Send this Page to a Friend

Printer-Friendly Format

DCLnews Special Report

An Army Marches On Its - Logistics
Sophisticated logistics, such as tracking devices and IETMs, lay at the heart of U.S. military might

NAPOLEON FAMOUSLY said an army marches on its stomach. Clearly military personnel need to eat well to perform well. But what Napoleon was really getting at with this maxim was the importance of the supply line. Logistics - getting food, clothes, and spare parts to the front - is often what makes or breaks a conflict. The truth of this was illustrated by Napoleon himself when, in June 1812, he tried (and failed) to invade Russia with a force of 500,000 men. Because the Russians removed most of the food and crops in advance, Napoleon's army couldn't live off the land as they had in previous campaigns.

Despite this, his forces made it to Moscow by September, but they were too emaciated to hold their position and in October went into retreat. Napoleon failed to live up to his own dictum about supply and, as a result, his bid for continental domination was thwarted.

Massive operation
Today logistics are just as important - if not more so. A super-power like the U.S. owes much of its military dominance to the fact that it has the money and capability to muster massive logistical operations. As retired admiral Bill Owens points out in his book Lifting the Fog of War (John Hopkins University Pr, 2001), during the six-month build-up to the Gulf war, the United States moved more tonnage of supplies - including 1.8 million tons of cargo, 126,000 vehicles, and 350,000 tons of ordnance - over a greater distance than during the two-year build up to the Normandy invasions in the Second World War. One reason Iraq's army was routed in just 100 hours, with few U.S. casualties, was that American forces had all the supplies they needed, where they needed them.

Since the Second World War, only once has any nation other than the United States attempted combat in a place not adjacent to its borders - Britain, in the Falklands. During the same period, the United States fought more than three-dozen actions all across the globe, while maintaining the defense of North America, Western Europe, South Korea, and Japan.

Large and well-organized (as well as expensive) logistics made this possible.

Logistical marvel
In Afghanistan, the U.S. military performed nothing short of a logistical marvel: Taking one month to launch an air war and less than three months to insert ground forces on the opposite side of the world - in a place where no previous preparations had been made, and where the United States lacked bases in nations adjacent to the foe. Since the early days of the air war, the United States has even operated a fleet of tanker aircraft circling in Afghanistan's airspace, enabling Navy fighters to refuel on their way towards targets, then again before heading back to their carriers in the Gulf or the Indian Ocean. Naval aircraft have been in the air substantially longer, and generated more "sorties" than the Navy trained for, yet neither planes nor pilots have broken down.

Hi tech logistics
In recent years Army logisticians have used technology to solve complex supply issues. During Operations Desert Shield and Storm, the Army sent tons of supplies to the desert. But there was a problem: Far too much time was spent opening shipping containers to discover what was inside them. Computerized electronic devices now enable logisticians to identify and track military shipments made the world over.

"Things have changed significantly in military logistics [since Desert Storm] and a lot of that change is powered by the information Revolution," says Mark J. O'Konski, executive director of the U.S. Army Logistics Integration Agency. "Today the Army has total asset visibility. That means that for over 99 percent of all reportable inventory we know, in real time, where it is and what condition it is in."

IETMs
Technology is helping military logisticians in other ways too. Bulky technical manuals for military equipment, which once used masses of paper, are now contained in lightweight portable compact disks. These are known as Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals - IETMs for short. They have many advantages over paper-based versions, including:

• Information Access - Printed technical manuals for complex equipment come in multiple volumes, which means it can take a technician a lot of time to find the information he or she needs. Whereas IETMs allow word/phrase searches, internal cross-reference links and links to other material (inventory, training, etc). Many also have audio and video features.
• Up-to-date Information - Rapid changes to military equipment means supporting documentation must be updated along with those changes. With paper documents much of this has to be done manually, which takes time and personnel and is expensive. IETMs, on the other hand, can be updated quickly and cost-effectively. Many IETMs also have a "sticky notes" feature, which can be use as an interim solution between updates.
• Volume - Approximately 1,850 cubic feet of storage space is needed to store the paper aboard an AEGIS Class cruiser. The same documentation would only occupy 35 cubic feet if placed on CDs and the 74,000 pounds of paper weight would be reduced to less than 500 pounds.

There are many advantages to IETMs. But what might come as surprise is they lessen the need for highly skilled technicians. Tests show that inexperienced technicians, who were unable to locate a fault using paper technical manuals, were able to do so using IETMs. In cost terms this means it might be possible to shorten training programs and use less experienced personnel.

One thing is certain. Logistics have come a long way since Napoleon's day. But an army still marches on its proverbial stomach - it's just the supply chain is now digital.

DCLnews Editorial
1/10/2002

Read more about IETMs, go to:
http://www.dclab.com/ietms1.asp
http://www.dclab.com/sikorsky.asp
http://www.dclab.com/B-52.asp
http://www.dclab.com/IETMs.asp

DCLnews is keen to give more coverage to IETMs and how they are impacting the armed forces. So if you have any comments or relevant stories, please send them to the editorial desk.

Click here to check out the best stories from previous issues of DCLnews

Return to top

Send this Page to a Friend

Printer-Friendly Format