Army news service : SDDC becomes a major subordinate command to AMC

Defense AT&L, May-June, 2007 by Mitch Chandran

The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) is officially a major subordinate command to U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC), headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va.

The Army designated its three large four-star commands--Forces Command, Training and Doctrine Command, and Army Materiel Command--as "Army Commands." This reorganization also eliminated the term "Major Army Command" or "MACOM" and moved several of the former MACOMs that used to report directly to Department of the Army underneath these three large Army commands.

SDDC had been a MACOM reporting to Department of the Army. At the same time, SDDC was, and still is, the Army Service Component Command to U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM)--a joint combatant command--and along with the Air Force's Air Mobility Command and the Navy's Military Sealift Command, provides USTRANSCOM with air, sea, and surface capability to move DoD assets worldwide.

Under the new Army reorganization, instead of reporting directly to Department of the Army as a MACOM, SDDC will fall under Army Materiel Command as one of their major subordinate commands for administrative purposes. Operationally, SDDC continues to work for USTRANSCOM, coordinating all surface movement of Department of Defense assets including the operation of 24 worldwide seaports.

"It's important to note our service to the warfighters will not change under this change in command relationship," said Col. Timothy McNulty, chief of staff for SDDC. "The change in command relationship will be transparent to the folks we support daily and to our workforce as well."

Some advantages are that AMC provides SDDC with four-star-level Army support in all aspects of the command's administrative requirements, and the synergies between SDDC and AMC's other major subordinate commands are invaluable.

"This is a very positive relationship," said Col. Scott Kilgore, Judge Advocate General for SDDC, "We now have more clout than in the past [Army four-star oversight], and the AMC staff was very accommodating to us as we went through the reorganization process."

"We look forward to being a member of the AMC team, to leverage all AMC brings to the fight; and with SDDC joining the team, we are moving towards an Army command that is the logistician for this Army," McNulty said.

In a memorandum of agreement between Army Gen. Benjamin Griffin, AMC commander, and Air Force Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, USTRANSCOM commander, SDDC will continue to be responsible for all end-to-end surface deployment and distribution as an Army Service Component Command under the combatant command of USTRANSCOM.

The agreement identified 179 regulatory authorities SDDC possessed in which SDDC will relinquish 34 (19 percent) to AMC.

According to AMC officials, major advantages of aligning SDDC to AMC support the following emerging capabilities:

* Single Army integrator of logistics with joint and strategic partners

* Coordination of the end-to-end distribution pipeline from a national sustainment base to deployed theater support commands

* Providing command and control training readiness oversight of assigned forces

* Assisting Forces Command generation and rapid projection of trained and ready forces from Continental United States-based to Regional Combatant Commander and reset of forces upon return to home station.

"The relationships we have established with our ocean-going, rail, and highway commercial partners are just as important now as they were before the reorganization," McNulty said, "And we will continue to maintain and even improve upon these relationships."

The U.S. Army Materiel Command is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness--technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, and sustainment--to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, or eats it, AMC provides it.

For more information about SDDC, visit <www.sddc.army.mil>. For more information about AMC, visit <www.amc.army.mil>.

Chandran is with the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, a major subordinate command to U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC), headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va.