Mlf 7 10 wwcombfinal

Reverse Auctions O Defense Transportation O Afghanistan RetrogradeILS O Supply Chain Efficiencies O DMSMS O Senior Logisticians

The Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community

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Vice Adm. William A. “Andy” Brown Deputy CommanderU.S. Transportation Command

Special pull-out SupplementUSTRANSCOM

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November/December 2013Volume 7, Issue 10

Exclusive Interview with:

GAil JORGeNSONAcquisition Director USTRANSCOM

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Logistics

t r a i n i n g s u p p o r t i l s p a r t sIf you can’t move it, you can’t use it. That’s why customers worldwide rely on the award-winning team of logisticians at AM General to deliver critical parts and services, affordably and on time around the world. With more than 50 years of experience in shipping tens of millions of parts around the globe for the more than 1.5 million vehicles we have produced, AM General is the proven logistics solution for mission readiness and success.

Cover / Q&AFeatures

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Vice AdmirAl WilliAm A. “Andy” BroWn

Deputy commanderu.S. transportation command

19

November/December 2013Volume 7, Issue 10

Departments Industry Interview2 editor’s PersPectiVe4 log oPs/PeoPle16 suPPly chAin31 resource center

colonel John BryAnt (ret.)Senior Vice president of Defense programsoshkosh Defense

MILITARY LOGISTICS FORUM

32

“Today, the USTRANSCOM

team is committed to preserving

readiness; achieving

information technology

management excellence;

aligning resources and

processes for mission

success; and developing customer-focused

professionals.”

—Vice Admiral William A.

“Andy” Brown

5cuts too deeP?Military Logistics Forum asked senior logisticians, “is there a concern that as reduction and trimmings are made, the logistics community will bear an uneven amount of the burden? is logistics too easy to cut and how do you make the case that strong logistics is vital to the bottom line?”

8suPPly chAin efficienciesHow talking with and listening to industry can be a driver of lower costs and increased supply chain efficiency.By Peter BuxBaum

10integrAted logistics suPPortthe core aim of integrated logistics support—more reliable assets supported at more affordable costs—is more essential than ever under today’s tight defense budgets.By Henry Canaday

27the future of defense trAnsPortAtionlearning from the lessons of past experiences and thinking big for maximum results from defense transportation systems.By Lieutenant GeneraL KennetH r. WyKLe, uSa (ret.)

28success comes in reVerseunlike a typical auction where bidders seek to win with a high bid, in a reverse auction vendors lower their prices as they compete to win a contract.By amanda neumann

29AfghAnistAn retrogrAdethe 1st tSc’s mission is to synchronize the movement and responsible drawdown out of afghanistan, provide command and control for logistics units in theater, provide sustainment support to forces, and assist with base closure and transfer.By StePHenie tatum

USTRANSCOMSpeCIAl pUll-OUT SUppleMeNT

gAil Jorgenson acquisition Director uStRanScom

recent contrAct ActiVity

1

7

25mArAthon Vs. 50-yArd dAsh— the dmsms dilemmAWith new technology emerging at lightning speed, how do we proactively prolong the life of aging equipment while freeing up resources to develop new systems?By SCott d. roySe

13Amcom initiAtiVesMilitary Logistics Forum speaks with major General tim crosby, program executive officer, peo aviation, and major General lynn collyar, commander, army aviation and missile life cycle management command, about their major initiatives for 2014.

The airline business—at least since deregulation—has been a challenging one. With high capital expenses and operating costs, profit margins are almost always slim. U.S. Transportation Command has long had close partnerships with a number of carriers supplementing military passenger and cargo needs. However, those needs are not quite what they used to be, and the number of flight require-ments is down significantly.

Recently, Global Aviation—parent company of World Airways and North tin two years. Citing a “continued worldwide downturn in commercial freight markets coupled with the military’s decision to immediately curtail its cargo expansion flying” drove the company to go back to the court system for relief. Just coming out of Chapter 11 earlier in 2013, the past few years have demonstrated the competition for DoD contracts as a growing number of carriers look to supplement their revenue base with government contracts.

As Military Logistics Forum was being readied for print, it appeared that Evergreen International Airlines, a cargo airline with long connections to the U.S. military, was laying off employees and planning to shutter its doors at the end of November. A statement issued by the company’s chief executive officer said, “Evergreen’s business has been adversely impacted over the past several years by decreased demand in military spending and weakness in global economic markets.” In the same statement he said that rumors of the airline planning to shut down were “at this time false,” although unless a white knight comes to the rescue, a shutdown appeared imminent.

Of the 22 carriers listed as approved Civil Air Reserve Fleet long-haul carriers—both passenger and cargo—for July 2013, one is no longer in business, three are in Chapter 11 and one is expected to close its doors before this magazine reaches your hands. While Chapter 11 is a financial condition and does not necessarily reflect any opera-tional issues, the numbers do highlight the challenges and competitive nature of the government charter business.

There is always somewhat of a push-pull going on between DoD and its organic airlift capability and the non-organic partners it has to supplement lift during times of a surge or when specific conditions make a commercial contract the most cost-effective and viable option. Naturally, interest and participation in CRAF fluctuates with the level of conflict around the world. Just as the services became accustomed to higher budgets over the past decade, so too did the commercial carriers that flew on behalf of DoD. I suspect there will be a few more struggles as airlines find alternates to the government contracts they have been flying for.

Jeffrey D. McKaughaneditor-in-CHieF

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Alan F. Estevez has been assigned as principal deputy undersecretary of defense (acquisition, technology and logistics), Washington, D.C. Estevez previously served as assistant secretary of defense (logistics and materiel readiness), Washington, D.C.

Colonel Sam C. Barrett, who has been selected for the grade of brigadier general, deputy director, operations, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill., has been assigned

as director, Central Command Deployment and Distribution Operations Center, U.S. Central Command, Southwest Asia.

Air Force Brigadier General Stayce D. Harris has been nominated for appointment to the rank of major general. Harris is currently serving as the mobilization assistant to the commander, 18th Air Force, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has named Harry Q. H. Lee II, vice president, corporate contracts, pricing and supply chain, reporting to James F. Palmer, corporate vice president and chief financial officer.

Army Colonel Daniel G. Mitchell has been nominated for appointment

to the rank of brigadier general. Mitchell is currently serving as deputy commander, U.S. Army Sustainment Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Ill.

Rear Admiral Mark J. Belton will be assigned as deputy commander, Naval Supply Systems Command, Mechanicsburg, Pa. Belton previously served as commander, Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, Williamsburg, Va.

Rear Admiral (lower half) Valerie K. Huegel will be assigned as commander, Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, Williamsburg, Va. Huegel previously served as deputy commander, Global Logistics Support Command, San Diego, Calif.

Rear Admiral (lower half) James R. McNeal will be assigned as deputy commander, Global Logistics Support Command, San Diego. McNeal previously served as commodore, Fifth Naval Expeditionary Logistics Regiment, Point Hueneme, Calif.

Major General Darrell K. Williams, deputy chief of staff, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., has been assigned as commanding general, 1st Sustainment Command (Theater),

Fort Bragg, N.C., and Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

Brigadier General Edward M. Daly, special assistant to the commanding general, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Lee, Va., has been assigned as deputy chief of staff, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

Colonel William E. Cole, who has been selected for the rank of brigadier general, chief of staff, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology), Washington, D.C., has been assigned as deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command/senior commander, Natick Soldier Systems Center, Natick, Mass.

Compiled by Kmi media Group staffPEOPLE

Alan F. estevez Rear Adm. James R. McNeal

Afghanistan Transport Contract

USTRANSCOM has exercised a renewal option with AAR valued at approximately $156 million for airlift support in Afghanistan through October 31, 2014.

The renewal extends AAR’s mission-critical support of the U.S. military under a contract awarded in September 2010. The company will meet the requirements using 10 rotor-wing aircraft from its fleet. The U.S.-based defense contractor transports people, cargo and mail for DoD and NATO opera-tions in Afghanistan.

“We are proud of our role as the largest provider of airlift for the U.S. government and its allies in Afghanistan and to serve as an integral part of our nation’s logistics capability,” said Randy J. Martinez, president and chief executive officer of AAR Airlift Group. “This renewal reflects the excellent work of our pilots and support teams and the confidence they have earned supporting USTRANSCOM and Department of Defense operations.”

Electronic Systems TesterAAI Test & Training, an operating unit

of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, has developed the next generation of its proven joint services electronic combat systems tester (JSECST) end-to-end system.

The JSECST quickly and accurately tests and isolates faults in electronic combat and avionics systems in today’s advanced combat aircraft. The new 670A upgrade kit adds digital radio frequency memory and test capability, as well as extends system compat-ibility to future platforms and applications.

“Designated the AN/USM-670A Electronic Systems Test Set by the U.S. government, the JSECST 670A upgrade resets the life cycle clock on one of the most successful end-to-end military test systems of the modern age,” said AAI Test & Training

Senior Vice President and General Manager Steve Mensh. “With a simple upgrade kit that can be customer-installed in just hours, our JSECST 670A is compatible with legacy, current and future platforms for years to come. It is an affordable and value-added upgrade path.”

AAI Test & Training and the U.S. Air Force will continue to implement the JSECST USM-670A upgrade program over the next several months, with system regression testing scheduled for early 2014.

The JSECST system is utilized for more than a dozen aviation platforms by every branch of the U.S. military, as well as numerous international customers including Canada, Australia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

www.MLF-kmi.com4 | MLF 7.10

The Department of Defense faces unprece-dented budget constraints now and in the coming

years. At the same time, the security challenges we face as a nation con-tinue. Our mission as DoD logisticians, first and fore-most, is to support the warfighter.

As the chief of naval operations stated in the 2014-2018 Navigation Plan, “Regardless of reduc-tions, we (Navy) will con-tinue to operate forward with ready forces, where it

matters, when it matters.” Fiscal challenges in the coming years are a near certainty and DoD logisti-cians cannot leave it to chance that the current Department of Defense logistics networks will con-tinue to effectively support the warfighter as further reductions are made. Diffi-cult decisions about which activities supporting orga-nizations must continue to

perform and which activi-ties they can stop doing will have to be made, but at the same time must only be made after care-ful consideration of the effects on readiness and operational capabilities.

As DoD logisticians, we must instill a culture of judiciousness. Inefficient logistics systems are not only a waste of scarce fiscal resources but also a

potential vulnerability that can lead to operational failure. We must therefore strive to improve decision making to optimize the overall system. It is equally essential we develop solu-tions that increase logis-tics resiliency and supply chain flexibility to maxi-mize the options available to those who most depend upon our services—the warfighter.

No, I am not con-cerned that logistics will

bear an uneven share of the burden. After 12 years of conflict and countless natural disasters, here and abroad, the depart-ment recognizes the importance of logistics.

The Defense Logis-tics Agency’s relief opera-tions in the Northeastern United States after Hur-ricane Sandy attest to the value of our logistics

capability as a national asset. We have a long-standing partnership with FEMA, dating back to post-Katrina, to provide all manners of logistics sup-port during disaster relief operations. From barges and blankets to fuel, cots and trash removal, we did a little bit of everything.

We’ve been through challenging financial

times before. In the 1970s, budget cuts were heavily weighted against logistics capability with-out accompanying reduc-tions in force structure. The result was a poorly equipped and supplied military that was unpre-pared to meet its stra-tegic and tactical goals. The department recog-nizes that mistake and

has made it clear that a smaller, well equipped and trained force is pref-erable to another large but “hollow” force with limited logistical sup-port. I believe the case for maintaining a strong logistics capability has already been made.

Since the beginning of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve been

The Government Accountability Office recently released the results of an audit they performed to see how DoD managed seques-tration in 2013. “In general, DoD’s approach to sequestration was a short-term response to address the immediate spending reductions for fiscal year 2013,” was their one-liner. “As such, the response was not a comprehensive review of potential long-term implications should sequestration occur in subsequent years. DoD officials noted that the department had begun some activities that may inform its decisions in fiscal year 2014 and beyond and may better position it to make more strategic choices should sequestration continue. For example, DoD recently completed the ‘Strategic Choices Manage-ment Review,’ which is intended to help inform DoD’s preparation for alternative funding levels over a 10-year period. DoD has also begun development of the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, which will be a review of U.S. defense strategy, force structure, budget plans and related policies.”

Among a number of areas looked at, depot maintenance and base operating support were two.

Depot Maintenance: “DoD prioritized funding to maintain equipment readiness for ongoing operations. However, reduced funding levels due to sequestration required some of the services to defer depot maintenance that had been planned for fiscal year 2013 until future years.

Base Operating Support: “Service installation commands and other organizations responsible for oversight of base operating support issued guidance that outlined areas where spending reduc-tions could be implemented—such as deferring building sustain-ment, delaying the renewal of contracts and reducing electricity usage—without sacrificing the protection of life, health and safety.

With this in mind, and actually before the GAO report was even released, Military Logistics Forum reached out to several senior logisticians and asked them, “Is there a concern that as reduction and trimmings are made, the logistics community will bear an uneven amount of the burden? Is logistics too easy to cut and how do you make the case that strong logistics is vital to the bottom line?”

VIcE ADMIRAL PHILIP HART cULLOM Deputy chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics

VIcE ADMIRAL MARK HARNITcHEK Director, Defense Logistics Agency

Cuts Too Deep? Ensuring that logisticians havE a voicE.

Special Section: Setting the Table

www.MLF-kmi.com MLF 7.10 | 5

In times of declining resources and shrinking budgets, it has always been tempting to offer up logistics as the finan-cial “trade space” for more immediate and

kinetic elements of com-bat power. But, as we have seen in similar fis-cal cycles in the past, this approach inevitably proves itself operation-ally risky and strategi-cally shortsighted.

Today we are faced with a national security environment in which crises often erupt quickly, accelerate vio-lently, and, if not con-fronted soon enough, overwhelm decisively. Forward presence and

engagement in regions ripe for conflict is the necessary posture, and the U.S. Marine corps, as America’s expedition-ary force in readiness, is charged with this duty. crisis response requires a nimble, lethal and self-sustaining force that functions adeptly across the full range of military operations. These quali-ties are the fundamen-tal characteristics of the Marine corps’ combined arms philosophy that

drives our organization for combat. Our deliber-ate integration of ground combat, aviation combat and logistics combat elements within a single Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) under a single commander is the cornerstone of expe-ditionary operations. Moreover, it is also the way the corps has fought for decades.

We understand, like all service branches, that cuts and reductions

are here and that we must implement them judiciously. But we are also keenly aware that pruning one element of the MAGTF too deeply destroys the synergy generated by all three working together. This synergy is the founda-tion of our expedition-ary combat power; just as we recognize that reducing our aviation or ground combat capabil-ity too far is imprudent, we will apply the same

The Air Force Sus-tainment center, part of Air Force Materiel com-mand, has embarked on a groundbreaking effort to transform our opera-tions from effective to cost effective. AFSc has leveraged best practices while keeping focused on warfighter support to cre-ate “The AFSc Way.” The

AFSc Way is based on a shared leadership model that emphasizes speed (productivity), safety, quality and cost effective-ness in every process, and every work center across the 33,000-per-son enterprise, in order to achieve “art of the possible” results despite declining budgets and fiscal uncertainty. The AFSc Way uses scientific methods based on the theory of constraints, crit-ical path and lean prin-ciples to drive continual process improvement to increase speed (produc-tivity), eliminate waste and remove constraints

in critical processes. It is all about building a high-confidence plan and executing to the plan while understanding and reducing our costs.

As a $16 billion a year enterprise, it is the duty of the center to be as cost effective as pos-sible for our Air Force. But it is more than simply being good stewards of our resources; it’s about winning tomorrow’s wars. As a key contributor to Air Force readiness, AFSc must be able to provide more readiness at the same cost, or today’s readiness at decreased cost. It’s clear that the

cost of readiness will determine the size of the force we can afford, and the size of the force will determine our ability to fight and win tomorrow’s wars.

That’s why AFSc has championed the idea of cost-effective readiness for our Air Force. As the United States transitions from decades of conflict to an environment of peacetime funding and reduced budgets, the focus must shift from readiness at any cost to a cost-effective readi-ness that balances risk with fiscal realities. cost effectiveness is achieved

through increased levels of integration and effi-ciencies, as evidenced by the tactical-level wins in the AF Sustainment center’s Road to $1 bil-lion. However, the real opportunities for cost-effective savings lie in the integration of readi-ness processes at the Air Force level and higher. Only through a strategic-level examination of the factors that drive readi-ness and the interaction between them will our Air Force be able to drive to a cost-effective readi-ness that will ensure we are able to fly, fight and win in the future.

mindful that when those operations come to an end, budget reductions would be inevitable as the force downsized. As a result, DLA instituted an efficiency initiative known

as “Big Ideas,” with the goal of $13 billion in sav-ings by 2019. To date, $2.9 billion of that goal has been achieved.

The series of con-tinuing resolutions and

the sequestration have imposed a much bigger challenge than anyone anticipated. However, DLA’s continuous effort to reduce cost, while at the same time

providing responsive logistical support to the warfighter, has the agency well positioned to navigate the budget challenges ahead and I’m confident we’ll get

through this. As the vice chief of naval operations said when he coined a phrase from the British during the dark days of the Blitz in 1940: “Keep calm and carry On.”

LIEUTENANT GENERAL BRUcE LITcHFIELD commander, Air Force Sustainment center

MAjOR GENERAL jOHN j. BROADMEADOW commander, Marine corps Logistics command



Military Sealift com-mand is—and will con-tinue to be—a vital part of our Navy, operating forward and supporting our nation’s warfight-ers. The logistics capa-bilities our command provides ensure com-batant ships remain supplied and at sea,

that strategic materiel is prepositioned and rapidly available, and that efficient and cost-effective ocean trans-portation is available to DoD and other federal agencies. And these are just a few of the missions that MSc ably performs.

Make no mistake, though; we are not back to business as usual. Ongoing fiscal issues, including sequestration, mean uncertainty is likely to be factor in our operations. MSc is a unique Navy command. As an entirely working capital fund activity, the

money we use to oper-ate is not allocated by congress, but provided for services rendered to other Navy, DoD and federal entities. In other words, if our custom-er’s operational needs shrink, our business will also shrink in reaction to their needs. O

The fiscal burden will be felt across the depart-ment. This is certainly a challenge, however, that leads to opportunity for the Military Surface Deployment and Distribu-tion command. As the Army service component command to U.S. Trans-portation command and a major subordinate command to Army Mate-riel command, SDDc’s strategic roadmap is

aligned with the Army’s vision for the future.

SDDc touches 87 percent of the cargo going into and out of Afghanistan.

Our immediate chal-lenge is meeting the president’s deadline to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. While focused on this mission, we are also preparing for the future.

SDDc’s core compe-tencies will remain con-stant, but how and where we are organized and how we manage our business processes and lines of operations (international, domestic and household goods transportation mis-sions) will change. This is why we’re already 18

months into an aggres-sive campaign plan for 2015 and beyond.

Our military is becoming more of a cONUS-based force. This shift, along with the drawdown of forces from Afghanistan, means our domestic transportation mission will increase while our interna-tional support mission decreases.

SDDc’s current global footprint, however, is still postured for the cold War. We’re working now to re-position and reshape our transporta-tion brigades and bat-talions for tomorrow’s force.

What skills will they need? What tools will

they need? And where will they need to be located to provide that support?

We’re also reshap-ing the headquarters and examining how to reduce our personnel strength. Of course, it’s a huge challenge to do this and take care of a skilled and loyal work-force. But it’s also an opportunity to reshape and develop talent and competencies. We’ve already begun the pro-cess of identifying and eliminating redundan-cies while shifting and consolidating responsi-bility for some of our business and opera-tions functions.

Whether the cargo

SDDc moves is for a contingency or if it’s a servicemember’s per-sonal property, the rates we charge our custom-ers are paid for by budgets that are being drastically cut. SDDc is the only USTRANScOM component that provides distribution integration and is node and mode neutral. As the “heavy lifter” for USTRANScOM, we are focused on gain-ing greater effectiveness and efficiencies in our ability to plan, order, ship, track, pay and bill for the services and sup-port we provide. It won’t be easy, but we are tak-ing advantage of this opportunity to posture SDDc for the future.

caution to logistics. The MAGTF functions as a cohesive whole, and changes to one ele-ment have impacts on the others. Further, we cannot simply redirect wholesale cuts at our strategic logistics base (acquisition and depot

maintenance, in particu-lar) without jeopardizing the enduring health of the force. This, more than anything else, pre-vents us from isolating a single element—in this case, logistics—and making it the bill payer for the other two.

The Marine corps’ unique national security role as the nation’s expe-ditionary force in readi-ness ultimately elevates logistics to the same level of value exhibited by ground and aviation combat elements. This fact, proven over and over

again in Iraq, Afghanistan and across the globe, is well understood by the corps’ leadership. Reductions will not rashly target logistics alone to purchase hasty but short-lived gains in other areas. We will balance today’s fiscal realities

against the capabilities required of our mission, making adjustments to the MAGTF as a whole. This is the most effec-tive means by which to address today’s fis-cal realities while fulfill-ing our national security responsibilities.

MAjOR GENERAL THOMAS j. RIcHARDSON commander, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution command

REAR ADMIRAL LAWRENcE B. jAcKSON Deputy commander, Military Sealift command



There are many ways that military logis-tics organizations can partner with private industry to enhance the efficiency of defense supply chain. Companies can integrate into the military’s shipping systems, they can send electronic proofs of delivery, they can provide service to remote areas of the world with minimal commercial customers, and they can work with their outsourced supplier to provide vendor direct transportation.

But one of the most valued aspects of sup-ply-chain partnerships to the Defense Logis-tics Agency involves talking. By engaging with industry leaders, the DLA can learn industry best practices and both sides can understand how best to use their respective capabilities to bring value to the warfighter.

“We have a captains of industry program,” said Major General Kenneth Dowd, the DLA’s director of logistics operations. “We invite high-level executives from the companies from the medical business, for example, to talk about what DLA is doing in that lane and hear the lessons they have learned from their operations on how to improve processes and cut costs.”

“We find that communication is key,” said Nancy Heimbaugh, director of DLA acquisi-tion. “We ask industry leaders how they drive efficiencies into their supply chain and we translate those into contractual changes. We make it a win-win for industry and the DLA.”

“One of the ways we partner with the mili-tary is in sharing commercial best practices,” said Charlie Covert, vice president of cus-tomer solutions at UPS. “We have met people like General Dowd and others in the military logistic community and have found them to be very receptive to looking at commercial best practices and figuring out how they can be applied to military missions. At the same time, it is important for commercial organiza-tions to understand the military. They usually don’t have profit or revenue targets, but they do have mission to be accomplished.”

By adapting commercial processes, DLA often reduces specific supply chain costs by as much as 20 percent, according to Heim-baugh. “Through the six to seven forums a year we have with major industries, we have been able to identify $1.5 billion in costs we can take out of our supply chains over the next five years,” she added.

The changing defense budget picture over the last decade has forced adjustments in how the military and its industry partners view their partnerships, driving new thinking on how agencies and companies can come together to being more value to warfighters.

“In the time frame after 2001, the pri-mary measurement [of the success of a collaboration] was whether the mission was successful,” said Kirstin Knott, director of worldwide sales at FedEx. “Cost wasn’t as much of a factor. In the aftermath of seques-tration, success is being redefined through best value and through developing solutions together. These drive efficiencies yet still allow the carrier to remain profitable.”

One of the implications of this trend involves changes in how logistics compa-nies are evaluated. “Evaluating a company on best value is essential,” said Knott. “Transportation may seem to be a candi-date for a lowest price, technically accepted evaluation, but, in reality, it isn’t. Carriers need to invest capital to have the neces-sary fleet of aircraft and trucks to provide a reliable service. The lowest-priced carrier may not have the asset available at the time requested. Choosing best value allows the carrier to work with a shipper to develop a program specific to their needs while meet-ing the requirements of the contract.”

The effort to more carefully customize transportation services to the military’s needs has given rise to multi-modal transportation partnerships and contracts, through which, typically, two or more companies will come together to execute complex moves on behalf

of the government. “Multi-modal contracts require multiple entities to partner their core competencies together and apply them to particular situations,” said Covert. “This has worked pretty effectively. It reduces the number of freight hand offs and puts the onus of managing the moves on the civilian partnership.”

“Under the U.S. Transportation Com-mand’s new multi-modal contract, we offer ocean services and we have a partner that offers air service,” related Torben Svenning-sen, senior director of government sales at Maersk Line Ltd. “We are both U.S.-flag car-riers in our own arena. We are two partners that are operating together that sometimes would act in competition. We get efficiencies in cost and speed since it is cheaper to sail and faster to fly. It is hard to get goods in and out of a landlocked country like Afghanistan using only our service infrastructure. But we can fly now as well to get the goods out, which helps when we have difficult countries surrounding Afghanistan.”

Maersk Line is partnering with National Air Cargo on the multi-modal contact, with National being the prime contractor and Maersk its subcontractor. Those roles were reversed in earlier TRANSCOM multi-modal contracts.

“The government is really third partner in this scenario,” said Svenningsen. “The government asked us to do this. It’s like a three-legged stool. It can’t stand without all three.”

The armed services and other military logistics groups are attempting to optimize transportation services and modes when that makes sense, according to Knott. “A MICAP (mission impaired capability awaiting parts)is sent priority overnight while another item may be sent via second day air if it isn’t mis-sion essential,” she explained. “If a base is within 100 miles or so of a depot and the shipment isn’t a top transportation priority,

how talking with and listEning to industry can bE a drivEr of lowEr costs and incrEasEd EfficiEncy.by PEtEr buxbaum, mlf corrEsPondEnt


it might be sent via ground rather than air. Service and mode optimization reduces the overall transportation spend without jeopar-dizing the readiness level.”

“These partnerships benefit military logistics in several ways,” said Svenningsen. “They provide expedited timing so that tran-sit time is shorter and speed to destination is faster. In the case of food, for example, the military can carry a lower inventory of food in-country because they know the supply is coming in faster.”

The risk of loss has also been reduced with the multi-modal contract. “Based on our take, we have handed cargo over in good condition,” said Svenningsen. “The cost is comparable, and safety has increased and risk has been lowered by utilizing multi-modal services.”

Pilot Freight Services also provides the air leg of multi-modal moves under a con-tract with the U.S. Navy. Under this contract, Pilot flies out of theater aircraft components that are in need of repair to seaports such as Jebel Ali in Dubai, where they are loaded onto ships of transport to repair facilities. Pilot personnel are stationed at naval instal-lations, where they work hand-in-hand with Naval personnel to get the job done. Pilot also stages freight for the Navy for forwarding to repair destinations such as Navy depots in San Diego, Norfolk and New Cumberland.

One of the services included in Pilot’s contract is to provide advanced tracing capabilities. “The Navy has certain windows during which they want something done,” said Larry Wenrich, Pilot’s vice president for government services. “They may want a component delivered to a repair node and then back to a storage node within 10 days. We are responsible for moving the compo-nent between all those points and we are accountable for getting it where it needs to go to get repaired.”

The tracking and tracing is accom-plished through a company system called CoPilot. “Everything is entered into that system and we provide the customer with progress benchmarks along the way,” said Wenrich. “The customer is also able to get into the system, but generally they manage by exception. They don’t get involved unless something didn’t reach its destination when it should have.”

FedEx integrates into the military’s ship-ping systems such as Global Freight Man-agement, the Cargo Movement Operation System (CMOS) and the Distribution Stan-dard System (DSS), and sends electronic

proofs of delivery into systems like Electronic Retrograde Management System-Navy and IGC (Integrated Data Environment/Global Transportation Network Convergence).

“Integrating with DSS or CMOS makes shipping easier,” said Knott. “The distribution systems are integrated resulting in a shipping label being produced, linking a tracking number to a requisition, and uploading the information into a payment authorization system. Time on the shipping dock and in the billing department is reduced, keying errors are minimized and visibility to the shipment is increased.

“From a carrier perspective, the military shipping systems generate a shipping label which meets our requirements,” she added. “From the DoD perspective, it is integrated into their order processing systems.”

The DLA has effected changes in its contractual relationships as a result of inter-facing with industry leaders and is now con-templating sharing its costs savings with its industry partners. “Industry leaders in fuel and energy indicated that we could get bet-ter prices if we were to establish longer term contracts,” said Heimbaugh. “Previously, we were typically writing one-year contracts for bulk fuel. We stretched those to two and three years and found that that increased competition and lowered costs.”

The DLA also saved money by streamlin-ing the way its customers acquire subsis-tence commodities. “Our traditional method of contracting allowed for several different catalogs for the military services to acquire subsistence goods from,” said Heimbaugh. “Our industry partners came up with an idea for reducing and streamlining the catalogs. This is another example of how we identified supply chain costs reductions and greater efficiencies.”

As a result of these successful collabora-tions with industry, the DLA is now looking at incorporating costs-savings incentives into its contractual structures. “We are looking at moving into fixed-price incentive contracts,” said Heimbaugh. “Typically we don’t do that, relying instead on firm fixed-price contracts. But by having these dialogues with industry we feel we can challenge ourselves on how to incentivize contractors by sharing the sav-ings with them.”

Besides reducing prices and costs, the DLA also measures the success of its con-tracts on criteria such as material readiness and availability. “If you look at the data points,” said Dowd, “our material readiness rates in Afghanistan and worldwide are

much higher than they were 15 or 20 years ago. Partnerships with industry help make those repair parts more readily available and to push them forward to where they are needed.”

“We recognize that as we move forward, the new norm will be more partnerships with like-minded companies that are not necessarily operating in the same space,” said Svenningsen. “There is going to be more collaboration among ocean, land and sea carriers.”

The winding down of the conflicts in Southwest Asia might have put a dent in the business of some of the transportation carriers for the moment, but the idea of multi-modal collaboration will likely pick up steam, according to Svenningsen, as the U.S. military focuses on new areas of operations such as Africa.

“This was just the beginning,” he said. “We have the whole continent of Africa with difficult places to reach, and the new formula has potential there. You circumvent logistics challenges by partnering. We can move goods in the fastest, safest, most efficient way by sea or air to risky countries.

“Five years ago, air and ocean carriers looked at each other as threats,” Svenningsen added. “Now we realize that there are areas where we can compete and other areas where we can benefit by joining forces.”

Budgetary constraints will continue to drive the movement toward government-industry logistics partnerships, according to Covert. “Reductions in the defense budget means the military will have an increasing need to rely on civilian capabilities,” he said. “They will have less ability to make invest-ments and, related to that, they will need to reduce inventory levels without sacrificing war fighting capabilities. Some investments in vehicles and aircraft can be deferred while relying on civilian capacity. The military will have to plan how to deploy inventory to meet mission objectives at lower costs.”

For Dowd, the trust that is being devel-oped between the military and its industry partners is a key outcome of the extensive talks DLA conducts with captains of industry. “DoD and industry are talking at the highest levels,” he said. “We are developing the kind of trust that is necessary to assure the highest possible support for warfighters.” O

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at [email protected] or search our online archives for related stories

at www.mlf-kmi.com.


Building logistics into the design and planning of weapons and other systems through integrated logistics support (ILS) has a long history. But it constantly changes as lessons are learned, new tools are devel-oped and new challenges are encountered. The core aim of ILS—more reliable assets supported at more affordable costs—is more essential than ever under today’s tight defense budgets.

Every Air Force weapon system has ILS to some degree, according to Air Mobil-ity Command’s Directorate of Logistics. Air Force ILS covers many elements, including reliability engineering, maintainability engi-neering and maintenance, planning for spare parts, support and test equipment, man-power, training, technical data, computer resources, facilities, packaging, handling, storage and transportation, as well as design interface.

ILS is set up through collaboration with the Air Force Lifecycle Manage-ment Office and other stake-holders. Formal boards are established to ensure col-laboration and prioritization of resources. The ILS pro-cess runs from specification and design through develop-

ment, acquisition, test, fielding and support, on through retirement.

ILS benefits include improving reliabil-ity, availability, maintainability and safety in logistics. The directorate said ILS is essential to managing the “big three” of any program’s life cycle: cost, schedule and performance.

The major hurdle to effective ILS is finan-cial constraints. Costs can usually be cut in only three areas: performance, quantity or logistic support. The directorate said, unfor-tunately, costs are usually cut in logistics.

Naval Air Systems Command orga-nizes ILS with a life-cycle sustainment plan (LCSP), explained Ildegardo Olea, technical director for logistics management integration at NAVAIR. The LCSP begins at the materiel solution analysis phase of acquisition with a technology analysis and analysis of alternative

(AoA) support options. The AoA looks broadly at all logistics choices in light of the concept of operations and other factors.

At this early stage, NAVAIR focuses on key drivers of long terms costs, items that may be unreliable, costly or require highly skilled labor. “We want to see if we can improve here, to minimize the impact,” Olea said.

As technology is developed, NAVAIR establishes the sustainment concept and a framework for execution and sets metrics goals, thresholds and test methods. During engineering and manufacturing develop-ment, the LCSP defines support structure and product support package (PSP) require-ments. PSP and metric verification methods are established and detailed development and fielding plans are established.

The LCSP defines further steps as the system enters production and fielding. But Olea said the toughest steps are the early ones, especially pushing supportability in design. “We are after capabilities, to complete a mission, kill the target or do surveillance. With limited budgets, sometimes perfor-mance wins out over supportability.”

One of largest benefits of ILS is that the military can gain the expertise of companies whose sole focus is on logistics, said Rose-mary Johnston, vice president of federal sales strategy and business operations at Savi. These companies may be experts in logistics as a whole, or in specific elements of ILS, such as part management, test equipment, training, technical data, facilities, package handling and so forth. “This allows the mili-tary and Defense civilians to focus on other critical aspects of the program,” Johnston says. “The firms have repeatable processes

tight budgEts dEmand EvEn bEttEr ils.by hEnry canaday

mlf corrEsPondEnt

ildegardo Olea


that they have fine-tuned to save manpower and costs.”

Savi’s logistics specialties are in packag-ing, handling, storage, and transportation (PHS&T) and in inventory management. The firm uses historical and real-time data to keep assets headed in the right direction, exploiting automatic identification technol-ogy (AIT) tools, barcode and both active and passive RFID, to save manpower and costs in the process.

Johnston said one major hurdle to effec-tive ILS is that there are so many par-ticipants, including military, government civilian and contractor staff. “You must make sure you have a tight plan that everyone feels a part of and feels they have invested in.”

Further, the “heart” of effective ILS is metrics, John-ston stressed. “Make sure you have sound metrics that mea-sure both the effectiveness and efficiency of the entire team. And senior management must manage expectations around those metrics.”

Alion Science supplies engineering, tech-nology and operating solutions for defense, government and commercial organizations. About half of Alion’s work is done for the Navy. It also works for the Army’s Tank Auto-motive Research, Development and Engi-neering Center and night-vision offices, Air Force Space Command, and the Marine Expeditionary Force.

Alion often brings high-quality engineer-ing to a program very quickly to help the government with tough ILS challenges, said Charles Fletcher, director of the firm’s Army and logistics programs and once director of operations and plans at U.S. Transportation Command. On technical data, the firm has a very strong relationship with the Defense Technical Information Center. It also helps with design interface, making sure new equip-ment works with older items and simplifying supply chains by using common parts.

Fletcher said ILS has been around a long time, citing the efforts of the U.K. Minis-

try of Defence (MOD) in the early 1990s to look at life cycle costs as an important milestone. He noted that U.S. services have pursued ILS in many different ways, with the Air Force, for example, put-ting responsibility on Boeing for the life cycle cost and reliability of the C-17 Globe-master.

The first step in ILS is to decide on a strategy of

support. The U.K. MOD is now putting the full burden of support on equipment manu-facturers, after further cuts in budgets and disappointment with some internal systems that were supposed to cut costs. “They figure if they can pick the right provider that firm will be better qualified to do it,” Fletcher observed. He said 80 percent of U.K. defense vehicles are supported by OEMs and MOD is now out-sourcing the supply chain.

That might be one model for U.S. ILS in the future. But there are many others.

Fletcher said one big impediment to effec-tive ILS is still the separation of defense fund-ing into acquisition and support accounts, which can make acquisition people seek to stay within their allotment, even if other costs rise down the road. And initial program managers often retire before their products are delivered and accumulate a cost and reli-ability record, making it difficult to incentivize performance.

On the other hand, Fletcher said there is now a much more sophisticated manage-ment overwatch of financial, technical and logistical staff and installation managers. ILS means making all of these people accountable throughout the life of a program, he stressed. He believes defense agencies are getting better at the man-machine interface, so operators are not breaking equipment as often and breakages can be fixed more readily.

With tighter defense budgets and fewer new programs, Fletcher hopes top engineers will migrate to reliability engineering. But he cautions that this field, while critical, is not as glamorous as designing new systems. “The key to ILS is metrics. You have to establish them, clearly articulate them and measure them against execution. It’s not the kind of thing you put on a company billboard.”

ILS means considering all logistic ele-ments when building a product-support strat-egy, according to Alan Thompson, former director of the Defense Logistics Agency and now vice president of logistics at Honeywell Technology Solutions. Sometimes effective

Charlie Fletcher


ILS takes a very specific form. “Performance-based logistics (PBL) are an example of ILS that provides exceptional support, cost saving and improved reliability and maintainability,” Thompson said.

Honeywell has several PBLs in which it provides program and supply-chain manage-ment and some engineering support, while government depots provide facilities and labor.

The Honeywell exec estimates that, across platforms, Honeywell PBLs have achieved a 20 percent gain in component or system reli-ability, a 10 to 15 percent reduction in repair cost and shorter logistical response times. “Long term, they also protect the capability of government depots—that’s huge.”

The Defense Department now has an ini-tiative to move to an Enter-prise PBL contract that Thompson believes would be very beneficial. PBLs have evolved differently over a dozen years in the Army, Navy and Air Force, and they could be made more consistent.

At Hill Air Force Base, Honeywell provides pro-gram and supply-chain management and engineer-ing for components on the C-130 and the F-15, while at Corpus Christi, its PBL just supports the supply chain. “If we moved to a fuller PBL there, we could provide real benefits,” Thompson argued. “We do not want consistency for consisten-cy’s sake, but to make PBLs more comprehensive to pro-vide more benefits.”

Hurdles to effective ILS through PBLs include differences in practices among the services, and “any time you try to standardize you are going to have frictions,” Thompson said.

The new Enterprise PBL approach has picked up momentum in the last six months. It would consolidate a firm’s individual PBLs into a single defense-wide contract. “We expect to see an RFP soon,” Thompson noted.

Other managers speak of ILS from opera-tional experience.

“Logistic support is critical to sustaining a force in operations,” said Bill Newton, now vice president of the Phoenix Group and a former submarine officer. “If you can’t fix

something in the field, sometimes you are out of business.”

Newton said effective ILS means field staff must have the right information in the right format. He recalled the Navy’s move to online technical manuals. “That is wonderful if you are sitting at a desk, but when you are climb-ing a mast, there are no laptops.”

Newton said planners must ensure they can support any product before they put it on a ship. “There is a disconnect sometimes between installation engineers and logistics engineers.” But he said things are moving in the right direction, with defense making total cost of ownership and life cycle cost key metrics.

Newton argued that private support of ILS is essential. “The government is too

large a bureaucracy to respond quickly. It takes at least a year from learning about a need to awarding a contract. Look how many thousands of new applica-tions come out each month. The military is still using barcodes, while the rest of the world is on QR codes.”

Phoenix helps the Navy eval-uate the readiness of aircraft-carrier modifications, figuring out if the logistics is ready three months before installation or if an exception can be made to this requirement. “If the operating manual is not ready, they can’t do testing, so it’s not okay,” he explained. “But if it’s a coffee maker, it’s okay. We help make those tradeoffs.”

For 20 years, NCI has worked for Program Executive Officer Soldier, helping ensure everything a soldier wears or

touches is supportable and has the lowest life cycle cost possible, explained Senior Techni-cal Advisor Alan Cartwright.

Cartwright has worked in ILS since 1979 and once was ILS manager for Army Materiel Command, where he worked on the AH-64 Apache Longbow, the CH-47 Chinook and the Aquila remotely piloted vehicle.

“ILS has well-established benefits, maxi-mizing supportability and minimizing cost,” Cartwright summarized. “Before ILS, the military found that a lot of systems were fielded without the consideration of logistics.

The ILS veteran said software is now much better than when he started. Among major ILS elements, computer resources are

increasingly important. Cartwright argued that the most important ILS requirement is that logistics be designed into equipment up front. He recalled that an early mentor insisted that engine compartments of the Bradley fighting vehicle be made easily acces-sible so that the power pack did not have to be removed to replace frequently repaired items.

Other evidence of ILS benefits: Both the Longbow and Chinook have been highly successful, while the Aquila was canceled because it could not meet ILS requirements.

Cartwright said the ILS process varies by system, but is always iterative and integrated and is both art and science. “Many qualita-tive and quantitative tradeoffs must be made between operating and logistics and within logistics to find the optimal mix of ILS ele-ments.”

The process is aided by Logistics Sup-port Analysis (LSA) and the LSA Record, which documents the process. “Processes dif-fer depending on the system being developed. For instance, life-saving equipment, such as mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, was deployed rapidly during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other systems take 10 years or more to get into the combat zone.”

Cartwright said some acquisition man-agers are still not as aware of ILS processes and benefits as they should be, although this hurdle is declining. “They must plan for the time and budget to do ILS well and seek the best subject matter experts they can find. It’s not easy to do this because budgeting for ILS adds money and time to the acquisition pro-cess. But it pays off in reduced life cycle costs and increased system readiness.”

Cartwright pointed out that one ILS improvement made in PEO Soldier was NCI’s development of the Soldier as a System, which means looking at everything the sol-dier has to carry, especially the weight, to determine the effectiveness of systems as a whole.

Cartwright predicted ILS will become more scientific in the future, with more prescribed steps, because there have been many lessons learned. “We have learned how to better customize ILS to fit the systems being acquired. We can also expect software to become more powerful in influencing designs to improve supportability and mini-mize cost.” O

Alan Thompson


at www.mlf-kmi.com.

Bill Newton


Q: What are the details in the upgrade of the UH-60l models to bring them up to similar standards of the M model? With cur-rent and projected funding, how many airframes do you expect to upgrade and what is the timeline?

A: The L Digital program recently received a materiel development decision on June 24, 2013. In that decision, the Army Acquisi-tion Executive (AAE) authorized the program to execute a cost-benefit analysis (C-BA) to inform senior leaders on the optimal util-ity helicopter fleet mix to address capability needs given current and projected fiscal constraints. The AAE further authorized the pro-gram to request a performance plan from the government-owned government-operated (GOGO) facility that will execute the design and integration portion of the engineering and manufacturing develop-ment phase of the program. The GOGO facil-ity released a solicitation for subcontracted work on October 1, 2013. These documents will validate current government estimates to ensure the acquisition community makes an informed decision. The data provided by the C-BA and performance plan will supplement statutory and regulatory documentation in support of a Milestone B decision anticipated in second quarter, FY14.

Q: For fixed wing utility aircraft, what is the average age of the fleet? is there a need for either replacement aircraft or fleet expansion?

A: The fixed wing utility aircraft (FUA) is a retirement and replacement program for the aging operational support airlift fleet of C-12 and C-26 aircraft. There is a need to

replace these airframes as the average age of the fleet is over 25 years and it is nearing the end of its life cycle. At this time, there is no plan to expand the size of the fleet in the near future. FUA is a commer-cial off-the-shelf solution that will integrate military communication, naviga-tion, surveillance and sur-vivability systems.

Q: is the mainte-nance for the util-ity fleet managed organically or is heavy maintenance contracted out to industry?

A: Our utility mainte-nance fleet is primarily

managed organically at the Corpus Christi Army Depot in Texas, where key industry partnerships contribute to a team effort that returns utility aircraft to units quickly and effectively.

In terms of further detail, workload at AMCOM depots is relatively constant, but we have started seeing some reduction from wartime highs with FY13 program loads, and this trend appears to be continuing as we enter FY14.

Looking to the future, we expect a con-tinued modification to overall depot workload as re-deployment from theater continues, which, coupled with the potential for further sequestration and Army reshaping initiatives, sets the stage for significant uncertainty in the overall requirements the Army will place on our depots.

That said, there is every indication that our organic industrial base and AMCOM’s depots will remain the centerpiece for flexible, rapid and economically viable support to the soldier in the field.

As the AMCOM commander, I [Collyar]would also like Military Logistics Forum read-ers to know that RIMFIRE is a tear-down analysis program out of Corpus Christi Army Depot that analyzes high-dollar value compo-nents to determine actual reasons for failures, documenting and archiving those results for further engineering and logistics analysis. A thorough tear-down of components by expe-rienced depot artisans also includes detailed inspection checklists, aimed at discovering trends, expanding component lives, and improving maintenance tactics, techniques and procedures.

Q: The armed scout project seems to be a very moving target. What is the current thinking for a plat-form—buy new, upgrade or a mix?

A: All major Army modernization programs are being assessed in light of the current budgetary pressures. This includes assessing the affordability of proceeding with the armed aerial scout developmental program.

Army Aviation is balancing between upgrading legacy systems and developing future systems to provide the warfighter with increased capabilities.

Q: What is the Army’s budget for ground support equipment and what do you see as 2014 require-ments?

A: The Army Aviation Ground Support Equipment (AGSE) Product Management Office (PMO) manages three active programs, with another 15 programs in sustainment, consisting of 52 line item numbers and over 33,000 separate components.

Our motto is, “Right tools, Right time, Right place.” We are confident that our current and future projected budgets will continue to support fielded systems and bring new capabilities to the aviation maintainer.

In 2014 the AGSE PMO will finalize the fielding of over 670 standard aircraft towing

Much of the Army’s rotary wing fleet has been doing frontline work for years. The next year is bound to be a challenge, so Military Logistics Forum wanted to get a sense for how they would manage their assets and resources in 2014.

We were fortunate enough to speak with Major General Tim Crosby, Program Executive Officer, PEO Aviation, and Major General Lynn Collyar, commander, Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Man-agement Command, about their major initiatives for 2014.

AMCOM InitiativesEnsuring army aviation’s tactical advantagE.

Maj. Gen. Tim Crosby

Maj. Gen lynn Collyar


system (SATS). The SATS fills the require-ment need for a standard aircraft towing system that is capable of repositioning all U.S. Army rotary and fixed wing aircraft and AGSE. Additionally, AGSE will field 67 shop equipment contact maintenance (SECM) vehicles. The SECM is a modi-fied M1079A2 medium tactical vehicle that meets the requirement to provide aviation maintainers with the capability to transport a three-person crew with mission essential equipment, expendable supplies, spares and repair parts to fix or recover downed rotary wing aircraft on site.

AGSE will also begin fielding three mod-ernized capabilities in to meet 2014 require-ments. By midyear AGSE will begin fielding 23,000-plus new, individual aviation main-tainer tool boxes. There are seven different types of tool boxes, with new modernized, aerospace-standard tools, a more robust tool box, and foam shadowed drawers with a com-ponent listing, including picture diagrams for ease of inventory and reducing foreign object damage to aircraft.

AGSE will begin fielding nearly 1,000 modernized maintenance platforms (MMP).

The MMP will provide a stable working platform for Army rotorcraft maintenance activities and enhance the occupational safety environment for maintainers while providing improved mobility over unim-proved surfaces and ease of transport on a standard U.S. Air Force pallet.

2014 will also mark the introduction of the non-ozone depleting hand held fire extin-guisher (HHFE), developed by the AGSE PMO for extinguishing small cockpit fires in Army aircraft. The HHFE replaces the existing Halon-filled extinguishers with an approved, environmentally friendly sodium bicarbonate extinguishing agent.

In addition to these major new system introductions scheduled for 2014, the AGSE PMO continues to modernize existing capa-bilities, including the introduction of both a temporary and permanent composite repair capability to the battle damage assessment and repair kit and the addition of a com-posite repair, one-sided expandable shelter, to the Aviation Intermediate maintenance shop set suite.

As the crew chief’s PM, the AGSE PMO will continue to provide the repair, recovery and aviation fleet operational readiness sup-port equipment to ensure aviation mainte-nance can be conducted across the globe and in any operational environment U.S. Army aircraft are found.

Q: Can you explain what is involved in the service life and upgrade program for the Apaches and the AH-64e program?

A: The remanufacture process of depopu-lation, pre-modification, technology inser-tion and final assembly provides zero-time airframes and improved system reliability, [as well as] incorporates unique item iden-tification and condition-based maintenance initiatives while optimizing the continued modernization path for the inclusion of proven advanced technologies to the Apache program. The Apache comprehensive product support strategy utilizes metric driven out-comes enhancing AH-64E life cycle manage-ment by reducing the logistics footprint and life cycle costs; achieves best value long-term sustainment outcomes; incorporates award-winning performance-based logistics; and uses analytical tools to support the decision makers in near-term and future sustainment support strategies to achieve soldier driven requirements focused on a supportable and sustainable system.

Q: How are you going about get-ting all of the UAS stakeholders marching in step from a doctrine perspective so that you can gain synergies from the technologies?

A: This is managed by our UAS teammates at Fort Rucker, Ala., or you can also contact the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) at Fort Eustis, Va.

From our perspective within the Project Office for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, we continue to lean forward with our five pri-orities: (1) supporting our forces engaged in overseas contingency operations, (2) execut-ing and improving all of our programs, (3) improving efficiencies in our programs by embracing Better Buying Power 2.0, (4) focus-ing on UAS futures such as our Pre-Planned Product Improvement (P3I) program for each of the UAS product lines that represent sound investments that are well coordinated with UAS user representatives, and (5) building a world-class workforce.

The Army is currently investing in Uni-versal Ground Control Station (UGCS), an upgrade to the current One System Ground Control Station (OSGCS), that will provide additional system flexibility and commonality that will also provide significant reduction in future sustainment costs. We are also investigating a new TCDL antenna system in

response to our requirement for future Ka SATCOM datalinks.

The Army is in the midst of UGCS devel-opment for Gray Eagle and Shadow UAS programs. Currently, UGCS has demonstrated ground and limited flight capabilities with Gray Eagle UAS using the current TCDL data link. We are confident that Gray Eagle UGCS will meet our requirements on time for a follow-on test and evaluation scheduled for late FY15.

Q: What are some other technolo-gies that AMCOM is looking at?

A: From the Materiel Enterprise perspective, AMCOM is working alongside the Program Executive Office Aviation on:

• Improved Turbine Engine Program • Kiowa Warrior CASUP (OH58F)• Aviation Data Exploitation Capability • CH47 - 6 different mods in the

works• JTRS (Joint Tactical Radio System)

Integration• Improved Data Modem 401• Aviation Light Utility Module

Maintenance Cart

Additionally, and as a tactical advantage, we continue to pursue condition based main-tenance, as more than 85 percent of our fleet is CBM-equipped.

CBM is a great capability for the main-tainer and commander on the flight line. It gives aviation soldiers another tool to assess the condition of a part and determine nec-essary maintenance, rather than the same component presenting a failure mode that requires a maintenance action to be com-pleted immediately.

If a component enters the yellow range, one can look at the rate of change to better determine expected remaining useful life on that component.

Under combat operations, units may have replaced a component under a yellow indica-tion, but in garrison may now need to “milk” the remaining time of a component to save financial resources.

With components under the CBM umbrella, soldiers can make informed deci-sions with a high level of certainty. O


at www.mlf-kmi.com.


Compiled by Kmi media Group staffSUPPLY CHAIN

Support Services for Army Reserve

Command VSE Corporation has been awarded two

firm fixed price task orders under its Field and Installation Readiness Support Team prime contract to continue the support services to the U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC) for its 63rd and 88th Regional Support Command (RSC) Logistics Readiness Support programs, based out of Fort McCoy, Wis. The total combined value of both task orders is approximately $63 million.

When combined with a task order awarded to VSE on August 23 under its Rapid Response Third Generation contract, the additional awards of the 63rd and 88th RSC enable VSE to continue work previously performed under a General Services Administration task order that expired in July 2013. VSE will work directly with government employees and Army reservists at the two RSCs to deliver effective combat service support to the Army across a 19-state region. These task orders require the storage, supply and maintenance of thousands of pieces of equipment, property accountability, vehicle operations, maintenance management, field and sustainment level main-tenance, storage operations, hands-on training support and watercraft maintenance support.

“We have assembled a superb team that has proven its ability to work effectively at the 88th and 63rd RSCs, and these awards are a reflection of our long-term history, commitment, and investment with our USARC customer,” said Federal Group President Donnelle Moten. “We are prepared to continue service at the highest level to ensure the units we support have the equip-ment they need to maximize training opportuni-ties and meet their readiness targets.”

Joint Stars Sustainment

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $178 million contract to continue sustaining the service’s entire E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft. The contract is a continuation of Northrop Grumman’s Total System Support Reliability (TSSR) program, which was first awarded in 2000.

Through the TSSR program, Northrop Grumman is responsible for the logistics, engineering, training, mission support, supply chain and depot maintenance support of the Joint STARS fleet at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., and forward operating locations overseas. The program has maintained superior performance ratings throughout the contract’s 13-year history.

“By affordably extending the life of the aircraft, Joint STARS remains the world’s premier airborne battle management and command and control system,” said Bryan Lima, Joint STARS program director, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. “Sustainment ensures that the platform remains relevant and continues delivering this critical capability to our warfighters.”

In addition to work at Robins Air Force Base, TSSR is supported by key personnel at the Northrop Grumman Manned Aircraft Design Center of Excellence in Melbourne, Fla., the Lake Charles Maintenance and Modification Center, La., and more than 30 major suppliers across the United States.

Boeing and AFSC PPP

Boeing and the U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) have entered into an over-arching public-private partnership that will streamline supply chain contracting, saving money and speeding up execution by as much as 10 months.

The partnership—the first of its kind—allows the three Air Force logistics complexes that are under the AFSC to immediately execute implementation agreements with Boeing, reducing administrative costs and increasing efficiency.

“Boeing is proud to lead the way for industry by developing a new, more efficient and affordable way to do business,” said Scott Strode, vice president and general manager of maintenance, modifications and upgrades for Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

In the past, each complex—Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, Ogden Air Logistics Complex and Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex—would enter into an individual part-nering agreement with Boeing, a process that took 12 to 16 months to complete.

The enterprise partnering agreement now in place allows the complexes to move directly to executing the details of the agreement, allowing implementation eight to 10 months earlier.

“The new partnering agreement will make our supply chain more agile so we can deliver maximum mission readiness to our customers,” said Ken Shaw, vice president of supply chain management for Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

The agreement covers products and services including software, commodities, new technology implementation and others.

Engineering Readiness Assist Team

Support

American Systems, a leading provider of federal IT and engineering solutions, has been awarded a Department of Navy, Commander Naval Surface Forces Pacific Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center contract valued up to $23.5 million. In winning this contract award, the company will continue supporting the Engineering Readiness Assist Teams (ERATs) program. This program was established to assist U.S. Navy sailors in engineering, combat systems and deck departments increase their operational, repair and maintenance knowledge, and combat readiness through a unique and real-istic training approach.

ERATs utilize a blend of classroom training and practical applications to prepare ship crews for the rigors of operating and maintaining their ship at sea for extended periods of time. The program focuses on expanding the sailor’s basic level of knowledge, establishing a solid foundation of operational readi-ness through classroom, hands-on and operational training exercises to ensure uninterrupted opera-tions, reduced maintenance and repair costs, and increased warfighter proficiency.

“Dedication to supporting the Department of Navy runs deep in the fabric of American Systems’ history and culture,” said Peter Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer at American Systems. “Real-time preparedness of ship crews improves mission-effectiveness and the safety of all Navy personnel aboard a ship.”

Under the terms of the contract, the company will provide services, including six ERATs and one logistics team for one base year and two option years, which began on September 28, 2013.


Thin, Light and RuggedGetac Inc., a manufacturer of rugged

computers, is introducing the V110, the thinnest and lightest rugged convertible and the F110, the thinnest and lightest fully rugged large screen tablet.

The V110 is a rugged convertible less than 12 by 9 inches in size, 1.3 inches thick and weighing just over 4 pounds, making it, according to the company, the thinnest and lightest fully rugged convertible ever built. A quick twist of the unique multi-position hinge allows the V110 to trans-form from a laptop to a tablet, giving users the versatility needed for use in unpredictable envi-ronments. The V110 also features a large 11.6-inch display and a full-size, water-proof-membrane backlit keyboard 56 percent larger than the competition’s. Its 88 standard-sized, island-style independent keys provide good usability and increased durability.

The F110 is a large-screen rugged tablet that packs superior performance and a large 11.6-inch display in a compact design. The F110 is less than 1 inch thick and just over 12 by 8 inches in size. At 3 pounds, this rugged tablet is the lightest large-screen, fully rugged tablet ever built.

“With the compact, lightweight design of the new V110 convertible and F110 tablet, we’ve changed the rugged industry from devices that were simply portable to devices that are truly mobile,” explained Jim Rimay, president, Getac. “You can see the influences from our customers’ feedback in the weight, the

dual battery design, the large 11.6-inch screen combined with the incredible performance of the latest fourth-generation Intel Core processors.”

Both products incorporate the latest fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4300U (1.9GHz) or i7-4600U (2.1GHz) processors, known as the Haswell platform and designed for speed and efficiency. The i5 and i7 CPUs feature Intel Turbo Boost Technology clocking maximum speeds up to 2.9GHz and 3.3GHz, respectively. In addition, the new Intel HD 4400 graphics provides an unparalleled level of responsiveness and frame rate for both 2-D and 3-D graphics.

One of the most useful features is also one of the simplest. Both the V110 and F110 feature dual hot-swappable batteries that allow for endless power by simply “swapping” in a fresh battery without needing to shut down applications or the operating system. Each V110 set of batteries provide up to 13 hours

of operation. The F110 battery set provides up to 12 hours of operation.

Compiled by Kmi media Group staffSUPPLY CHAIN

Defense Personal Property System Support

USTRANSCOM has awarded CACI International Inc. a $28 million prime contract to provide software and systems engineering support for the Defense Personal Property System (DPS). CACI won this contract, which has a 45-day base period plus five one-year options, under the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Encore II contract vehicle. The award is new business for CACI that further expands the company’s presence in its high-growth Business System Solutions market area.

DPS is USTRANSCOM’s Web-based system for managing personal property shipments for DoD employees and all servicemembers. This contract award is for Increment III of the system.

CACI will provide operations, develop-ment, technology upgrades, and systems engineering support for DPS. This includes a focus on software enhancements and engineering services to improve system capabilities, customer usability, and system performance.

John Mengucci, CACI’s chief operating officer and president of U.S. operations, said, “The Defense Personal Property System supports the movement and storage of some 600,000 personal property shipments valued at more than $2.2 billion. CACI offers proven, innovative software and systems engineering solutions and services that will assist the U.S. Transportation Command in keeping this valuable system online and operational 24/7, 365 days a year, and at optimal cost and efficiency.”

According to CACI President and Chief Executive Officer Ken Asbury, “CACI continues to see success in our focus on our high-growth markets and solutions and services that deliver productivity gains for our customers and increase value for our shareholders. This contract with the U.S. Transportation Command represents new work for CACI that gives us another great opportunity to assist our government as it works to enhance opera-tions and deliver sustained cost-savings for the American taxpayer.”

Fuel Supply and Storage

Supreme Group, a provider of end-to-end supply chain solutions in challenging environments, has been awarded a contract for fuel supply and storage by the Defense Logistics Agency-Energy. The two-year contract, valued at around $550 million, is for the delivery of jet fuel, diesel and motor gasoline to 10 U.S. forward operating bases and one defense fuel supply point in Afghanistan. The contract commenced on October 1, 2013.

“We are very happy to have been awarded this contract by DLA, which is a reflection of the customer’s confidence in our proven ability to support the U.S. troops in Afghanistan,” said Michael Schuster, managing director-operations, Supreme Group. “Supreme’s well-established Northern Distribution Network (NDN) will be used in conjunction with the Pakistan supply route to furnish the required volumes on a monthly basis.”

Supreme provides total end-to-end fuel supply solu-tions to defense forces and commercial sector clients in some of the most remote and challenging regions around the world. The company, which is the largest single provider of fuel to NATO in Afghanistan, operates 23 bulk fuel installations around the world with a combined storage capacity in excess of 87 million gallons.


No Limits. As a global support leader in the provision of end to end supply chain solutions, we are empowered to respond quickly and efficiently in order to deliver high-quality service, on demand, anywhere in the world. Our proud legacy of proven and trusted performance in challenging environments spans over fifty years and 30 nations.

At Supreme Group, we live Supply Unchained. The outcome?

Our clients have the freedom to succeed, the freedom to expand and the freedom to overcome the toughest obstacles.

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SolutionsProvider

Gail M. Jorgerson

Director of Acquisition U.S. Transportation Command

U.S. TrAnSPorTATion CoMMAnD

2013

Gail M. Jorgenson, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the director, acquisition, U.S. Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. She is responsible for all matters related to the pro-gram management and acquisition of common-user transportation services, transportation-related services, and information technology support for USTRANSCOM’s global transportation mission and the distribution process mission. She provides acquisition support for more than $7.3 billion in transportation services. She has a broad base of acquisition experience gained through a variety of positions with the Department of Agriculture, Coast Guard, Defense Mapping Agency and Air Mobility Command.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in business education from Southern Illinois University in 1983 and a master’s degree in pro-curement and acquisition management from Webster University in 1985. In 2000 she earned a master’s degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. In 2005 she was in the Senior Executive Fellows Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

She joined USTRANSCOM in 1993 as acquisition manager and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in January 2010. She became the acquisition director in 2011.

Q: Tell me about the role of the Directorate of Acquisition within USTRANSCOM? How does AQ support the command strategy?

A: Let me begin by saying that our acquisition workforce is a world-class innovative group of professionals. They fully support the com-mand’s global transportation and distribution mission by working very closely with our industry partners and our customers.

Our Acquisition Directorate’s contracting and program manage-ment functions are well integrated into the command strategy. We develop and mature relationships with each of our strategic airlift and sealift commercial industry partners, and we build upon their best practices in our contracts. We also collaborate with industry to provide the best service possible to our customers.

Because they are so significant to the Defense Transportation Sys-tem, we consider them as the commander’s fifth component. Com-mercial industry provides 90 to 95 percent of our wartime capability. Working together, we build acquisition solutions to maintain our overall readiness to support the warfighter.

I take great pride in our successes in training and developing our people. Almost 180 of our acquisition professionals are experts in contracting and program management. Our customer-focused staff is highly qualified and highly educated: More than 95 percent have bachelor’s degrees, 57 percent have master’s degrees, and more than

95 percent have Level I, II or III Acquisition or Program Management certifications.

But what makes this team even more professionally effective is their depth of understanding of the transportation industry. Under-standing our strategic partners’ business models and incentive needs makes DoD a better partner in the relationship.

We ensure our staff has all required formal courses, and we routinely provide directorate-level training on acquisition topics. On average, our supervisors have more than 20 years of acquisition experience. In addition, through our robust intern we work with new entrants into the acquisition career field entrants to provide them the classroom training and on-the-job developmental assignments to prepare them for journey-level positions.

Q: What is the total amount of your annual contract buys and what are some of the key awards? What has been the trend in those key areas? Do you see it stabilizing in the near term?

A: We have seen the number of contracts and dollar value drop in the last two fiscal years. In fiscal year 2013, we processed over 4,900 contract actions valued at $5.5 billion, compared to more than 6,000 contract actions valued at $7.8 billion in fiscal year 2012.

Gail M. JorgensonDirector of Acquisition

U.S. Transportation Command

Solutions ProviderDeveloping and Maturing Global Transportation Relationships

Q&AQ&A

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U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND

We realize the budget will continue to decrease, but we must also maintain our readiness capability within the transportation industry.

We will continue to foster a competitive environment and maximize dollars by awarding best value contracts at a reasonable price. We will do this through constant communication with the industry, seeking mutual best practices as well as clearly defining our requirements.

Q: I’d like to focus on a couple of specific areas. How has the USC matured? Has it lived up to expectations? Does the contract have an expected end date or is the next-generation replacement being developed?

A: The Universal Services Contract, or USC, has grown from a pri-marily port-to-port shipping contract to an end-to-end/door-to-door solution for our customers. The contract has evolved to meet the needs of the warfighter in the last 10 years, and through the USC we have achieved incredible things: creating the Northern Distribu-tion Network, cultivating the idea for a commercial multimodal solution to move cargo, and finding unique solutions to satisfy the complex requirements of our customers such as the Defense Logis-tics Agency.

I believe the USC has exceeded our expectations. However, as the world continues to change, so must our contracts. World events requiring U.S. action can happen at any time and any place. Our contracts must provide the flexibility and agility to meet changing needs. I anticipate the USC contract will continue as our premier commercial sealift contract, but USC-8 will see requirements change to meet the future needs of our customers. We have to take the lessons learned from the last 10 years of war and apply those smartly to our future contracts.

Q: How are the commercial multimodal contracts working?

A: I’m very excited about the maturing of the multimodal contracts. I can say the multimodal contracts are working well and are exceed-ing our expectations. We are using these contracts to move Depart-ment of Defense and other U.S. government cargo globally, door to door, by multiple modes of transportation, including airlift, sealift and line haul globally, to and from multiply locations.

This relatively new acquisition incorporates the values of the CRAF and VISA (Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement) partner-ship, while moving the acquisition forward to meet the evolving capabilities of industry. Through our CRAF and VISA partners, we are capitalizing on existing industry infrastructure and contractor resources to solicit daily spot-bids, reducing contractor risk and driving down overall costs. The not-to-exceed rates established with initial awards were a baseline allowing prime contractors the oppor-tunity to offer lower rates when specifically defined requirements are identified and solicited under this process. We have achieved per pound rates approximately 60 percent below the not-to-exceed contract rates with the multimodal contracts.

Q: How have contracts for Civil Reserve Air Fleet carriers evolved?

A: Since Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, CRAF con-tracts overall remained consistent, with some adjustments to

contract language based on more than a decade of war in the wake of 9/11. During fiscal year 2002, the value of the contracts jumped from $700 million annually to more than $1 billion annually, and continued to climb to a peak of over $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2010.

Although contract value was still over $2 billion in fiscal year 2012, the drawdown in Afghanistan coupled with restrained budgets is shifting cargo transportation from air to sea and land. We are forecasting that for fiscal year 2016 and beyond, contract value will decrease to less than $300 million annually.

As a result, USTRANSCOM and its component Air Mobility Command are engaged in a thorough study of the CRAF program to determine the balance of DoD’s need for commercial airlift with the requirement for military aircrew training. The study will help us incorporate changes to the CRAF to maintain readiness into fiscal year 2016 and beyond.

Q: Have you been ramping up air and sea carrier contracts in anticipation of the retrograde from Afghanistan? What is the esti-mated overall cost for retrograde? How are you looking to moder-ate those costs?

A: We’ve built enough route capacity to have maximum flexibility in our operations. Options for air direct, multimodal and surface routing provide U.S. Central Command choices in the event of unforeseen political, economic or natural disaster interruptions. At the tactical level, a USTRANSCOM liaison officer supports U.S. Forces-Afghanistan who maintains direct communication, assess-ments and analysis of events, actions or decisions affecting the strategic transportation network.

USTRANSCOM provides route guidance for retrograde and rede-ployment cargo from Afghanistan using CENTCOM’s priorities of operational flexibility, strategic engagement and cost. The guidance also maximizes the use of routes through Pakistan after meeting minimum route flexibility and engagement requirements.

Q: How does USTRANSCOM ensure quality and safety of the aircraft and ships under contract? What kind of quality control authority do you have?

A: For airlift, Air Mobility Command manages the DoD Commercial Airlift Review Board (CARB) safety oversight program mandated by federal and DoD regulations. The CARB enforces compliance with quality and safety requirements for commercial airlines providing passenger and cargo charter services for the DoD. If for any reason an air carrier loses its CARB-approved status for safety concerns, DoD ceases using that carrier immediately.

Contracting officer’s representatives (CORs) at our most fre-quently used locations have oversight of contract quality and com-pliance. Contracting officers train and evaluate the CORs on critical performance items such as aircraft cleanliness, food safety, passen-ger handling, etc. Poor performance or quality is enforced through future business or price reductions.

The USC allows the government to use scheduled liner service on cargo ships. DoD cargo is shipped on the same U.S. flag vessels that are transporting commercial cargo. The carriers are responsible for keeping ships up to commercial operating standards, following U.S. Coast Guard and Maritime Administration rules and regula-tions. Contractor use commercial quality control processes/plan

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For more information visit www.arrcnet.com

LEADING THE WAY INLOGISTICS EXCELLENCE

SuperiorShippingSolutions

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2013

Gen. William M. Fraser III, USAF Commander

Col. Shawna O’Brien, USAFJ1 Personnel

Gen. Paul J. Selva, USAFCommander

Rear Adm. Bret Batchelor, USNCommander

Vice Adm. William A. “Andy” Brown, USN

Vice Commander

Bruce A. Busler, SES AC Joint Distribution Process

Analysis Center

Capt. Daryl Hancock, USNJ2 Intelligence

Maj. Gen. David Post, USAJ9 Reserve Component and

Commander, Joint Transportation Reserve Unit

Chief Master Sgt. Andy Kaiser, USAFSenior Enlisted Leader

Command Sgt. Maj. Lemuel Brock, USA

Senior Enlisted Leader

USTRANSCOM LeAdeRS

USTRANSCOM diReCTORS

JOiNT eNAbLiNg CApAbiLiTieS COMMANd AiR MObiLiTy COMMANd


Maj. Gen. Gregory Couch, USAChief of Staff

Rear Adm. David F. Baucom, USN

J5/4 Strategy, Policy, Programs and Logistics

Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Richardson, USA

Commander

James L. McGinley, SESJ8 Program Analysis and Financial Management

Gail Jorgenson, SESAQ Acquisition

Rear Adm. Thomas J. Shannon, USN

Commander

Chief Master Sgt. Martin Klukas, USAF

Senior Enlisted Leader

Brig. Gen Sarah E. Zabel, USAF J6 Command Control

Communications & Cyber Systems

Command Sgt. Maj. Cedric J. Thomas, USA

Command Sergeant Major

Maj. Gen. Rowayne “Wayne” Schatz Jr., USAF

J3 Operations and Plans

Col. David O’Brien, USAFSG Command Surgeon

Master Chief Petty Officer Kevin Blade, USN

Command Master Chief

MiLiTARy SeALiFT COMMANd

Col. Michael J. Benjamin, USA JA Staff Judge Advocate

SURFACe depLOyMeNT ANd diSTRibUTiON COMMANd

to ensure quality service is provided throughout the term of the contract and must notify the COR of any problems or failures that may affect performance. CORs monitor contractor performance using standard techniques such as inspections, U.S. government-generated management reports, contractor reports and customer feedback.

Q: How similar are USTC’s acquisitions and management systems compared to those in the commercial world? Do your systems allow you to directly communicate and share data with other services and commands—such as DLA? What about commercial partners?

A: USTRANSCOM uses many of the acquisition and management systems that allow for government and commercial interaction and data sharing. Most have been developed for USTRANSCOM needs, and certain functions are restricted for government use only.

We use PD2 as our primary contract writing tool to build solici-tations, award contracts and for other contract actions. It also allows us to report data associated with these actions to other government entities including Congress.

USTRANSCOM and Air Mobility Command’s Tanker Airlift Control Center use the Web-based COINS (Commercial Operations Integrated System) to procure and award commercial chartered airlift requirements.

DoD members and their families have access to the Defense Personal Property System (DPS), [which] is a Web-based system for moving household goods through the Defense Personal Prop-erty Program (DP3). DPS rewards transportation service providers (TSPs) who provide better service at lower rates by giving them repeat business. DPS interacts with DoD personnel, personal prop-erty shipping offices, and TSPs to provide online counseling, select-ing a TSP, and invoicing.

USTRANSCOM’s component command, the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, uses interactive systems as well, allowing customers and contractors to interact and share data. Systems like Global Freight Management and the Integrated Book-ing System are used to identify requirements and order transporta-tion services. The Carrier ITV Entry Tool is used to track shipments and the Cargo and Billing System is used to verify ocean carrier invoices for payment and bill DoD shippers.

Q: How have you partnered with industry to understand and share best practices, to exchange experiences and take advantage of the parts of their business in common with yours?

A: We remain extremely committed to enhancing our relationships with our commercial partners through open communication and trust. We have created forums to help facilitate two-way sharing of ideas. We have increased our engagement with industry at the earlier stages of acquisition through integrated process teams and pre-award conferences. Such activities help the acquisition com-munity better understand industry capabilities and commercial best practices.

Following major awards, we put together an after action report that incorporates both negative and positive feedback received from key stakeholders, customers and carriers. We apply the informa-tion as lessons-learned for future procurements. Additionally, we

continue our dialogue with the USC, CRAF and multimodal con-tractors through scheduled carrier meetings and ‘hot wash’ sessions to address any contractual and operational issues.

At the strategic level, USTRANSCOM engages industry through the Corporate Executive Acquisition Board to collaborate and share ideas on distribution and acquisition issues. The board comprises representatives from the air, sea and surface carriers and meets on a quarterly basis to discuss top-level transportation acquisition issues. Most recently USTRANSCOM created a Surface Executive Working Group based on the success of the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement EWG, the CRAF EWG and feedback received from the National Defense Transportation Association meetings.

Q: What is your relationship with small business? How much of what you do is contracted with small businesses; is that the right amount or should the number be higher or lower?

A: USTRANSCOM has a positive relationship with small businesses. Last fiscal year, we made contact with over 270 small businesses. This interaction gives us a greater understanding of capabilities within the small business community available to meet mission requirements. We consider the information we obtain early in the planning phase of each acquisition to ensure we have maximum participation from small businesses

USTRANSCOM exceeded its fiscal year 2013 small business goal of 15 percent set by DoD by almost 2.5 percent. We awarded $1.23 million more to small disadvantaged veteran-owned small busi-nesses compared to FY 2012, and $1.16 million more to Hub zones. We achieved much of the success through small business set-asides. In fact, we awarded about $30.2 million to small business in three of our major IT support programs, where the incumbent was histori-cally large business.

We will continue to the trend to support small businesses in fiscal year 2014. Two of the five awards made since October 1 were to small businesses replacing large business incumbents. Program totals are valued at about $17.6 million.

Small businesses wanting to learn more about USTRANSCOM programs can access the “Doing Business with USTRANSCOM” website (www.transcom.mil/doing_business.cfm) or contact the small business office at 618-220-7066.

Q: Anything you’d like to add about USTRANSCOM Acquisition?

A: DoD’s 2010 Better Buying Power initiative mandates defense agencies to “Do More Without More.” USTRANSCOM’s experienced acquisition workforce is carrying out this mandate by establishing best practices for acquiring transportation and related services. Innovative acquisition solutions have resulted in greater efficiencies and increased industry productivity.

The declining DoD budget and drawdown from Afghanistan has led to a downward trend of customer requirements, both in volume and level of service. We will continue to work with our cus-tomers and strategic industry partners to ensure we can support daily and contingency transportation requirements. We remain focused on maximum operational capability and will employ those acquisition strategies that promote awarding contracts to the provider that achieves the warfighter’s operational objectives at a reasonable cost. O



Comprehensive FinanCial serviCes

USTRANSCOM is conducting market research to determine the feasibility of a company providing indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract services for USTRANSCOM Program Analysis and Financial Management Directorate (TCJ8). TCJ8’s diverse composition along with the DoD cost culture transformation neces-sitates on-demand services at any given time. TCJ8 formulates and integrates the command’s budget while focused on the effective and efficient use of the com-mand’s resources. TCJ8 develops command fiscal policy procedures and resolves issues on the use of the combatant commandwide $13.5 billion Transportation Working Capi-tal Fund (TWCF) budget.

TCJ8 requires support services to pro-vide financial management/cost analysis, program cost analysis, compliancy, sup-port financial IT, and operational sup-port of logistics and financial information. This analysis and information supports TWCF billings, government accounting and financial analyst functions, resource advisor budget support, acquisition cost analysis, financial analysis studies, com-mand initiatives and business process sup-port, cost modeling, accounting, financial improvement audit readiness, systems accounting functions, billings and revenue support, billing rate development, internal controls and quality assurance, and infor-mation technology financial and opera-tional support as required and identified in each specific task.

TransporTaTion DeCision supporT sysTem

USTRANSCOM has issued a sources sought inquiry seeking sources that pos-sess the availability and capability to pro-vide a Web-based geographic information system integrated with automated business rules enabling mission management for

transportation professionals. The system may become a primary support platform for a variety of transportation business missions, which fall into two primary cat-egories. The first is mission management for the movement of goods, and the second is transportation infrastructure analysis.

Global FreiGhT manaGemenT

The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) is the surface transportation component of the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). SDDCs primary func-tions include worldwide port operations, global traffic management, deployability engineering, and development of inte-grated transportation systems. SDDC’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Information Man-agement/Chief Information Manager (IM/CIO) supports SDDC’s mission by design-ing, developing, implementing and operat-ing standard DoD transportation systems for which SDDC has been assigned respon-sibility. The Surface Cargo Branch sup-ports the SDDC mission by managing global freight management (GFM). GFM is the capstone automated execution system of the Defense Transportation System for the movement of domestic freight. It is also used to a certain degree as an outside the continental United States shipping tool. GFM consists of a host computer and database located at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. Users access the GFM system through the Electronic Transportation Acquisition (ETA) System via an Internet connection 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

USTRANSCOM and DoD relative stake-holders (Office of Secretary of Defense, joint staff, combatant commands, mili-tary services, defense agencies, and other departmental organizations) is seeking subject matter experts, functional analysts and additional labor categories who can provide automatic identification technol-ogy (AIT) and in-transit visibility (ITV) pro-gram support. The AIT/ITV-related projects and implementations would support both

the DoD concept of operations for supply and distribution and the related DoD AIT Implementation Plan, focused logistics, total asset visibility, integration within the DoD supply chain, and those tasks that assist USTRANSCOM in addressing auto-matic data capture policies and standards, assessing AIT technology, examining future trends, and recommending depart-ment policies providing the warfighter the best possible integrated solution.

The government intends to award one labor-hour indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract resulting from this solic-itation which will include a base year and two one-year option periods. The period of performance will be from approxi-mately March 17, 2014, through March 16, 2017. Task Order 1 and future task orders will be issued against the contract. The requirement will be managed by the USTRANSCOM, Directorate of Acquisition, Distribution Process Owner Division, Scott AFB, Ill.

CombineD JoinT operaTions area-aFGhanisTan shorT

Take-oFF anD lanDinG low CosT/low alTiTuDe aerial Drop,

CarGo serviCe, passenGer serviCe, anD CombineD serviCe

The government intends to solicit writ-ten proposals for low cost/low altitude (LCLA) aerial delivery services through-out Afghanistan, Kyrgystan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. The contractor shall provide one fixed wing aircraft, personnel, equip-ment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform short take-off and landing LCLA aerial delivery of para-drop resupply bundles, cargo, pas-senger, and combined air transportation services between locations in the area of responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgystan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

The contractor shall provide no more than 10 hours of flight time per day. The government anticipates contracting approximately 150 hours per aircraft per

usTransCom has a number a iniTiaTives in The works seekinG soluTions To operaTional, aDminisTraTive anD sTruCTural requiremenTs. uTilizinG non-DevelopmenTal anD more oFF-The-shelF CapabiliTies beneFiTs inDusTry anD The DoD.

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month and allows six days per month for scheduled/unscheduled maintenance. Aircraft shall be available for services 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Flight missions are intended to originate and ter-minate at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, or other suitable airfields that will support flight operations.

The contractor shall provide passen-ger/cargo aircraft that are twin-engine, fixed wing, unpressurized and have the flexibility to transport cargo (as para-drop resupply bundles or as palletized cargo) and passengers. Total aircraft lift capabil-ity will equal a minimum of 4,000 pounds at above 10 degrees Celsius for a 400-mile length stage non-stop during instrument flight rules conditions. Aircraft at a mini-mum must be able to operate from an unimproved 3,500-foot runway at sea level. Aircraft may operate on runways shorter than 3,500 feet, but such operations must be executed in compliance with the air-craft technical manual for performance, weight and balance. The pilot in command has final authority for all operations and retains responsible for the safe operation of the aircraft at all times. Aircraft must have the ability to hold a minimum of nine pas-sengers with an alternate configuration for cargo only. Aircraft shall have the capabil-ity to change configurations as required by USFOR-A. Carriers will be given 48 hours to change configurations.

aGile TransporTaTion For The 21sT CenTury

Market research is being conducted to gain industry input as related to an anticipated requirement for Enterprise Capability Development, Integration and Sustainment in support of Agile Trans-portation for the 21st Century. Inputs will be used to help develop the government’s acquisition strategy in support of this requirement. In addition, responses gen-erated from this market research will be used to assist in determining whether the requirement should be issued as a small business set aside.

TransporTaTion proTeCTive serviCe

USTRANSCOM Acquisition Directorate has issued a solicitation/request for pro-posal for transportation protective service

(TPS) on behalf of SDDC. SDDC’s mis-sion is to provide surface transportation to meet DoD’s national security objec-tives in peacetime and wartime. As such, SDDC is responsible for the management and oversight of shipments requiring TPS. They are looking for contractors to provide all personnel, equipment, tools, materials, supervision and other items and services necessary to provide transportation ser-vices to, from, within, and between the CONUS, Alaska, and Canada for the move-ment of arms, ammunition and explosives (AA&E), AA&E hazardous material, clas-sified (secret and confidential), sensitive and controlled cryptographic items, and materials requiring movement with TPS.

CraDa parTners souGhT

USTRANSCOM, on behalf of SDDC, is seeking non-federal partners (collabo-rators) from industry and academia for consideration to enter into cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs). USTRANSCOM/SDDC is seek-ing CRADA collaborators to explore and advance the military’s ability to create feasible container loading plans which are more effective than the military’s current capability in accommodating irregularly- or complex-shaped items, resulting in more efficient use of container volume and decreased transportation costs. The com-plex-shaped items typically have a dimen-sion greatly differing from the others, are far from cubical or rectangular in overall shape, and may be separately packed for shipment, making otherwise void spaces in the container unusable for other items, and requiring significant additional han-dling, packaging and cushioning. The pri-mary container of interest is the typical military ISO 20-foot or commercial 40-foot container; however, adaptability of the techniques to other containers (high cube and flat rack) or transportation methods is also of interest.

USTRANSCOM and MSDDC are inter-ested in collaborating on all aspects of the problem, including:

• The entire system of accommodating complex items, including methods of automated capture of physical dimensions in field use, data architectures and data storage/transmission methods, algorithms to

select the best kind of container and optimize the use of container volume (to maximize container utilization and/or minimize delivery cost)

• Production of a load plan for an individual container or across a fleet of containers

• Improved methods of accurately and easily capturing the dimensions of irregularly- or complex-shaped items’ dimensions, in practice in the field at austere locations in the continental United States (CONUS) or beyond CONUS, as well as in well-equipped storage locations or transportation nodes

• Predicted reliability, durability and affordability (including return on investment) of the techniques

• Improvements to software algorithms that build optimized container load plans to accommodate complex-shaped items

• Ability to optimize loads which include multiple complex-shaped items in a single container, or across a set of containers

• Integration requirements for new hardware and software components into existing DoD systems (ICODES as one example)

• Features and utility of existing systems and techniques currently used outside of DoD, but potentially adaptable to DoD use and the effort required in doing so

• Methodology for choosing between containerization and breakbulk configuration for individual items

• Improvements to human-computer interfaces (i.e., better visualization and manipulation of computed loading solutions)

• Assurance of feasibility and utility of the new techniques in realistic field-use environments, including austere locations lacking data communications, power supplies, etc.

• Operator training requirements and ownership and maintenance concepts. O


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Vice Admiral William A. Brown is the deputy commander, U.S. Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. USTRANS-COM is the single manager for global air, land and sea transpor-tation for the Department of Defense.

Brown previously served as the USTRANSCOM director of Strategy, Policy, Programs and Logistics (J5/4). Prior to his arrival at USTRANSCOM from Headquarters United States Euro-pean Command, Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany, Brown served as the director of Logistics (J4). He directed logistical support for U.S. forces assigned to the United States European Command theater of operations.

He previously served as commander, Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers, San Diego. Prior to assuming his position at COMFISCS, he served as the fleet supply officer at U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk.

Brown hails from Gloucester County, Va. A Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps scholarship student at Virginia Military Institute, he was commissioned in the Navy in May 1980. He received a master’s degree in business administration from the Navy Postgraduate School in 1990 and attended Stanford Busi-ness School Executive Training Program in 2004.

Brown has served in a variety of sea and shore duty assign-ments providing him with extensive logistics and management expertise. His initial sea tour was aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), where he served as disbursing officer, wardroom officer and stock control officer. He served as supply officer aboard USS Leftwich (DD 984) during Operation Nimble Archer and com-pleted his sea assignments as supply officer aboard USS George Washington (CVN 73) during Operation Southern Watch in 2000.

Ashore, he was assigned to the Naval Air Systems Command; the former Naval Aviation Supply Office; commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet; Naval Supply Systems Command and commander, Naval Air Forces. During the initial phases of Opera-tions Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, he was the opera-tions director at the Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia.

His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (four awards), Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (two awards), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and various

other decorations. He is a qualified naval aviation supply corps officer and surface warfare supply corps officer. Brown is a 1989 recipient of the Navy League’s Vice Admiral Robert F. Batchelder Award.

Q: As you transition to your new role as USTRANSCOM deputy, do you see the role and responsibilities of the position being the same as they have been for your predecessors?

A: I am proud and excited to have been selected as the U.S. Transportation Command deputy commander and to serve Gen-eral Fraser in leading this fine organization. I don’t see the role and responsibilities of this position changing much from what they have been in the past. My most recent predecessor, Lieuten-ant General Kathy Gainey, was a great role model. She brought insightful leadership, logistics savvy and common sense to this position. She had a positive impact on USTRANSCOM and helped us solve many complex logistics problems at some very key and historic moments. We want to keep that momentum up.

Some of the most interesting times are ahead of us as we deal with a new normal and drawing down from the U.S. Central Com-mand area of operations after more than a dozen years of war. As we turn toward the Pacific and toward Africa, we look forward

Vice Admiral William A. “Andy” Brown Deputy Commander

U.S. Transportation Command

Resource AlignerProviding Global Mobility and Strategic Enablers to Deliver National Power

Q&AQ&A


to creating and nurturing relationships with our international partners and finding creative ways to keep military and commer-cial transportation fleets viable, as well as leveraging our many enabling capabilities in planning, communications and rapid response in support of our nation’s defense.

Q: USTRANSCOM rolled out its strategy last year. What is the status of strategy implementation?

A: Together with our partners, we provide global mobility and strategic enablers to rapidly deliver national power and influ-ence—anytime, anywhere. We were deliberate and particularly thoughtful as we developed a command strategy to lead us through changing operating and fiscal environments. Today, the USTRANSCOM team is committed to preserving readiness; achieving information technology management excellence; aligning resources and processes for mission success; and devel-oping customer-focused professionals.

Our Enterprise Readiness Center (ERC), formed from exist-ing staff, ensures future requirements are integrated into defense transportation business processes. It evaluates transpor-tation opportunities, develops customer-focused transportation and distribution solutions, and collaborates with our partners to preserve organic military readiness and the viability of com-mercial partnerships.

The ERC has increased both frequency and level of engage-ment with industry to garner best practices and receive input from carriers on how we can operate more efficiently and effec-tively. The ERC has also created a partnership with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency for a more comprehensive plan to move foreign military sales shipments, and the center staff has facilitated with others in the command improved multi-modal contracts mainly in support of Afghanistan operations.

We restructured our investment management to better align IT with our operational mission. We will achieve our objective of efficient, effective and secure information in a resource-con-strained environment through consolidating contracts and by using a single, unifying framework to drive system investment.

The strategy gave us clarity to better position the command to deliver essential global distribution and global mobility capa-bilities after congressional budget sequestration. We clarified roles and functions to focus on core responsibilities and that drove internal staff realignments, streamlined business pro-cesses and consolidated contracts to reduce costs. Reducing costs was one of the key areas the military services wanted us to address. Improving our business processes is a journey that will take us several years. We can and will get there.

Our customers told us we have room for improvement in human relations and communication. In response, we formed a working group from our staff and components to emphasize four key values: collaboration, trust, empowerment and innova-tion.

Leaders from the corporate world have helped us with work-shops on innovative thinking, customer focus, leadership and culture. Our professional development now emphasizes people skills as well as job skills. We created an innovation award to recognize creativity in meeting mission requirements. We’ve also conducted financial and stress management training to help our staff during this period of fiscal uncertainty.

Q: How is the USTRANSCOM budget broken out as far as Transportation Working Capital Funds, RDT&E, and O&M levels? Although one can never predict the future, what is the command planning to do to tighten your budget belt?

A: The Transportation Working Capital Fund (TWCF) pays for about 99 percent of USTRANSCOM component missions. In fiscal year 2013, the TWCF spent $10.3 billion in support of our global transportation mission. In addition, the USTRANS-COM staff spent $26 million in research, development, test and evaluation dollars for innovative joint technologies to address Distribution Process Owner and Defense Transportation System capability gaps. The command also spent $87 million in opera-tions and maintenance appropriated funds, mostly for the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command.

USTRANSCOM is deeply committed to driving down over-head costs. We set a strategic metric to manage overhead within 10 percent of total cost. This is an ambitious goal as our total budget continues to decline as contingency operations con-clude. IT programs comprise one of our key areas of emphasis. In the past year we reprioritized and re-baselined our entire IT budget within our strategic goals to reduce command costs and achieve savings. This effort resulted in a $50 million com-mandwide decrease through fiscal year 2015 and a $100 million decrease through fiscal year 2016.

We are reducing our headquarters operating costs in incre-ments. We are also targeting a 20 percent reduction to TWCF headquarters costs at USTRANSCOM and at the headquarters of our Transportation Component Commands. This amounts to a $97 million cost reduction by fiscal year 2019.

Our commitment to efficiency extends beyond overhead. We have a proven track record of initiatives to keep our customers’ transportation costs low. In fiscal year 2013 alone, we helped our customers avoid $305 million in transportation costs by better utilizing the DoD distribution system; these efforts include loading our surface containers and airlift pallets more efficiently.

We also helped our customers avoid $114 million in trans-portation costs by directing them to more cost-efficient trans-portation solutions; examples include shifting from air-direct missions to surface and multi-modal, finding shorter flight paths, and aggregating units to fly fewer airlift missions. Look-ing ahead, we will continue our efforts to pursue lower-cost transportation solutions that will meet our customers’ needs. It is all about balancing the readiness of our organic fleet of air-craft and ships with the readiness capabilities our commercial partners bring to the table.

Q: How is USTRANSCOM evaluating the right mix of organic airlift capacity with that of its commercial partners? What is the current thinking on the best strategy to maximize the Civil Reserve Air Fleet?

A: We see achieving the right mix of organic and commercial airlift capacity as a readiness issue. Future requirements are unpredictable and could potentially have an impact on both fly-ing hours for military aircraft and on commercial opportunities. Our focus is to preserve readiness of both organic and commer-cial fleets. We are taking a hard look at requirements, and we are


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conducting a study of the CRAF program to ensure we have the right balance of organic and commercial lift.

Our goal is to find out how we can maintain a viable com-mercial fleet ready to augment our organic forces when needed. We are in this together with our industry partners, and we will continue to maintain open communications and transparency. We must maintain the readiness of the entire Joint Deployment Distribution Enterprise, including our CRAF partners, to serve our nation in times of need.

Q: If USTRANSCOM is like most organizations, there is a wide variety of IT systems—both hardware and software—across the depth of the command. What are the challenges to keep those systems operating and communicating with each other? Is there a need for, and if so, a plan to upgrade the architecture of the IT system to bring more commonality? What are the chal-lenges to keep IT systems operating and communicating with each other?

A: We rely heavily on IT systems for our day-to-day global deploy-ment and distribution operations. We place a high priority on ensuring these systems communicate with each other and pro-vide decision-ready information to our leaders and our custom-ers. Our proactive approach to IT management mitigates risk and provides best value while ensuring operations are conducted in an effective, efficient and secure environment.

Last year, we transformed the means to conduct IT portfo-lio management, risk assessments and IT budget formulation through a mission area management construct. The construct makes the operational community responsible for synchroniz-ing IT solutions with the investment process to ensure effective, secure and efficient information delivery. Using the construct, we identified an annual IT cost savings of $20 million in fiscal year 2014, an additional $30 million in fiscal year 2015 and another $50 million in fiscal year 2015, which equates to $100 million from fiscal year 2014 to fiscal year 2016. These cost savings were rolled into the baseline through the FYDP. We have also been successful in reducing IT requirement validation times, reducing budget submission cycle times, providing decision-ready staff packages, and reducing IT portfolio funding through best-value enterprise decisions.

We are developing an operational blueprint for our strate-gic business processes to better serve our customers by using mode-agnostic air, surface and multi-modal operations. We are changing IT management from a system-centric to a capabilities-based approach for additional cost savings while maintaining the highest levels of customer support.

Future mission area management focus is on mode-agnostic transportation supporting multi-modal operations. We’ll move away from a focus on individual systems and manage capabilities and the related IT. The capabilities support our command and enterprise partners, aligned to a plan, order, ship, track and pay structure. We are developing a strategic architecture that improves the integration of USTRANSCOM and our transporta-tion component command processes, and a five-year implemen-tation plan. It’s important, too, that the command will reduce the management of hardware and software where it makes sense and continue to provide improved customer service as the DoD transportation provider of choice.

Q: Last year there was some conversation about bringing the Transportation Working Capital Fund systems into a secure environment and protect them from cyber threats. What prog-ress has that effort made, and where do you go from here?

A: USTRANSCOM has made significant progress toward mov-ing the TWCF systems into a single, more secure environment. In October, we migrated the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command command-and-control and business systems network into the USTRANSCOM network. We began migrating Air Mobility Command’s worldwide mission system and network into our network in September, with a scheduled completion by spring 2014. The result will be a single, more responsive security boundary as well as unified computer net-work defense services protecting TWCF systems.

In addition to network consolidation, we have established a common environment to increase software assurance during software development. We have created a common production environment to host C2 and mission systems for greater effi-ciency. Our systems have begun migrating to this environment.

We are actively participating in DoD’s efforts to create a Joint Information Environment, helping to shape JIE design. Taken together, these steps will help us leverage JIE enterprise services as they come into the field for greater efficiency in providing a secure information environment.

Q: Can you elaborate on the 2013 En Route Infrastructure Master Plan and how well you have measured up against proj-ect status and goals? Can you offer any insight into the 2014 projects?

A: Our En Route Infrastructure Master Plan, or ERIMP, is a valuable tool used to synchronize our long-term infrastructure and access strategy. Through a rigorous analytical process, the USTRANSCOM global posture plan outlines our key overseas nodes we’ll need over the next 10 to 15 years, and identifies gaps or shortfalls at those locations.

Since the ERIMP describes what we need to support our geographic combatant command customers, we collaborate closely with their staffs to mutually inform and affect each other’s plans. Although military construction funding is get-ting extremely difficult to secure, we’ve successfully advocated for our highest priority projects. For example, the Army is now going to fund critical pier improvements at the Military Ocean Terminal Concord (Calif.), and the Air Force has now programmed a key airfield Southwest Asia for fiscal year 2015.

We’re particularly excited about the 2014 ERIMP now under development. In addition to identifying key infrastructure short-falls, the updated ERIMP is going to also address other access gaps. These include creating a list of priority agreement gaps that we need assistance with from geographic combatant com-mands and the Department of State, and can be used to focus our own strategy for senior leader engagements. In addition, we’ll be highlighting expedient military capabilities for access in austere environments, such as airport and seaport damage recovery, joint logistics over the shore, and the joint task force-port opening team. These critical capabilities are absolutely essential to preserve long-term readiness and ensuring we can deliver anytime, anywhere.


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Q: Is it a challenge to align DoD transportation policy and regulations with that of the federal government? Is there a pro-cess for variations and how they are addressed and managed?

A: With today’s technology, the U.S. government has achieved a level of integration unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. With just a mouse click, we are able to tap into the community mindset, doctrine and policies of most federal agencies. This offers us a tremendous opportunity to align our transportation policies and regulations with those of our partner agencies. The Federal Register provides information on government-wide new or modified processes, policies, regulations and practices put into place by our federal collaborative partners in the Depart-ments of Homeland Security, State and Agriculture, and other federal agencies.

For example, we recently implemented an initiative where the Department of State arranges shipment of DoD personal property for military members stationed at U.S. embassies. This initiative originated during a meeting of the Whole-of-Govern-ment Logistics Council. The WGLC is a forum that identifies areas for improvement in logistics common across departments. Access to the Federal Register also provides us an excellent forum to submit comments to improve final regulations in areas that have an impact on the Defense Transportation System.

Of course, when you consider the nature of our business and similarities among our command and other federal organiza-tions involved in transportation and logistics, there’s always the possibility that new or modified guidance could conflict with DoD established policies and practices and those of other fed-eral entities. As policies and regulations evolve and conflicts are identified, USTRANSCOM in its role as DoD’s distribution pro-cess owner coordinates with the military services, defense agen-cies and combatant commands to implement updates across the DoD transportation enterprise.

One way we do this is by capturing evolving policy and procedural updates in the Defense Transportation Regulation, which offers guidance on such various topics as passenger and cargo movement, shipment of personal property and household goods, and global customs policies. Through coordination, the other federal organizations get the opportunity to review updates and recommend changes.

Q: USTRANSCOM recently co-sponsored a meeting to stimu-late wider interest and inquiry into technical and professional issues involving DoD transportation. What were the take-aways from the meeting, and do you think the meeting met its goals?

A: We fully recognize the future impact to our distribution and transportation capability and capacity from sequestration as well as the Iraq and Afghanistan drawdown, and the need to work more closely with our partners. We need thoughtful and deliberate decisions to preserve readiness and satisfy national security objectives while recognizing fiscal reality.

USTRANSCOM served as co-sponsor with the National Defense Transportation Association for a fall meeting to empha-size our desire for more collaboration and cooperation with and among our partners. We held roundtable/town hall discussions on the issues of reset and rebalance. The result: Both govern-ment and industry leaders openly discussed the state of the

Defense Transportation System, challenges and areas of future opportunity. I would say the main takeaway for me is that we are on course with our strategy and focus areas: the need to preserve readiness via our commercial and organic capability; the need to achieve IT excellence to enhance decision-making; better align resources and processes to meet the needs of future operations; and develop a customer-focused workforce to improve our ability to satisfy warfighter requirements.

One of our biggest goals was to improve relationships, and the best way to do that is with frequent, honest communica-tion. I can’t think of a better way to establish trust-based, open lines of communication than through face-to-face discussions. Transforming a combatant command is not easy. We will need the help and creativity of our fellow agencies and our indus-try partners. This meeting set the stage for working together going forward.

Q: Have there been any noticeable effects on morale or employee retention following the government-driven fur-loughs? Has the command been able to do things to better look out for the well-being of its people?

A: In looking out for the well-being of our entire workforce, we have put into action several initiatives to develop our per-sonnel into a premier customer-focused team. Our training program encourages individuals to connect the dots of their everyday duties to the bigger picture of the command’s mis-sion. We’re creating a framework for building trust, empower-ing the workforce, fostering innovative thinking and building collaborative teams. We’ve developed a human capital board to better oversee and align the right resources for our people to accomplish their mission.

Fortunately, morale is good and retention is stable. Our people are our greatest assets, so we’ve engaged our workforce in various ways. General Fraser has been deeply concerned, using emails, lunches and blog posts to keep the entire team informed of the potential impact of sequestration and fur-loughs. We have asked supervisors, managers and coworkers to be aware of the impact of uncertainty on their teammates, and we’ve offered classes on both stress management and financial management to help. Again, we are blessed with a great team of military [personnel], civilians and contractors. We know we have challenges ahead. But we will face them with respect and forethought.

Q: Do you have any closing thoughts?

A: Yes, I would like to say thank you! I have joined a world-class team that has been tested in times of war and in times of need. These patriots have risen to every challenge to ensure the finest support for our forces stationed around the world. This team well understands it does not work in isolation. In order to support our warfighters and other customers, we rely on our partners to help us shoulder the load. We are commit-ted to providing effective and efficient services to keep the Defense Transportation System ready for an uncharted future. We have proven our mettle and will be ready when our nation needs us. We will continue to put our team motto into action every day: Together, We Deliver. O


When manufacturers/suppliers for key military system components cease provid-ing needed items or raw materials, the weapon systems our country depends on for national security are put at risk. Thus, diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS)—the loss or impending loss of manufacturers/suppliers of items or raw materials—is becoming an increasingly relevant issue for the U.S. military as weapon systems age.

challEngE—kEEPing aging wEaPon systEms in thE fight

Since the mid-1980s, the military has faced growing challenges with DMSMS for several reasons. First, after the Cold War, the Department of Defense began to relax requirements for custom-made mil-spec weapon system parts, which were held to more stringent performance standards than commercial products, and turned instead to commercially available components.

Over the years, these commercial-grade components have begun to fail, but because they are no longer manufactured, the mili-tary must find ways to replace them. In addition, rapid advances in technology and the development of more sophisticated systems have compounded the military’s DMSMS challenges because systems are becoming obsolete much more quickly. On top of that, the explosive growth of the commercial computer and communications industries has left DoD in a position of far less influence in the electronic components marketplace. As a result, DoD weapon sys-tem sustainment is increasingly dependent on commercial components and is thus threatened by obsolescence.

ProactivE dmsms

To keep DoD’s weapon systems func-tioning, the military needs to take a pro-active DMSMS management approach by identifying issues early while there is still

time to budget, plan and implement reso-lutions—in essence, solving obsolescence problems before they have an impact. An efficient proactive DMSMS-mitigation pro-cess is critical to providing effective, afford-able and operationally ready systems by increasing availability and supportability. In order to accomplish this obsolescence management, efforts need to consider each of the following areas:

• Supply support—available inventory and demand data

• COTS product availability—component-level availability of commercial-grade parts

• Obsolescence impact—the effect of component-driven obsolescence issues on weapon systems

• Readiness drivers—failure rates, repair time metrics, etc.

• End of support date—the date when the weapon system will be unsustainable due to obsolescence issues.

This proactive approach uses current, complete and accurate technical data to continuously monitor weapon systems’ obsolescence status over time and to pre-dict the end of support date based on these parameters.

multi-Platform solutions

An essential aspect of this proactive DMSMS management approach is con-ducting integrated multi-platform assess-ments of obsolescence issues across all DoD weapon system platforms so that obsolescence can be identified, evaluated and resolved based on an understanding of the portfolio of weapon systems. Since

Marathon vs. 50-Yard Dash— The DMSMS Dilemma

with nEw tEchnology EmErging at lightning sPEEd, how do wE ProactivEly Prolong thE lifE of aging EquiPmEnt whilE frEEing uP rEsourcEs to dEvEloP nEw systEms?

by scott d. roysE

A KC-135 Stratotanker is seen inside a hangar at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich. During a phase inspection, all of the aircraft’s components are inspected and any necessary maintenance is performed. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force]


defense weapon systems fielded in the same time frame frequently rely on many of the same components, an obsolescence issue in one system can often be tied to a component used in other systems. As such, the military can realize economies of scale by identifying and solving issues across related platforms, thus reducing duplication of effort and cost.

Implementing this multi-platform approach to DMSMS management requires an integrated system to analyze and predict component issues across the bill of materials for all related weapon system platforms as well as a system to prioritize work based on military exi-gency. The process also requires a syner-gistic effort between representatives from the program office, engineering, logistics, the Defense Logistics Agency, the origi-nal equipment manufacturer (OEM) or third-party supplier, and any other orga-nizational representatives who will help manage the process. With these DMSMS management systems in place and strong collaboration between relevant stakehold-ers, the resulting critical parts support will increase weapon system availability, lower sustainment costs, and increase the military’s war fighting capability.

indEPEndEnt assEssmEnts

Analysis from multiple third-party sources provides a wider scope and a more objective review of weapon system obso-lescence issues. There are a number of

cases demonstrating that when the plat-form/system OEM conducts the analysis, the resolution recommendations tend to be heavily weighted to redesign, resulting in a much larger cost.

As noted in the DMSMS Guidebook of Best Practices published by the Defense Standardization Program Office in August 2012, significant cost avoidance can be achieved through independent DMSMS monitoring and surveillance. In one case, for example, an aircraft OEM recom-mended a radar system upgrade to over-come obsolescence issues; however, an independent third-party analysis revealed an alternative resolution that avoided more than $300 million in costs over a 10-year period.

As this example shows, the most cost-effective approach to weapon system sus-tainment often comes in the form of impartial third-party recommendations provided to the government as non-pro-prietary data.

Further, since systematic independent DMSMS analysis produces a comprehen-sive description of weapon system sus-tainment issues, the government needs to have complete and unrestricted data rights to the results of these independent assessment efforts.

PrEParing for tomorrow

Over the past 30 years, a lack of appropriate planning for parts obsoles-cence has caused DoD to spend more of

its budget trying to find solutions for aging systems, leaving less money for modernizing the force with new weapon system procurements.

The time has come to stop stove-piping processes by addressing DMSMS issues using a proactive multi-platform approach and by prioritizing DMSMS challenges based on their impact to national security. Each challenge needs to be addressed and resolved exactly once, leveraging the mili-tary’s investment, maximizing precious defense dollars and freeing up money for new weapon systems. O

Scott D. Royse is vice president-national security and defense programs, NCI Inc.

[email protected]

With more than a decade as editor of Military Information Technology, Harrison Donnelly has the background, relationships and understanding to lead MIT, widely considered the “Voice of Military Communications and Computing” and the most effective and trusted way to reach military IT professionals. His continuity of service guarantees the highest quality of editorial coverage, and makes advertisements in MIT all the more valuable. In a time of turmoil and change in both the defense and publishing worlds, “Hank” is someone who people across the community turn to when they want to deliver a message that makes a difference.

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Many things in life are cyclic. While each cycle has differences, there are also simi-larities. This is especially true within DoD. Throughout our nation’s history there have been wars and military conflicts. There is a period of peace, training and preparation, crisis, buildup, engagement and drawdown to peacetime levels.

Approximately 20 years ago, our nation’s involvement in Desert Shield/Desert Storm (DS/DS) ended. DoD senior leaders focused on learning from that conflict and took action to prepare for the next crisis. Lessons learned were recorded, studied and programs devel-oped to correct shortfalls. From a transporta-tion perspective, the primary focus was on ensuring sufficient strategic lift (air and sea) was available to deploy and sustain forces.

The results were two major acquisition programs—procurement of the C-17 aircraft and the large, medium-speed roll-on roll-off (LMSR) ships. Additionally, action was taken to increase the readiness of the Ready Reserve Force and to ensure the availability of com-mercial airlift assets by significantly changing the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program. U.S. airlines were incentivized to participate in the program through access to govern-ment business.

The Sealift Readiness Program was scrapped and a completely new program called VISA (Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement) was developed. VISA, like CRAF, provided sealift carriers priority access to government cargo and gave the government access to a carrier’s entire capability—ships, terminals, material handling equipment, automated systems and established net-works. The revised CRAF Program and VISA enabled DoD to transition from providing its own organic capability for deploying and sustaining forces to integrating the commercial transportation industry capabil-ity into the Defense Transportation System (DTS). This saves DoD billions of dollars in capital investments.

Twenty years later, we are again in the drawdown phase of the cycle, preparing for a return to peacetime levels. Actions are being taken to revise our national strategy, reduce defense budgets, reduce the size of the force structure, eliminate or curtail major acquisi-tion programs, and shift resources toward

technology, cybersecurity, special operations and submarines.

One piece that appears to be missing is the lessons from DS/DS—strategic lift. With a smaller, more CONUS-based force, sufficient strategic lift will be required to ensure access during peacetime and expand during a crisis. The fleet of C-17s and LMSRs provide the organic strategic lift capability for the foresee-able future. The critical piece requiring vision, innovation, “outside the box” thinking, is the commercial capability. How does DoD ensure the readiness of the commercial capability needed to augment deployment and be the backbone of sustainment operations? It will require a change in culture.

DoD needs to more strongly embrace the commercial transportation and logistics industry. There is a lot of talk about part-nership and implementing commercial best practices, but in the end it is just rhetoric. Industry appears to be viewed as only focused on profit, when in fact, most reputable U.S. businessmen are patriotic Americans sup-porting the economy and national security. Where is the disconnect? It is the culture—the obsolete employee.

High performing organizations need employees with a variety of experiences who are constantly learning, continually rein-venting themselves to stay productive and relevant. Treat service providers as partners and members of the team. In industry, ser-vice providers sit down with the customer to discuss the customer’s goals and objectives, and then work together to achieve these objectives. Place as much focus on changing business practices and processes to achieve efficiencies, as in driving down rates and potentially forcing world class companies to stop doing business with the government. Otherwise the result is the lowest bidder providing low quality work. Listen to indus-try’s advice, challenge their input, and work together to implement the best ideas from both government and industry. Build trust, consult with each other, “test” new processes and systems before implementation, com-promise on issues, and find common ground with the service provider. Collaboration as equals is critical to success.

The majority of action officers in DoD’s operating commands working with industry

have little if any personal industry experi-ence. They are career civilians or retired members of the military who transition to a career civilian position. Most are very capable individuals working within the bureaucracy, but they have minimal industry experience. They do not have experience working in the segment of industry they are manag-ing for the government. Therefore, they do not understand the impact or potential consequences of the policies, regulations, or contracts they are writing or working to implement. Perhaps it is time to establish a goal of hiring 50 percent of all new mid- to senior-level government employees from outside sources. A government organization needs both—employees who understand the government bureaucracy and those that understand industry. Commercial industry recruits former military and government employees to work in their government busi-ness sectors. This may be an industry best practice applicable to the government.

It is time for bold, visionary leaders to bring change to the DoD logistics and trans-portation culture and operations. Think big like the CEOs of America’s largest corpora-tions. The current director of DLA is think-ing big—save DoD $13 billion in six years. What are the big ideas from the lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan for changes in the DTS? O

Lieutenant General Kenneth R. Wykle, USA (Ret.), is president of the National Defense Transportation Association.

by liEutEnant gEnEral kEnnEth r. wyklE, usa (rEt.)


at www.mlf-kmi.com.


The Defense Logistics Agency is using several methods to decrease material costs as part of its effort to shed $13.6 billion in expenditures by 2019.

One area in which DLA expects to drive savings is reverse auctions. Unlike a typical auction where bidders seek to win with a high bid, in a reverse auction vendors lower their prices as they compete to win a contract. Reverse auctions have saved DLA more than $1.6 billion over the past 14 months, DLA Director Navy Vice Admiral Mark Harnitchek said.

In reverse auctions, sellers bid online for contracts. These can be contracts for procurements for items needed to send directly to a customer or to be stored by DLA, or for long-term contracts for a term usually lasting five years, said Carmen Pil-litteri, a business process analyst at DLA Land and Maritime in Columbus, Ohio.

By allowing sellers to view the lowest offer and bid against it, the process creates intense competition between firms, which drives prices down, he said.

“Since it’s a competition-based event, we need to have at least two vendors that are quoting and that are competitive with each other,” Pillitteri said. “When they log in, they see their own price, and they also see the current lowest price on the procurement. They don’t know who their competitors are, and they don’t know how many competitors they have in the auction, but they see the prices and have an opportunity to lower their price.”

Auctions run for no longer than an hour, Pillitteri said.“We set it up, give the sellers two days to prepare, run it for

a half hour to an hour, and then it’s done,” he said. “If someone bids in the last few minutes, the time will be extended by five minutes, so every vendor has an opportunity to put in their best price. But it’s a very definite and relatively short timeframe. That’s one of the best parts about it.”

DLA requires reverse auctions for procurements of $150,000 or greater, but reverse auctions can be used for procurements at any price, Pillitteri said. For instance, DLA Land and Mari-time requires reverse auctions on procurements at the $25,000 threshold, providing a substantial increase in reverse auction opportunities. As a result, the organization conducted more than seven times as many reverse auctions in fiscal 2013 as it did the previous year, resulting in savings of $34 million. This

sum far exceeded the DLA Land and Maritime target of $3.3 million in savings by the end of fiscal 2014, he said.

Held almost daily throughout the agency, reverse auctions have also worked well for other DLA field activities, including DLA Aviation in Richmond, Va., which has already exceeded its fiscal 2014 goal of $4 million in savings. From October 2012 to July 2013, DLA Aviation conducted 241 reverse auctions, 49 percent of which were successful and saved the organization $27.96 million, said LaKisha Andrews, DLA Aviation’s reverse auction program manager.

In addition, DLA Energy achieved $400 million in savings in fiscal 2013 by using reverse auctions to get better prices and increase competition in awarding fuel contracts, said Anthony Thomas, policy chief of the Procurement Planning Branch in DLA Energy, Fort Belvoir.

During fiscal 2013, DLA Troop Support’s reverse auctions resulted in 159 awards, 91 of which were in the clothing and textile supply chain, including eight projected to save more than $1 million each. The largest award, estimated to save more than $24 million, is for a system of load-bearing equip-ment worn by servicemembers, such as vests and rucksacks. With a goal to save $17.1 million by fiscal 2014, their efforts have resulted in $40.7 million in actual savings so far, said Tom Chenoweth, chief of the Programs Division in DLA Troop Sup-port, Philadelphia.

As a Department of Defense combat support agency, DLA provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, other federal agencies, and joint and allied forces with a variety of logistics, acquisition and technical services. The agency sources and provides nearly 100 percent of the consumable items America’s military forces need to operate, from food, fuel and energy, to uniforms, medical supplies, and construction and barrier equipment. DLA also supplies more than 85 percent of the military’s spare parts. O

Amanda Neumann is a public affairs specialist at the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir.

Success Comes in

thE dla imPlEmEnts rEvErsE auctions and sEEs savings. by amanda nEumann

everseR


at www.mlf-kmi.com.


Major General Kurt Stein, commanding general, 1st Theater Sustainment Command, emerges from a morning brief with his staff confident they are on track and set for a successful transition next year.

He has just received an update on the progress of the retrograde in Afghanistan and the status of operations for his command, which is also located in Kuwait and Fort Bragg, N.C.

“Iraq was hard, but Afghanistan is really hard. Nothing like this has ever been done. We’re making history with what we are doing here,” said Stein about the complexity of the 1st TSC’s mission in Afghanistan.

The 1st TSC’s mission is to synchronize the move-ment and responsible drawdown of all equipment and personnel out of Afghanistan along ground lines of communication through Pakistan along the Southern Distribution Network, or the central Asian states along the Northern Distribution Network. In addition, the 1st TSC provides command and control for logistics units in theater, provides sustainment support to forces operating in theater, and assists with base clo-sure and transfer.

The U.S. currently has about $33 billion (down from $48 billion) worth of equipment in Afghanistan.

Made up of more than 20,000 military, civilian and contractor personnel, the 1st TSC and its subordinate units ensure the warfighters have the supplies and transportation assets necessary to accomplish their missions. As a global sustainment provider, the 1st TSC supplies food, fuel, water, transportation, ammunition, build-ing materials and repair parts. Additionally, the 1st TSC manages the ports, flights and customs points needed to keep people and equip-ment moving 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The 1st TSC also provides adjunct support in the areas of financial management, human resources, humanitarian aid distribution, host-nation engagements, and medical care for troops and civilians within

the command. Soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, civilians and

contractors with the 1st TSC are in the fight every day,

moving what is needed throughout the 20

countries in U.S. Army Central Command’s area of operations, which is equal to 6 million square miles.

“The purpose of the retrograde is to reset and refit our Army. By getting this equipment back to our forces, we are protecting the American taxpayers’ investment in its military, and ensuring our readi-ness for future operations,” said Stein.

Stein leads a diverse team of logistics soldiers, government civil-ians and contractors, comprised of organic 1st TSC members and others from subordinate units who report directly to him—all of whom dedicate themselves each day to ensuring soldiers receive the

sustainment support they need. In addition, they work knowing the clock that is ticking down to the directive by President Barack Obama that states U.S. troops will draw down to 34,000 by February 2014. They must also set the conditions for the post-2014 mission in Afghani-stan, known as the Resolute Support Mission.

“We have the right people, resources and authori-ties in place to overcome the challenges and complete our mission,” said Stein.

The type of equipment being retrograded and redeployed include mine resistant ambush protected vehicles, trailers, military generators, radios, navigation systems, weapons and ammunition, to name a few.

The 1st TSC was responsible for the retrograde in Iraq. The size and scope of the missions are similar. There were 60,000 vehicles and 90,000 containers in Iraq that had to be retrograded. In Afghanistan the U.S. started with approximately 50,000 vehicles and 108,000 con-tainers. But anyone involved in both retrograde missions will quickly point out that the challenges in Afghanistan are far greater.

“Many lessons learned from Iraq have been applied with great success in Afghanistan, but comparing the retrograde of equipment from Iraq to the retrograde from Afghanistan is like comparing apples and oranges,” said Brigadier General Duane Gamble, 1st TSC deputy commanding general.

In addition to geography and weather, Afghanistan’s transportation infrastructure poses a greater challenge and limits freedom of move-ment, especially for logistical convoys. The U.S. must also rely on sur-rounding countries for movement of equipment in to and out of the region. Also, Afghanistan lacks a staging base like Iraq had in neigh-boring Kuwait. The forces in Afghanistan do not need the volume of equipment that was absorbed by the Iraq army, and our coalition forces are also drawing down with us. These are just a handful of the

unique challenges the Army faces in Afghanistan. Lastly, Afghanistan is a land-locked country with no seaport

to facilitate transportation of materiel.“In Iraq we weren’t fighting to the very

end, providing the assistance like we are now,” said Stein, highlighting another key difference between Afghanistan and Iraq.

One lesson learned applied from Iraq was the need for a U.S. Central Command Materiel

managing thE comPlExitiEs and challEngEs of thE afghanistan drawdown. by stEPhEniE tatum

Maj. Gen. Kurt Stein


Reduction Element. The CMRE was established to have a unit that can focus solely on retrograde. About half of their unit is made up of engineer assets that enable base closure, transfer and descope. The other half is made up of logistics units that perform the retro-sort mission. The teams that run the retro-sort yards take in equipment from across the battlefield, sort it, bring it to record and prepare it for disposition in accordance with instructions from Army Materiel Command. Those items that are uneconomical to ship home are divested through the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services.

“The difference between Iraq and Afghanistan is the CENTCOM Materiel Recovery Element. It is one of our key lessons learned from Iraq. The capabilities they bring to the table are decisive in our retrograde operations,” said Stein.

“The CMRE allows our units performing the train, advise and assist (TAA) mission with our Afghan partners to focus on that mission,” said Gamble. “The TAA mis-sion is the priority. The CMRE is a combat multiplier. In Iraq, units had competing priorities: train their Iraqi partners and retrograde. In Afghanistan, the CMRE is able to focus solely on retrograde in order to allow that commander on the ground to focus on their mission.”

Colonel Todd Heussner, commander of the 43rd Sustainment Brigade, served as the CMRE until October. The unit made history. His unit was only the second unit to serve in this function. There is not any doctrine on how to serve in this role. Doctrine on retrograde in general is limited as well. Heussner and his team approached their mission from a business perspective.

“It’s important we don’t allow our assets to be idle,” said Heuss-ner. “We take a business approach, through our entrepreneurial leaders. If our assets are sitting idle, it costs the American taxpayer money. And we are here to save money. That’s why we get our assets out to the customer.”

The CMRE’s forward retrograde elements consist of several teams to assist in the retrograde mission. Instead of having logistical hubs where everyone brings equipment to them, they go out to forward operating bases and perform their mission.

“Our soldiers work hard, in austere conditions,” said 2nd Lieu-tenant Daniel Krus, 227th Quartermaster Company, 68th Combat Sustainment, CMRE, and the officer-in-charge of the joint sort yard at Forward Operating Base Shank. “We take in all types of equipment strewn across the battlefield in our area of operations. From there we sort it, catalog it and prepare it for disposition. And our efforts have saved the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“My soldiers are doing a great job,” said Staff Sergeant Elmar Tomas, 227th Quartermaster Co., 68th CSSB, CMRE, and the non-commissioned officer-in-charge of the joint sort yard at FOB Shank. “Not only are we putting millions of dollars back into the Army’s inventory, but we are also saving soldiers’ lives by keeping them off the roads. By performing this mission forward and bringing our capa-bilities to the warfighter, we don’t have to put anyone on the roads to move this equipment to a central location.”

“Our mission is unique. We take materials as far forward as pos-sible, so it keeps troops off the road,” said Private First Class Dwight Mathews, a material retrograde team specialist with the 227th Quartermaster Co., 68th CSSB, CMRE. “We save lives and money. It’s truly awesome.”

The proof is in the numbers. Since June, retro-sort yards have put more than $100 million back into the Army’s inventory, and more than $800 million since January 2012. Since August, the 1st TSC has reduced the total container count by more than 17,000 and retro-graded more than 1,200 vehicles.

“We were successful in Iraq, but it was not perfect. The Army is a learning organization. We took those lessons learned from Iraq and we are applying them to Afghanistan,” said Gamble.

Logistical planning for the redeployment and retrograde in Afghanistan is not just the work of the 1st TSC. This team effort is possible with the help of the U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Cen-tral Command, International Security Assistance Force, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and U.S. Army Central. Though separated by multiple time zones, the 1st TSC and its team of teams work day and night to ensure the retrograde of personnel and equipment out of Afghanistan is a success during one of the most challenging times in our history.

The 1st TSC’s progress remains on track and they are building relationships along the way. A new chapter is being written every day as the First Team reduces rolling and non-rolling stock while still sustaining the warfighters and conserving equipment that can be used in the future. As December 2014 draws closer, the 1st TSC will continue to be a decisive enabler in setting the conditions for the Resolute Support Mission and our enduring commitment to the people of Afghanistan.

In the end, the goal is to close out a decade of war in a way where the Afghans can take full responsibility for the security of their nation. The 1st TSC is confident we can meet the deadlines regardless of the contingencies because we have the right people for the job.

“The Army is about people. Our soldiers and civilians do tremen-dous work. I continue to be amazed by their dedication to duty and personal sacrifice every day. Our young leaders are stepping up every day, making things happen. I couldn’t be more proud of their efforts,” said Stein. O

Stephenie Tatum is with 1 TSC Public Affairs.

Surrounded by tri-wall boxes used to segregate supplies and equipment that will be sent out of Kandahar Airfield, members of the 349th Quartermaster Company, 749th Combat Services Support Battalion, California Army National Guard, check though sorted equipment. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Army National Guard/by Sgt. Eddie Siguenza]


at www.mlf-kmi.com.


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Featuresretrograde LogisticsThe Surface Deployment and Distribution Command looks at the role it plays in organizing and moving the drawdown from Afghanistan.

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As the senior vice president of defense programs for Oshkosh Defense, Colonel John Bryant (Ret.) leads the development, production and sustainment of all vehicle and product platforms and programs for Oshkosh Defense, integrated product sup-port and contract administration. Bryant brings a 28-year history of service with the Marine Corps to his role at Oshkosh.

Q: What are Oshkosh’s strengths and how can you best partner with the mili-tary to meet its objectives?

A: At Oshkosh Defense, we’ve been mobi-lizing military and security forces around the globe for more than 90 years. We’ve been able to do this because we never stop innovating—innovating to deliver new tactical wheeled vehicle (TWV) capa-bilities and to improve efficiency for our military customers.

Today, our U.S. armed forces need innovation more than ever. We learned in Iraq and Afghanistan that our enemy would engage very simple, low-tech threats, such as IEDs. Looking ahead, one thing that’s clear is that future battlefields will bring an unpredictable combination of terrain, tactics and threats. Combine this with current budget challenges fac-ing DoD, and new ideas and solutions are the only option.

Our innovations leverage our experi-ence in-theater, like our joint light tacti-cal vehicle (JLTV) solution, the Oshkosh light combat tactical all-terrain vehicle. We learned from the mission profiles and performance of our M-ATV in Afghanistan, and injected findings into six genera-tions of design, development and testing for our JLTV solution. This has allowed us to deliver a vehicle that can travel 70 percent faster over off-road terrain than the M-ATV, which is the current standard-bearer for protected, off-road mobility.

Q: What do you bring to the table in help-ing DoD meet its efficiency and budget-ary challenges?

A: Beyond the need for protected mobility from their vehicle fleets, the U.S. military also needs platforms that are flexible, so fleets can be modified and improved across the entire life cycle, without break-ing the bank.

HMMWVs were designed in the early ’80s. They’ve served well, but they were never designed for the threats warfighters face today. You put armor on a HMMWV and it’s overweight, which means you start impacting performance. The Osh-kosh JLTV solution is designed with room for growth, to be adaptable and able to support our troops for the long haul.

We also developed our JLTV solution to account for maintenance and upgrade costs across the vehicle’s decades-long life cycle. The Oshkosh integrated product support team was involved at the earliest stages of vehicle design. They conducted a wide array of logistics engineering to opti-mize system life cycle cost and readiness. The U.S. military has turned to Oshkosh for sustainment support—from technical manuals and parts supply to training and remanufacturing—across dozens of vehi-cle variants that span the light, medium and heavy spectrum. We have a unique understanding of vehicle systems, and are continuously improving and optimizing our sustainment services to keep life cycle costs down.

Q: How is Oshkosh positioned to deliver support and savings to DoD while con-tinuing to grow?

A: Vehicle services and support are becom-ing a bigger piece of the puzzle in helping

the military reduce sustainment costs. One way we work to lower these costs is in how we manage our own company. We employ lean processes across our opera-tions. It’s our culture. We have a long-standing history of providing low-cost solutions that meet or exceed require-ments, delivering on-time and within budget.

Lean initiatives are a continuous process. Recently, at our Oshkosh-based warehouse, we improved storage den-sity to generate millions in annual cost avoidance while improving our ability to deliver parts quickly and correctly. Driv-ing lean throughout our business pro-cesses every day allows us to best serve our warfighters and pass savings on to our customers.

We’ve also invested in expanding our service and support capabilities. For example, over the past several years we’ve built a dedicated team of Oshkosh command, control, communications and computer (C4) integration specialists and engineers. These folks have experi-ence in systems requirements, software, networks, electromagnetic compatibility, electrical and mechanical packaging, and thermal analysis.

With this capability and our expertise as a TWV OEM, Oshkosh Defense can deliver vehicles with fully tested and tightly integrated C4 equipment. Some OEMs design a vehicle with a bolt-on approach for the C4 equipment. A third-party integrator then comes along to install the equipment, often through trial and error. This disjointed approach can be risky, commonly requiring disassem-bly of the vehicle. It also usually takes longer and can cost much more.

Performing C4 installation work in-house can improve full-system quality while reducing cost for the military. We factor mechanical, electrical and user interfaces into the vehicle design process from the very beginning, so overall sys-tem performance and user experience are optimized. O

Colonel John Bryant (Ret.)Senior Vice President of Defense Programs

Oshkosh Defense

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Military Logistics Forum


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