winter 2026 issue of Army Sustainment.
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