Joint logistics—shaping our future: a personal perspective: the Department of Defense's senior logistician offers some thoughts on the collaborative network of relationships and the operational imperatives needed to make joint logistics as effective as possible

Army Logistician, July-August, 2006 by C.V. Christianson

The logistics capacity of the U.S. military today is unmatched. Our Nation s ability to project military power gives the joint warfighter unprecedented capabilities. However, a constantly changing operating environment and resource constraints demand that we optimize joint logistics to enhance our capabilities for tomorrow. We have the opportunity to significantly advance our systems, processes, and organizations in order to improve support to tomorrow's joint force commander (JFC), and we must seize that opportunity.

My purpose in writing this is to generate thought and frame discussion. This article represents my view of joint logistics and today's environment, and it frames three essential "imperatives" and key strategic relationships around which we can build collaborative change. I offer these thoughts as a catalyst for the development of concepts and solutions that will make joint logistics as effective as possible.

Joint Logistics

The necessity of joint logistics is widely accepted throughout the Department of Defense logistics community, and no one I know of would disagree that the effective delivery of logistics support is essential to the JFC, our ultimate customer. However, I believe that our current logistics systems include many inefficiencies, unnecessary redundancies, and process gaps that increase both risks and costs. Achieving harmony among military service-and Defense agency-funded missions, systems, processes, and programs will correct today's inefficiencies, but doing so poses a significant challenge. That challenge can be overcome with a common agreement on, and understanding of, the purpose of joint logistics. That understanding, in turn, requires answers to the fundamental questions, "What is joint logistics?" "Why do we need it?" and "What does it deliver?"

Joint logistics is the deliberate or improvised sharing of service logistics resources to enhance synergy and reduce both redundancies and costs. We need joint logistics because the services (especially during initial expeditionary activity) seldom have sufficient capability to independently support the JFC. By sharing, we can make the best use of limited resources to provide maximum capability to the supported commander.

The overall purpose of joint logistics is to achieve logistics synergy--getting more out of our combined resources than we can individually. The supported JFC expects joint logistics to give him freedom of action, so he is able to execute his mission effectively and according to his timetable. Sustained operational readiness gives the JFC the freedom of action he needs to respond effectively to operational objectives. Sustained operational readiness is the result of the cumulative efforts of service, Defense agency, and other logistics players across the entire joint logistics environment.

Joint Logistics Environment

The joint logistics environment is characterized by the Global War on Terrorism, other threats to our security, frequent and diverse commitments around the world, and complex interagency and multinational operations. Future operations are likely to be distributed and conducted rapidly and simultaneously across multiple joint operational areas within a single theater or across the boundaries of more than one geographic combatant command. The requirement to integrate sustainment and force-projection operations in a complex operating environment presents the greatest joint logistics challenge. This environment spans the strategic, operational, and tactical levels and provides the context in which we must deliver the capability, or "effect," expected by the JFC.

Freedom of action is the overall effect the JFC must have, and that freedom is delivered at the tactical level. We should measure success at the tactical level, and our performance metric should be the amount of joint operational readiness available to the JFC. However, sustained joint operational readiness depends on the efficiency and effectiveness of logistics processes, programs, systems, and organizations that are outside of the tactical level. The effective integration of all logistics capabilities is directly reflected at the tactical level, but there is a high tactical price to pay for inefficiencies at the strategic or operational levels.

Our Nation's ability to project and sustain military power comes from the strategic level. The national sustainment system enables sustained military operations over time and leverages our most potent force multiplier--the vast capacity of our industrial base. At this level, modern, clearly defined, well-understood, and outcome-focused processes drive efficiencies across service, Defense agency, and commercial capabilities. Robust and efficient global processes, combined with agile global force positioning, are fundamental to joint logistics reform and to our Nation's ability to maintain global flexibility in the face of constantly changing threats.

The operational level is where the JFC synchronizes and integrates his joint operational requirements with the national system. It is there that joint logistics must excel and where the ability to fully integrate logistics capabilities provides our greatest opportunities. The operational level is where the joint logistician must bridge service, coalition, agency, and other organizational elements and capabilities, linking national and tactical systems, processes, and organizations to achieve the freedom of action that the JFC expects. The essence of joint logistics is found at the operational level, and it is at the operational level that the joint logistics community should focus its efforts.