MLF 8.10 (November/December 2014) by KMI Media Group

Transportation issue The Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community

Special supplement

U.S. Transportation Command

Distribution Deliverer Gen. Paul J. Selva Commander U.S. Transportation Command

www.MLF-kmi.com

November/December 2014 Volume 8, Issue 10

Excusive Interview with Major General Rowayne “Wayne” A. Schatz Jr. Director Operations and Plans, U.S. Transportation Command

DLA’s Captains of Industry O Logistics & Big Data O Multimodal AMCOM Capabilities O LOA Symposium

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID LEBANON JCT., KY PERMIT # 805

WE CALL IT PROTECTED MOBILITY.

SOLDIERS AND MARINES CALL IT A SAFE RIDE HOME.

AT LOCKHEED MARTIN, WE’RE ENGINEERING A BETTER TOMORROW.

MILITARY LOGISTICS FORUM

November/December 2014 Volume 8, Issue 10

Features

Cover / Q&A

U.S. Transportation Command Special Supplement

Special Section

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH:

Major General Rowayne “Wayne” A. Schatz Jr. Director Operations and Plans, U.S. Transportation Command

Captains DLA’s Captains of Industry Program brings the best of the commercial world to DLA’s doorstep. By Beth Reece

LOA Symposium Returns Leaner, Stronger and Connected—In October, nearly 700 logisticians in the Air Force logistics community came together at the annual Logistics Officer Association Symposium.

Army Aviation and Missile Command’s theme of “Improving Capability through Modernization and Sustainment.”

The goal of a supply chain that allows the seamless transfer of containers from one mode of transportation to another is not just a dream. By Peter Buxbaum

Big data methods can accelerate the benefits of analyzing business processes while also escalating the results. By Harrison Donnelly

Agile Capabilities

Departments

Multimodal

Commander U.S. Transportation Command

Logistics, Big Data Offer Potent Mix

Industry Interview

2 Editor’s Perspective 4 Log ops/people 12, 21 Supply Chain 30 White paper forum 31 Resource Center

General Paul J. Selva

Greg Wood Director IHS Technology

WORLD CLASS SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS Integrated logistics services that support the mission of our customers, our warfighters and our country.

800.808.5373 banneker.com

Your single-source solution for material and services. www.SupplyCore.com Banneker-31029 MLF ad_18x55.indd 1

11/12/14 3:29 PM

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

Military Logistics Forum Volume 8, Issue 10 • November/December 2014

Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community Editorial Editor-In-Chief

Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Managing Editor

Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com Copy Editors

Crystal Jones crystalj@kmimediagroup.com Jonathan Magin jonathanm@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents

Heather Baldwin • Christian Bourge • Peter Buxbaum Henry Canaday • Cheryl Gerber • Hank Hogan Marc Selinger • Karen Thuermer • William Murray

Art & Design Art Director

Jennifer Owers jennifero@kmimediagroup.com Ads and Materials Manager

Jittima Saiwongnuan jittimas@kmimediagroup.com Senior Graphic Designer

Scott Morris scottm@kmimediagroup.com Graphic Designers

Andrea Herrera andreah@kmimediagroup.com Amanda Paquette amandak@kmimediagroup.com

Advertising Associate Publisher

Jane Engel jane@kmimediagroup.com

KMI Media Group Chief Executive Officer

Jack Kerrigan jack@kmimediagroup.com Publisher and Chief Financial Officer

Constance Kerrigan connik@kmimediagroup.com Editor-In-Chief

Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Controller

Gigi Castro gcastro@kmimediagroup.com Trade Show Coordinator

Holly Foster hollyf@kmimediagroup.com

Operations, Circulation & Production Operations Administrator

Bob Lesser bobl@kmimediagroup.com Circulation & Marketing Administrator

Duane Ebanks duanee@kmimediagroup.com Circulation

Barbara Gill barbg@kmimediagroup.com Denise Woods denisew@kmimediagroup.com Data Specialist

Raymer Villanueva raymerv@kmimediagroup.com

Is precision navigation opening the doors for the return of the glider? During World War II, the Americans, Brits and Germans used gliders in a number of large-scale airborne operations and in some small-scale raids. For the most part, gliders were effective at delivering troops and some small equipment items like jeeps and small artillery pieces. With payload of about 23 tons and capable of carrying as many as 130 combat-ready troops, the glider’s size envelope was pushed by the Germans. Eventually, they hung six engines of the same basic airframe and turned it into the largest land-based transport of the war. Jeff McKaughan The day of the glider seemed to have passed, with many of the glider’s Editor capabilities replaced by the helicopter, which required less of an operational and support footprint, had better range, could accommodate last-minute changes in landing locations and was not a single-use aircraft. However, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency may be looking to bring the glider back. They recently launched a small business technology transfer initiative to develop and demonstrate novel concepts to generate conventional airlift-equivalent lift (ton-miles per hour) without requiring manned airlift, airports or air superiority in a time-constrained scenario. Not necessarily looking to revitalize the concept of a glider bringing in entire assault forces or heavy equipment, the initiative is more for scaled sustainment operations for a deployed unit in unimproved areas—with individual payload weight and volume less than a standard 463L cargo pallet. Recent advances in tough, low-cost, lightweight materials, compact avionics and GPS navigation systems have revived glider research and development, particularly in naval ship-to-objective (STOM) logistics. DARPA acknowledges several technical challenges. First, the system must be designed such that a singleuse (relatively low-cost) glider (essentially a flying cargo pallet) could gain sufficient altitude such that traditional shore-based reception, staging, onward movement and integration logistics depots could be overflown and bypassed, ferrying a variety of supply classes directly to the point of need with an order of magnitude cost reduction. Second, an all-weather launch platform must be designed that would enable scalable parallel sorties for high system throughput. Lastly, the system must be configured to be stowed in standard shipping containers and unloaded with minimal effort, thereby eliminating the need for logistical support vehicles at the point of use. Solutions to DARPA programs are never easy and simple. Whether a disposable air delivery system has merit over unmanned rotary wing options remains to be seen.

KMI MEDIA GROUP LEADERSHIP MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES Ground Combat & Tactical ISR

Geospatial Intelligence Forum

Military Advanced Education

Military Information Technology

The Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community

Technology & Intel for the Maneuver Warfighter

A Proud Member of: Subscription Information

Military Logistics Forum

ISSN 1937-9315 is published 10 times a year by KMI Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly forbidden. © Copyright 2014. Military Logistics Forum is free to qualified members of the U.S. military, employees of the U.S. government and non-U.S. foreign service based in the U.S. All others: $75 per year. Foreign: $159 per year.

Military Logistics Forum

SPECIAL SECTION: MANNED-UNMANNED TEAMING

UAS Leader Col. Tim Baxter

SPECIAL PULL-OUT SUPPLEMENT USTRANSCOM

Resource Aligner Vice Adm. William A. “Andy” Brown

www.GCT-kmi.com

May 2014

Volume 5, Issue 3

U.S. Army Project Manager UAS Project Office

Deputy Commander U.S. Transportation Command

www.MLF-kmi.com

November/December 2013 Volume 7, Issue 10

Exclusive Interview with:

GAIL JORGENSON Acquisition Director USTRANSCOM

Rapidly Deployable ISR O Tactical UAS O Enduring REF Army Aviation O Wheeled Vehicles O Ammo

www.GCT-kmi.com

Military Medical & Veterans Affairs Forum

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

www.GIF-kmi.com

Military Training Technology

www.MAE-kmi.com

www.MIT-kmi.com

www.MLF-kmi.com

Navy Air/Sea PEO Forum

Special Operations Technology

U.S. Coast Guard & Border Security

World’s Largest Distributed Special Ops Magazine

Corporate Offices

KMI Media Group 15800 Crabbs Branch Way, Suite 300 Rockville, MD 20855-2604 USA Telephone: (301) 670-5700 Fax: (301) 670-5701 Web: www.MLF-kmi.com

2014

SOCOM Program Management Updates

SOCOM Leader www.SOTECH-kmi.com

Adm. Bill H. McRaven

May 2014

Volume 12, Issue 4

Commander SOCOM

Diver Gear O 3-D Training O Protective Gear Mulltinational Partnerships

www.M2VA-kmi.com

www.MT2-kmi.com

www.NPEO-kmi.com

www.SOTECH-kmi.com

www.CGF-kmi.com

LOG OPS

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Military Sealift Command Consolidation On October 20, Military Sealift Command (MSC) received approval to officially begin geographically consolidating at Naval Station (NS) Norfolk, Va., a single headquarters that since 2012 has been physically split between the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., and NS Norfolk. The consolidation is scheduled to be complete by the end of fiscal year 2019. Consolidating MSC headquarters staff in Norfolk helps streamline processes, maximize customer service with the Navy and cut costs associated with maintaining two locations. Additionally, it co-locates MSC with the other U.S. Fleet Forces Command subordinate commands also located in Norfolk.

Overall, the consolidation may affect up to 455 federal civilian employee positions, 30 active duty officer positions and 22 active duty enlisted positions. MSC anticipates that a small cadre of personnel may remain in the Washington, D.C., area for those positions with responsibilities best accomplished in the National Capital Region. The total cost of the consolidation, to include infrastructure renovations and personnel relocation costs, is estimated at $31 million over the next five years.

NAVSUP Weapons Systems Support PBL Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a $61 million performance-based logistics (PBL) supply support contract from the U.S. Naval Supply Systems Command’s NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support facility in Mechanicsburg, Pa. This five-year contract will enable 24-hour, seven-day-a-week fleet support and continues a 10-year partnership between Northrop Grumman’s Charlottesville operation and the NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support Command. The PBL program encompasses new build spare parts, repairs, onboard spare parts support, obsolescence management, inventory control, configuration management, serial number tracking

and customer database entries involving most every active Navy surface ship and submarine, as well as select foreign naval surface ships under Foreign Military Sales agreements. “Timely fleet support to help ensure the highest level of operational readiness has been a top priority for the last decade, and we are honored to support this mission,” said Todd Leavitt, vice president of maritime systems, Northrop Grumman. “By supporting unforeseen needs and faster turnaround deployment schedules, the PBL program dramatically increases the availability of critically required parts to satisfy our Navy warfighters quickly and cost-effectively.”

Navy Training Maintenance and Logistics Support DynCorp International (DI) has been awarded a contract from the Naval Air Systems Command to provide aircraft maintenance and logistics support to the chief of naval air training. “DynCorp International has been a trusted partner to the U.S. Navy for more than 20 years, a tradition we will build on with this new work,” said James Myles, DynAviation senior vice president, DynCorp International. “We look forward to continuing to serve our Navy customers and supporting the vital mission of the chief of naval air training. Winning this program also significantly increases our Navy market share, a key strategic goal.” DI team members will provide organizational, intermediate, depot-level maintenance and logistics services for T-34, T-44 and T-6 aircraft. Support services include labor, services, facilities, equipment, tools, related support equipment and direct and indirect material.

PEOPLE Brigadier General Cedric D. George, director, system integration, deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, D.C., has been assigned as deputy director, resource integration, deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Pentagon. Rear Admiral (lower half) Lawrence B. Jackson will be assigned as reserve deputy director,

4 | MLF 8.10

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Warfare Integration Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, N9I, Washington, D.C. Jackson is currently serving as deputy commander, Military Sealift Command, Washington, D.C. Captain Kevin C. Hayes, selected for the rank of rear admiral (lower half), will be assigned as deputy commander, Military Sealift Command, Washington, D.C. Hayes previously served as commanding officer, Navy Reserve 7th Fleet, Fort Worth, Texas.

Rear Admiral (lower half) John P. Polowczyk will be assigned as director, logistics programs and business operations division, N41, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C. Polowczyk is currently serving as director, fleet ordnance and supply, and fleet supply officer, N41, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Va. Rear Admiral (lower half) Paul J. Verrastro will be assigned as director, fleet ordnance and supply, and fleet supply officer, N41, U.S.

Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Va. Verrastro is currently serving as director, logistics programs and business operations division, N41, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C. Rear Admiral (lower half) Bret C. Batchelder will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Eight, Norfolk, Va. Batchelder is currently serving as commander, Joint Enabling Capabilities Command, U.S. Transportation Command, Norfolk, Va.

www.MLF-kmi.com

At Ease AAR HAS YOU COVERED When duty calls, AAR is there, keeping advanced aircraft and ground equipment mission-ready. From expeditionary airlift to mobile shelters or aircraft component repair, AAR is trusted by government and defense customers worldwide who need a contractor they can count on to help them do more with less.

1.630.227.2000 | 1.800.422.2213

www.aarcorp.com/government-defense

Leaner, Stronger and Connected—the LOA symposium returns with gusto.

Last month, nearly 700 logisticians in the Air Force logistics community came together at the annual Logistics Officer Association (LOA) Symposium in Crystal City, Va., after a two-year hiatus from the main stage. The LOA community includes joint military, civil service, retired and corporate LOA members. They truly returned “Leaner, Stronger and Connected,” their theme for the symposium. Over the last year, LOA adapted to DoD changes and the fiscal environment. Their business model changed across many fronts. They worked smartly to reduce costs by streamlining their online journal, “The Exceptional Release,” and by leveraging technology benefits to stream the symposium to hundreds of logisticians around the world who weren’t able to attend in person thanks to their eventPower contractor. LOA worked hard to ensure the venue provided great value to each attendee and DoD. It was clear that leaders sent their very best young officers to the event as the conversations and questions in every forum were laced with critical thinking and follow-up action at all levels. The distinguished speakers included: the secretary of the Air Force; the principal deputy under secretary for defense in Acquisition,

3 6 | MLF 8.10

www.MLF-kmi.com

4 6

Technology and Logistics; the commander, USTRANSCOM; the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition; the director of the Defense Logistics Agency; the director of logistics, the Joint Staff, the service 4’s; commander of the Air Force Sustainment Center; commander of the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center; Lockheed Martin’s director of logistics; Boeing’s director of logistics concepts; and many other important panel members from our educational, retired and corporate partnerships. All highlighted the things we must to do remain relevant by being lean, strong and connected. They kicked off the symposium with LOA University (AFIT, DAU, Army Logistics University, Penn State University, North Carolina University, Lockheed Martin PBL experts and APIC’s partners) on the first day. It included all-day courses to further educate DoD’s finest logisticians.

During the event, they also highlighted extraordinary LOA performers by recognizing annual chapter, individual and scholarship award winners. The entire event would not have been possible without generous sponsors, including Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electric, Raytheon and many others. The forum was truly the most important event all year, as logisticians came together at all levels to synergize and glean new insights on how to best sustain and strengthen the world’s greatest Air Force and DoD. They left the week better equipped to meet the demands we will all continue to face as leaders in the coming months and years. O

Military Logistics Forum’s Associate Publisher Jane Engel, MLF associate publisher, sharing a conversation with an Air Force lieutenant.

Secretary of the Air Force, Honorable Deborah Lee James, and her escort Lieutenant Colonel Emily Farkas, walking through the industry hall.

Those that heard General Paul Selva’s (USTRANSCOM commander) talk learned a lot about leadership and, equally important, why he always has a cup of coffee!

Major General Bob McMahon, USAF (Ret.), receiving the LOA General Zettler Lifetime Achievement Award, on stage: Colonel Emily Buckman, USAF (Ret.), president, LOA; Lieutenant General Mike Zettler, USAF (Ret.); Secretary of the Air Force, the Honorable Deborah Lee James; and Major General Bob McMahon, USAF (Ret.).

Vice Admiral Harnitchek, director, Defense Logistics Agency.

The heart of the symposium was the attendance by so many young Air Force officers.

LOA University was in action on the symposium’s first day.

www.MLF-kmi.com

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.

MLF 8.10 | 7

Agile Capabilities Army Aviation and Missile Command’s theme of “Improving Capability through Modernization and Sustainment.” Under the theme, “Improving Capability through Modernization and Sustainment,” Major General Jim Richardson, Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) commander, opened his remarks at the Aviation Association of America, Cribbins Support Symposium with an Operation Rock Avalanche video clip. The video depicted a medevac Black Hawk helicopter that returned from its mission with 78 bullet holes. “I show this because it’s all about that guy on the ground,” Richardson said. “It’s about delivering readiness to the soldier.” Showing Mission, Vision and Priority graphics, Richardson then stressed that the 10,000-strong AMCOM workforce is operationally-focused to support everyone in the field. “I learned a long time ago that you’ve got to have buy-in before you can effect change,” Richardson said. “We are responsive because there is constant communication, and because AMCOM values its relationship with industry. Our goal is to reduce the maintenance burden on our soldiers.” The AMCOM vision for 2025 features six core competencies: • • • • • •

Support to acquisition Sustainment logistics Organic industrial base Field/Sustainment maintenance Calibration Security assistance

“The last five years doesn’t matter,” Richardson said. “We’ve got to focus on the tip of the spear; we’ve got to look at ourselves differently.” The outcome of the vision is a capable, technically advanced workforce and infrastructure to support future weapons systems. In terms of fiscal year 2014 accomplishments: • 251 aircraft have been reset at seven sites • 374,609 calibration actions have been completed in support of the joint warfighter 8 | MLF 8.10

• $14.6 billion in foreign military sales has been recorded in 973 cases That notwithstanding, Richardson said, like Satchel Paige, AMCOM can’t afford to look back.

Aviation Product Support Symposium Senior Leader Panel Rounding out a quintet that featured Lieutenant General Daniel J. Petrosky (Ret.); Major General Jim Myles (Ret.); and Bill Lewis, Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center; AMCOM’s Cathy Dickens and Keith Roberson took part in the Aviation Product Support Symposium Senior Leader Panel held during the Cribbins Support Symposium. Dickens, the AMCOM deputy commander, said the command is moving toward a flexible, agile capability to provide integrated, responsive, world-class support, while Roberson, the AMCOM Logistics Center director, said that the center, in terms of cost-wise readiness, spends 80 percent of its Army working capital funding on the top 200 items. “We have a group of people who are looking at what we need to do to execute our vision for 2025,” Dickens said. “This group is looking at the roles and responsibilities in leadership and skillsets that we will need to have for the right balance in our workforce.” AMCOM is below its workforce goal number for FY15, the deputy said, which is a two-edged sword, as expertise has been lost in some key mission set areas. “We are significantly focusing on the execution side of the house, and reducing staffing in other areas so that we can continue to provide mission support,” Dickens said. “We are going to continue to look at the organizational design.” There may be things that the command will do differently this year. For example, from a specific skillset perspective, the expertise lost during the last two years at Corpus Christi Army Depot presents an industrial-base challenge. “We’re probably never going to compete, salary-wise, with private industry,”

Dickens said. “What we really want are people who are passionate, committed and dedicated, and that’s critical.” Another area of leadership attention is the need to have veteran members of the workforce share their wisdom and corporate knowledge. “It’s not really on-the-job training,” Dickens said. “It’s more of an informal sharing effort that benefits the younger members of the workforce in the same discipline.” In sum, she said, the decreasing budget will force AMCOM to look at and prepare for the challenges of multiple scenarios implied by those six thoughts. “Nonetheless, everything we do is focused on providing readiness to the warfighter,” Roberson said. “The AMCOM Logistics Center is big business. Where the rubber meets the road in theater, we check readiness rates every morning.” Most of the time, parts are moving before the unit calls because of logistics assistance representatives and other ALC information network forecasts, the director said. “We have to continue doing the smart things to manage our programs,” Roberson said. “We know cost constraints are coming in the future, so we’re focused on maintaining our stock availability (which is now overall at 91.2 percent, 6.2 percent better than the 85 percent goal).” A key measure of the center’s management is aviation reset, with 251 aircraft completed in FY14 and 11 thus far in FY15. As a measure of generating combat power for the warfighter at a lower cost, the ALC is moving toward modular engine maintenance, Roberson said. “We are working to train units on repairing modules instead of replacing entire engines,” Roberson said. “Some of the validated results we have indicate that our efforts are having a direct effect.” Roberson said that rising operation and support costs cut into modernization efforts, and that the command is seeking to partner with industry to reduce those costs. “If industry has a better idea, we are open to discussing possible solutions,” Roberson said. www.MLF-kmi.com

Demand analysis is also a key ALC initiative. “We are going to optimize and augment the Logistics Modernization Program’s current and untapped capabilities by leveraging enterprise-wide information and subjectmatter experts to become proactively prepared for the future operating environment,” Roberson said. The new Aviation Field Maintenance Contracts have given ALC the ability to standardize contracts, producing higher-quality oversight and greater value, Roberson said.

Worldwide Aviation Logistics Conference Separately, AMCOM recently hosted the Worldwide Aviation Logistics Conference, with subject areas including sustainment strategies, program executive office overviews, cost-wise readiness and corrosion prevention, and with 300 attendees “This is an important conference,” Richardson, AMCOM commander, said. “If you are in a combat aviation brigade, you have people here who help you every single day. You need to establish relationships with the key people at AMCOM. You’ve got the ‘who’s who’ in Army aviation here.” The commander mentioned the power and the transparency of the enterprise: AMCOM, Program Executive Aviation and the Aviation Center of Excellence. “We have optimized our mission; we have knobs and dials that we can turn up and down to support you, and we do that

every day,” Richardson said. “We have the right equipment, the right people—soldiers, civilians, industry—and the right tools to accomplish the mission.” The command’s new mission statement also drew emphasis. “Responsive is a key word in our mission statement,” Richardson said. “I don’t want to wait for you to call me; I want to have a situational understanding. Commanders are all about readiness. I can tell you from my history that I would have failed in my missions if it weren’t for AMCOM.” Richardson cited the contributions of logistics assistance representatives, support of the training fleet at Fort Rucker, Ala., and the AMCOM Logistic Center and its 144 item managers who manage more than 29,000 parts and Test Measurement and Diagnostic Equipment Calibration Support—a no-fail mission—as well as resetting aviation and missile systems. “All told, we are an organization providing readiness to joint warfighting combatant commands,” Richardson said. “We hold a weekly telephonic forum—we are one team, one fight here—to engage with the senior leaders of Army aviation and ensure we are in sync and working together to address the priority issues affecting Army aviators everywhere. This informal coordination mechanism helps us keep priorities aligned.” Some of the breakout sessions focused on:

•

support analysis; planning; publications; packaging; transportability; new equipment training; and materiel fielding. Sustainment Logistics: involving AMCOM as the National Inventory Control Point; supply chain management; inventory management; asset management; distribution; packaging; transportation; publications; sample data collection; war reserve management; and pre-positioned stocks. Field and Sustainment Maintenance: involving AMCOM as the National Maintenance Point for Aviation and Missile Readiness reporting and analysis; logistics assistance; Corpus Christi and Letterkenny Army Depot Maintenance for major and secondary items; Aviation Center Logistics Command and support to the training fleets; reset and condition-based maintenance. Security Assistance; involving foreign military sales; letters of request; case development; and case execution. Calibration: involving Army-wide test measurement and diagnostic equipment repair and calibration; radiation and dosimetry support; primary standards labs; and secondary and transfer standards labs. O

• Acquisition Logistics: involving requirements; supportability analysis;

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.

Not just a venue to buy and sell parts For over 30 years, ILS has provided a marketplace for buying and selling aviation and marine parts and services, but we also offer value-conscious tools for sustainment. • Find qualified sources for hard-to-find parts • Broadcast requirements to a global supplier and MRO community • Obtain vital supply and demand data • Build costs projections with catalog and historic quote pricing points • Cross reference to discover alternate part numbers and procurement data Contact us today to discover the solution that best fits your needs. Inventory Locator Service,® LLC 1-901-794-5000 (Worldwide) • 1-800-233-3414 (N. America) • marketing@ILSmart.com • www.ILSmart.com Offices in: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Dubai, Frankfurt, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, and St. Louis MLF_March.indd 1

www.MLF-kmi.com

3/5/2014 11:37:30 AM

MLF 8.10 | 9

The goal of a supply chain that allows the seamless transfer of containers from one mode of transportation to another is not just a dream.

By Peter Buxbaum, MLF Correspondent shipments over the last nine months have been food. We are seeRecent developments concerning the spread of the Ebola virus has ing more retrograde equipment coming out of Afghanistan on the provoked a government response in the form of aid to West African multimodal contract, mostly in the form of unit equipment.” UPS is countries where that epidemic is centered. The provision of this aid, a subcontractor of Liberty Global Logistics, an ocean carrier on the and responses to other natural or manmade disasters, involve shipping multimodal contract. goods overseas and coordinating those shipments through a public “We are predominantly involved in moving retrograde out of agency that has experience managing global shipments, often the Afghanistan,” said Svenningsen. “Most of this equipment is airlifted, United States Transportation Command (TRANSCOM). using both the organic and commercial fleets, to ports such as Riga The management and coordination of transportation services and Dubai where we take over the ocean portion of the multimodal associated with the U.S. military continues to be a challenging effort. move.” Maersk Line is a subcontractor of National Air Cargo on the TRANSCOM already has its hands full managing the continued drawmultimodal contract. down of U.S. military equipment from Afghanistan. Shipping to and Supreme Group, a logistics provider specializing in developing from landlocked Afghanistan has impelled military logisticians and distribution networks for the U.S. military in remote environments is private-sector providers alike to exercise the utmost in flexibility and currently supporting the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency and the Gercreativity. man Bundeswehr in the northern region of Afghanistan with fuel stor“As a global command, we supported U.S. Northern Command age and distribution. “We transport large volumes of jet fuel inbound for urgent requirements for hurricane relief efforts, such as preparing to Afghanistan along the Northern Distribution Network, originating for the possible evacuation of U.S. citizens from Mexico in the wake of in the Black Sea and Baltic ports,” said Jim Jaska, president, defense Hurricane Odile,” said Marine Corps Colonel Andrew Regan, chief of and government services Supreme Group. “Supreme’s supply chain TRANSCOM’s East Division. experts plan these movements in great detail to ensure onward move“We supported U.S. Central Command in the airdrop of humaniment through critical nodes and intermodal operations.” tarian aid to displaced Iraqis on Sinjar Mountain. And we are now Multimodal transportation has been essential in military operacalled on to support U.S. Africa Command in response to the Ebola tions involving landlocked and mountainous Afghanistan, but is not virus crisis in West Africa. As the transportation functional combatant always necessary when delivering shipments, whether combat- related command, our charge is to validate, schedule, contract and oversee or not, to other regions. “We would not have been able to withstand the point-to-point movement of Department of Defense and DoDthe disruptions to our supply routes through Pakistan if we did not approved cargo.” have options, including multimodal, direct air and the Northern Private-sector transportation providers also support government Distribution Network,” said Regan. “Multimodal operations prevent efforts to alleviate natural disasters and public health crises. “UPS a single source of logistics failure. In non-permissive has traditionally supported humanitarian operations. environments, multimodal may become the primary The latest is Ebola relief in West Africa,” said Lloyd way of getting cargo where it is needed. Outside of Knight, director of global government operations at these situations, our operations don’t require multiUPS. “We are working with the Department of Defense modal services. We rely mostly on air-direct for cargo and the Centers for Disease Control and various nonthat is sensitive, lethal or time-sensitive. Most cargo governmental organizations and nonprofits to ship a goes by surface, the most economical of our options.” wide range of cargo to that area, including water, tents, In the case of West Africa, TRANSCOM has sent clothing and vehicles.” in forces to set up a distribution network in a loca“One of the challenges associated with shipments tion with very little transportation infrastructure. “In we deliver to West Africa is how to manage the quaraddition to surface and air transportation, we have the antines that countries demand of ships and crews after Lloyd Knight ability for any operation to provide for planning, public they call upon one of the ports in that region,” said affairs and communications for joint forces commanders,” said Regan. Torben Svenningsen, senior director of government sales at Maersk “Ready, agile and rapid military and commercial transportation often Line Ltd., a U.S.-flag ocean carrier. turns the tide for commanders to overcome challenges in getting help The drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has reduced the to people in need.” amount of cargo that is being brought into that country. “At this point, In non-military situations, the Department of Defense is not the we are bringing in a small amount of unit cargo, sustainment cargo lead federal agency providing relief shipments. “In fact, such situations for remaining forces, and foreign military sales items,” said Regan. call for a whole-of-government approach,” said Regan. “In the case of “TRANSCOM’s multimodal contract has transitioned from what domestic natural disasters, that lead agency is the Federal Emergency it was originally meant to be, transporting heavy equipment and Management Agency. For international crises, the lead agency is the vehicles into the country,” said Knight. “The majority of our inbound 10 | MLF 8.10

www.MLF-kmi.com

U.S. Agency for International Development. Our transportation providers may also work with these other agencies to assist them with their missions as well as ours.” Although every emergency situation is different, TRANSCOM’s central role and core capabilities don’t change that much. “We convene joint planning teams at the onset of such operations to identify what our actions will be to meet the demands of our supported command,” said Regan. “The work of the joint planning teams in collaboration with members of the supported command provides the framework for the type and level of our response and the forces we provide.” Maersk Line has been working with TRANSCOM to deliver shipments of building materials, beds, tents, protective suits and uniforms to West Africa since the beginning of October 2014. “Many of these shipments are sourced out of U.S. military depots in Europe,” said Svenningsen. “We are beginning to see some cargo out of North America as well, some of this being pre-positioned to Germany to take care of these situations.” Most of the Ebola-related shipments carried by Maersk Line originated in Rotterdam to be offloaded in Dakar, Senegal, and Monrovia, Liberia. “The majority of this cargo is being moved as part of our regular commercial services,” said Svenningsen. “Because we are capable of supporting military requirements through regularly established services, they can react pretty quickly as situations arise.” Much of what UPS is airlifting to West Africa also comes under the umbrella of TRANSCOM’s various contracts, although not the multimodal contract. “These services are being provided through several commercial airlines through the UPS freight forwarding network,” said Knight. “Almost all of these have been less-than-planeload shipments, from individual shipments at 500 pounds to multiple shipments at 50,000 to 100,000 pounds. We haven’t seen any opportunities for full charter planeloads.” Most of the shipments handled by UPS are being transported from North America to the U.S. Army Materiel Center in Germany via a UPS hub in Cologne. “They are put in inventory there and then later transported by commercial carrier or military aircraft to West Africa,” said Knight. “It will be interesting to see how long-term this operation will be,” said Knight. “There is not a lot of forecasting going on as far as the volume expected over the next 90 days to six months, so we have to piece a lot of this together transactionally.” Maersk Line makes these deliveries to West Africa over its regular commercial network. “We have to look at our schedule and see whether we can still go to the next port or have to sit at port for 10 days,” said Svenningsen. As a practical matter, Maersk Line is able to use sailing time from port to port for the bulk of any restrictive period imposed by a government. “It might take seven days to sail from Liberia back to Europe. That can be part of the quarantine period,” said Svenningsen. “We want to keep our ships running, but we also understand that governments are trying to stop the spread of Ebola.” In recent developments in Afghanistan, “Our biggest responsibility has been to transport soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines out of harm’s way back home and safely transport forces needed in country to support Operation Resolute Support,” said Regan. “We continue to move retrograde and unit equipment out of Afghanistan used during Operation Enduring Freedom.” To make that happen, TRANSCOM uses every available mode and route. “About 80 percent of our cargo is transported through multimodal means,” said Regan. “Military gray tails and, where permissible, www.MLF-kmi.com

commercial partner aircraft fly cargo out to a location with a colocated airport and seaport for surface transportation back to point of origin, usually the United States. We also continue to ship cargo on ground lines of communication through Pakistan and the Northern Distribution Network.” The retrograde equipment being handled by Maersk Line is normally airlifted out of Afghanistan to ports in Latvia, Turkey and Dubai, where it is then loaded on ocean vessels for transport to the United States. Sixty-percent of that cargo makes its way to the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, Calif., while the rest ends up in depots. The retrograde handled by UPS is usually airlifted out of Kandahar and Bagram to Al-Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, then trucked to the Jebel Ali seaport for U.S.-bound vessels. The fuel handled by Supreme Group is transported along the Northern Distribution Network until it reaches the Afghan borders, where it is transferred into tanker trucks and delivered to forward operating bases and other military locations. “The entire supply chain for this operation was originally 90 days,” said Jaska, “but due to efficiencies we have reduced this to an average of around 60 days.” Supreme Group manages several challenges in association with its operations in Afghanistan. The first is its risk exposure to insurgent activity along our various supply routes. “Our supply routes in the east and west of Afghanistan vary in the risks from enemy attack,” said Jaska. “Many routes are unsafe for the majority of the year and require military and Afghan clearance. Secondly, we have operational risks associated with the uncertainty and timing of transitions and departures of supported activities.” This was exacerbated by the delay of the signing of the bilateral security agreement (BSA) between the U.S. and Afghanistan. “The BSA delay caused an extended period of uncertainty to the future operational footprint and the accompanying customer demand,” Jaska explained. “Even though customers were hesitant to continue ordering during this period of uncertainty, Supreme had to continue to order to insure that stocks would be on-hand in case the BSA was further delayed.” Supreme Group must consider yet another operational consideration: during the drawdown, its customers still require responsive support and service. “Supreme is often requested by our customers for unforeseen supplies and materiel, and the products are required almost immediately,” said Jaska. “This has caused Supreme to maintain larger inventories during drawdown and retrograde.” Transportation contractors would like the military to move closer to commercial practices, saying that the government will benefit from better service as a result. “The military doesn’t provide long-term forecasts on what is moving out from where and when, making it difficult to put the right resources in the right place,” said Knight. “Contracting with the government has a certain level of complexity that we don’t have in the commercial world,” said Svenningsen. “The closer the government can get to commercial processes, the better we will be able to fulfill their future requirements. “The government should allow more flexibility in the handling of shipments as commercial shipments,” agreed Knight. “They should give industry more flexibility to image commercial processes while they manage requirements and verify compliance with the contract.” O For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.

MLF 8.10 | 11

SUPPLY CHAIN New Engine Could Bring Fuel Savings The Advanced Turbine Engine Company (ATEC)—a joint venture between Honeywell International Inc. and Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corporation—has successfully completed testing of its second HPW3000 engine as part of the Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate’s (AATD) Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine (AATE) Science and Technology program. ATEC intends to offer the HPW3000 as a solution to replace the existing engines on U.S. Army Black Hawk and Apache helicopters. The HPW3000 engine offers dramatic improvements in performance, energy efficiency and protection for soldiers over the current engine—and would save billions of dollars in government costs on fuel, operations and maintenance. The U.S. Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), the follow-on to the AATE program, is an effort to develop and field a new helicopter engine that provides a 50 percent increase in power, a 25 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and significant reductions in operating and support costs. ITEP is intended to fit the existing installations of the Black Hawk and Apache, enabling both platforms to fly farther, stay on station longer and use less fuel than currently fielded engines. “The second engine test ran extremely well and we are confident our solution will meet and exceed the Army’s current and future needs. Being able to validate ITEP’s goals in performance, endurance and particularly sand ingestion is a great achievement,” said Craig Madden, president, ATEC. “The HPW3000 translates into a direct impact on fuel savings and a significant reduction in operating and support costs. That adds up to $1 billion yearly total cost savings over the current engine,” Madden added. “The sooner these improved engines are fielded, the sooner Army Aviation will have increased capability and flexibility in the field, and at a much lower cost. ATEC and the HPW3000 are meeting the Army’s goals now, and we are ready to deliver.”

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Confined-Space Forklifts Easy Street JD&S, LLC, recently demonstrated their unique Aisle-Master articulating forklift. Three of these machines are planned for delivery to the Anniston Army Depot and the McAlester Army Ammunitions Plant. These unique narrowaisle forklifts provide the application with three trucks in one, performing the functions of a narrow aisle machine, counterbalance forklift and reach truck in a single unit. These units operate well indoors and outdoors and may be provided in electric, liquefied petroleum gas or diesel configurations. Easy Street also manufactures the Combilift model CB, which is a long-load-handling, zero-turn-radius forklift, providing the user with a multipurpose forklift in one package.

DLA Contracts for Force Protection Barriers Following a competitive tender process, Hesco Bastion, Inc. has been awarded an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for force protection expeditionary barrier systems by the U.S. Defense Logistics Troop Support Agency (DLA). The earth-filled barriers have been used throughout recent operations in Afghanistan, including Camp Leatherneck and Camp Bastion, forming areas of compartmentalization to keep soldiers safe from indirect and direct fire within their accommodation areas. Hesco barriers were also used in remote areas to construct forward-operating bases at which entire compounds were made from Hesco baskets, including guard posts, medical facilities, ammunition stores and even washroom facilities. Stephanie Victory, CEO of Hesco Bastion, Inc., said, “We have protected the men and women of the United States Army for over a decade, and we are proud to continue supplying the DLA with the defense barriers that soldiers have come to trust and rely on.”

Global Hawk Sustainment Contract DoD has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $306 million contract to continue logistics and sustainment services on the high-altitude, long-endurance RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely piloted autonomous unmanned aircraft intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system. This contract comes on the heels of Global Hawk winning the Dr. James G. Roche Sustainment Excellence Award for the second year in a row. The new agreement continues an existing contract for Global Hawk maintenance, inventory management, parts procurement and other tasks necessary to ensure the availability of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system. This includes the aircraft as well as mission control elements and forwardoperating location support. “In a turbulent world, Global Hawk’s unparalleled reliability has made it an indispensable asset to the U.S. Air Force,” said Mick Jaggers, director, Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. “Our team takes great pride in supporting the warfighter with an aircraft system that is ready and available 12 | MLF 8.10

whenever and wherever it’s needed. We look forward to continuing this relationship with the Air Force.” www.MLF-kmi.com

Distribution Synchronizer Major General Rowayne â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wayneâ&#x20AC;? A. Schatz Jr. Director Operations and Plans, U.S. Transportation Command

2014

U.S. Transportation Command

Distribution Synchronizer

Q& A

Maintaining C2 of Strategic Forces and Logistics Infrastructure Major General Rowayne “Wayne” A. Schatz Jr. Director Operations and Plans, U.S. Transportation Command Major General Rowayne “Wayne” A. Schatz Jr. is the director of operations and plans, United States Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. He is responsible for directing the deployment of forces and the distribution of supplies and equipment for humanitarian, peacetime and wartime operations for the Department of Defense, including joint training, exercises and war planning. In addition, he is responsible for force protection for USTRANSCOM and its components, and has operational control of the Defense Courier Service and the Joint Operational Support Airlift Center. He also provides associated policy guidance. Schatz entered the Air Force in 1983 after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy and has served in a variety of operational commands. He commanded the 50th Airlift Squadron, Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.; three expeditionary airlift squadrons; the 374th Operations Group, Yokota AB, Japan; the 62nd Airlift Wing, McChord AFB, Wash.; the 314th Airlift Wing and 19th Airlift Wing, Little Rock AFB. Schatz has deployed in support of operations Southern Watch, Joint Guard, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He served as the director of mobility forces for Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines in 2002, and as the deputy director of mobility forces in 2005 for Operation United Assistance supporting tsunami relief efforts throughout South Asia, then for U.S. Central Command Air Forces, where he coordinated theater air mobility support for operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Schatz’s previous staff assignments include Fifth Air Force and U.S. Forces Japan, U.S. Special Operations Command, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, U.S. Transportation Command, and the Joint Staff. Prior to his current assignment, he was director of Strategic Plans, Requirements and Programs, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB. He is a command pilot with more than 4,200 hours in C-130 and C-17 aircraft. His awards and decorations include: the Distinguished Service Medal; the Defense Superior Service Medal with oak leaf cluster; the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters; the Defense Meritorious Service Medal; the Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters; the Air Medal; the Aerial Achievement Medal with oak leaf cluster; the Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters; and the Air Force Achievement Medal. Q: How do you see your directorate’s footprint changing as the drawdown continues in Afghanistan with a likely continued U.S. presence there and responsibilities elsewhere around the world? 14 | MLF 8.10

A: To put it in context, it’s actually not my directorate. It’s more of how we look at the defense transportation enterprise and our component forces and align to support operations in the entire CENTCOM area of responsibility. As we’re positioned right now in the Middle East, most of our forces are centered on the Gulf region and in Afghanistan. Even as we’ve gone from about 34,000 troops down to about 9,800, our USTRANSCOM operations tempo has actually increased during the latter part of this year as we’ve pulled the equipment and forces out of Afghanistan to get down to that limit. We see our workload and our footprint remaining about the same through the first quarter of calendar year 2015. As we settle down to the 9,800 level, we will see a little less work with the logistics sustainment flow, and force rotations in and out of Afghanistan will obviously come down, probably to about half of what they were previously with the higher number of U.S. forces. However, I don’t necessarily see our footprint going down much because at the same time we’re drawing down in Afghanistan, General [Lloyd] Austin (U.S. commander CENTCOM) still has operations ongoing countering ISIS in Iraq and Syria. We also see there’s still activity in Yemen as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. [For] all those operations that CENTCOM is focused on, we’re providing the transportation and logistics support to enable them to be successful. www.MLF-kmi.com

U.S. Transportation Command We use the same force footprint to flow in those different areas using CENTCOM’s priorities in order to accomplish that work and mission. We’ll see some decrease, but not as much as some people may anticipate. Q: What can you tell me about the support for counterterrorism operations against ISIS and in northern Iraq and Syria? A: Early on in the operation in the June to July time frame, when the president directed CENTCOM to take action, we started deploying additional U.S. forces in Iraq, primarily in that advise/assist role. We’re up to about 1,800 or so U.S. military personnel inside Iraq today. One of the first actions TRANSCOM specifically took, in coordination with CENTCOM, was to move some of our joint port opening forces into Baghdad International Airport and also up into Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq. We, mostly through airlift, moved the joint task forces into Baghdad and Erbil to help plus-up the effort there with Major General Dana Pittard, the joint task force commander. One of the specific things we did besides setting the force and helping that movement was providing resupply, primarily for the Kurds combating ISIS in northern Iraq and the Mosul area. The Mosul dam was a major operation. We’ve also been bringing in shipments of ammunition and supplies from Europe into Erbil to help that humanitarian and military effort. We’ve done several humanitarian and military supply air drop missions. Those were all led by Air Forces Central Command as part of CENTCOM operations, but we provided the forces for those missions and some of the support. They control the tactical aspects of the C-17 and C-130 missions. You’ve heard about the town of Kobani up on the Syrian border? We’ve been doing air drops there to support the Kurds defending the town. Sinjar Mountain was another area earlier on where we did humanitarian drops and enabled the Iraqis and the Kurds in the area to be able to evacuate that area safely. That was a big focus. There were some other areas within southern Iraq where we’ve done air drops of ammunition, food and supplies both for humanitarian purposes and to enable Iraqi security forces’ military operations. In time, we also maintained the aeromedical capability where we’re taking any injured U.S. personnel out of there to make sure they get the best care possible. We’ve also brought in another major part of our mission—supporting foreign military sales and equipment. We’ve airlifted a lot of foreign military sales equipment for the Iraqi government, bringing much of it from American sources directly into Baghdad. Q: What kinds of systems are you using for the actual air drops? A: We have focused on precision-type systems. There is a threat from ISIS and we know they have some air defense capabilities. For mission planning, we have had great ISR support from Predators and other overwatch assets that are providing real-time intelligence for our aircraft and aircrews flying these missions. They also generally have tactical air support to counter any threat that might pop up. It’s a synchronized effort led by U.S. Air Force Central Command. www.MLF-kmi.com

We’re generally dropping at high altitudes, trying to stay out of the range of any ground-based anti-aircraft weapons. For the airdrop, we use two basic systems. One is an Improved CDS (container delivery system) system. To start, we’ll drop a device that enables us to get accurate wind information used to program when we drop the supply bundles. The bundles go under a highvelocity chute, meaning they drop fairly quickly but with little drift in the wind. We’re able to get very good accuracy—within 200 yards or so of the planned point of impact—using that system. We use this method primarily for food and some of the water supplies that have very high tolerance—the bundles still hit the ground pretty well. For some of the other items that we can’t drop using the Improved CDS system, such as ammunition, we’ll also use the joint precision air drop system, which is a square-type of glide chute with a bundle attached to it. They are GPS-guided to the point of impact, and accurate within feet. Q: What processes are brought to bear when TRANSCOM is tasked to respond, on short notice, to a crisis—either military or humanitarian? A: Compared to other combatant commands, TRANSCOM is a global functional combatant command responsible for military transportation distribution and enabling capabilities. We have a global responsibility—generally in any type of action by the U.S. military as it’s involved around the world, TRANSCOM will likely have a plan supporting the lead combatant commander for that operation. Ours is a global supporting command focus. As the J3, director of operations and plans, I’m responsible for our fusion center, located on our ops center floor, where we bring in our future and current ops teams from our J3 and representatives from our transportation components who execute the missions. We’ve divided the world into east and west. Our east division is focused on CENTCOM, AFRICOM, EUCOM and SOCOM. Our west division is focused on PACOM, SOUTHCOM, NORTHCOM and STRATCOM. We have branches that are dedicated to those combatant commands. During deliberate planning for our supported combatant commands, our J3 planners work to build the supporting transportation plans and time-phased force deployment data (TPFDDs) in collaboration with the other COCOM staffs. They build a relationship and learn the unique characteristics of the supported command’s AOR and staff processes. When something happens in those combatant commands and there’s a planning effort or crisis action planning, we stand up a joint planning team (JPT) under the leadership of the branch that works with those combatant commands day-to-day. We bring in representation from around the headquarters and our components and bring all of that expertise to bear on the problem. Because of the way we handle our deliberate planning cycle, when the JPT comes together to respond to a crisis, it is not the first time they have worked together. Those same branches that support the COCOMs’ everyday needs come together to form the JPT—the same people who do the deliberate planning now turn to crisis action planning. They have that expertise in theater. They already have those connections with the supporting combatant commands and are able to turn very quickly. MLF 8.10 | 15

U.S. Transportation Command

USTRANSCOM Leaders

Gen. Paul J. Selva USAF Commander

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

USTRANSCOM Director

Col. Ronald Dougherty USAF J1 Personnel

Capt. David H. McAllister USN J2 Intelligence

Maj. Gen. Michael D. Kim USAFR RA Reserve Component and Commander, Joint Transportation Reserve Unit

Bruce A. Busler SES AC Joint Distribution Process Analysis Center

2014

Joint Enabling Capabilities Command

Rear Adm. Bret Batchelor USN Commander

Command Sgt. Maj. Lemuel Brock USA Senior Enlisted Leader

Air Mobility Command

Gen. Darren W. McDew USAF Commander

Chief Master Sgt. Victoria Gamble USAF Senior Enlisted Leader

Maj. Gen. David G. Clarkson USA Chief of Staff

Chief Master Sgt. William W. Turner USAF Senior Enlisted Leader

Maj. Gen. Rowayne “Wayne” Schatz Jr. USAF J3 Operations and Plans

Rear Adm. David F. Baucom USN J5/4 Strategy, Policy, Programs & Logistics

Gail Jorgenson SES AQ Acquisition

Col. Michael J. Benjamin USA JA Staff Judge Advocate

Surface Deployment and Distribution Command

Maj. Gen. Susan A. Davidson USA Commander

Command Sgt. Maj. Cedric J. Thomas USA Command Sergeant Major

Brig. Gen. Mitchel H. Butikofer USAF J6 Command, Control, Communications & Cyber Systems

James L. McGinley SES J8 Program Analysis & Financial Management

Col. David O’Brien USAF SG Command Surgeon

MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND

Rear Adm. Thomas J. Shannon USN Commander

Master Chief Petty Officer Kevin Blade USN Command Master Chief

U.S. Transportation Command I’ll give an example on how we manage that. Right now, we have a joint planning team stood up for the Ebola support Operation United Assistance supporting AFRICOM. We also have a JPT stood up supporting NORTHCOM for Ebola response because there are several live actions going on within CONUS to combat the Ebola problem. We have a JPT stood up for Iraq support for countering ISIS work. We just had a JPT stood up to support STRATCOM and NORTHCOM for their Global Thunder and Vigilant Shield exercises. We stood up that JPT to support that exercise during the same time we were doing the other work around the world. That’s how we flex and turn to the combatant commanders that we support every day and how we manage that flow from crisis to crisis. Q: Can we go more into the Ebola crisis response? A: There’s a difference between the Ebola response and the Iraq and Syria responses. The Iraq and Syria responses are not much extra effort for us because Aerial porters from the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Contingency Response Group position a Halverson cargohandling vehicle to offload pallets of humanitarian aid from a U.S. Air Force KC-10 aircraft at Léopold Sédar Senghor we have this large infrastructure and command International Airport in Dakar, Senegal. [Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air National Guard/by Maj. Dale Greer] system already in place. We were already inside Iraq balance of keeping our organic fleets operating at the right level providing some assistance and support there. We had all this wonto keep everybody trained and current. At the same time, the comderful capacity in the Middle East, so that when the president said, mercial folks need to have some workflow and be able to move “Go to Iraq,” we were able to go there a few hours later because that cargo and passengers in order to maintain their readiness and infrastructure and system was already set up and placed. participation in those programs. The Ebola response in Africa was quite different. We had to go We’re looking at the routes in and out of Afghanistan, and in there and build the distribution enterprise from scratch, put right now we’ve got several options we can use. We can fly things in our joint task force port opening elements and build up that directly out of Afghanistan; we have the northern distribution theater that was very austere before we were able to start flowing network, as well as going in and out of Pakistan on the PAKGLOC forces in a big way. from Afghanistan. We can be very agile when we’ve been operating and have a We’re thinking we’re probably going to need to slowly back off system in place to support operations. When we have to start from on use of the northern distribution routes as the forces draw down scratch and go someplace that we haven’t been to in a while, or within Afghanistan because there’s not going to be enough cargo ever, it takes a little more time and effort to stand up the enterprise going on those routes to keep them open and make it profitable and get it going before we can really make a large impact. for our commercial partners to stay engaged there. We’re watching this very carefully. It’s the balance of having different options, Q: With combat operations in Afghanistan and the level of but in order to have options, you have to be able to have cargo and involvement you have there, how has any of this changed your equipment, as well as people flying through those lanes to keep relationship and the amount of business with your commercial options viable. partners? How do you see that organic and nonorganic airlift supOne of the big things we’re working on in our ops center when port going down the road? we’re planning is that we want to make sure we fly our organic fleets about the minimum amount we need to in order for them to A: We’ve had wonderful relationships with our commercial prostay ready. Then we want to leverage our commercial partners for viders, both for CRAF carriers on the air side as well as our VISA transportation work above that to allow them to have that business U.S. flag carriers on the sealift and surface side. We could not have to stay ready and engaged. done everything we’ve done in Afghanistan or Iraq the last 13 years At the same time, as we come out of Afghanistan, we’ll have without that relationship and the capacity that our commercial some capacity in our transportation system now to service other providers bring to bear. parts of the globe. Frankly, I grew up in the Pacific flying C-130s These relationships are key, and we leverage them greatly to in the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s, and we used to have scheduled air our benefit in the Department of Defense. It’s key keeping our channel missions that would go to the Pacific on a regular basis. commercial providers healthy for national security. As we go We’ve gotten away from that because we’ve had so much of our forward with lower numbers of forces in Afghanistan, we see the focus on supporting CENTCOM in Iraq and Afghanistan. As we required monthly quantity of supplies to sustain the number of come out of that, we’re looking to work with our partners at DLA forces going down. As [our workload] goes down, we’re looking and the service depots, the COCOMs and other deployed U.S. forces very carefully at how we manage that readiness equation, the 18 | MLF 8.10

www.MLF-kmi.com

U.S. Transportation Command to determine how we can reorient our global system away from the Middle East to get more balance around the world. I think we’re going to be able to turn a little more of our systems’ capability to service the movement and transportation needs of our global structure. We’re doing that right now. The goal is to monitor readiness and also look at bringing additional transportation work into our defense transportation system to sustain the readiness of both our service components and our commercial providers. That’s General (Paul) Selva’s (TRANSCOM commander) number-one concern: a more austere budget environment with fewer dollars in the services to pay for transportation. How do we sustain the readiness of TRANSCOM’s wonderful transportation capability in the thin times so that when it comes time to surge again and answer the nation’s call, we’re ready and able to do that? Q: Can you give me your view on the degree of sophistication and detail that you get from the current asset visibility capabilities that you have compared to what the goals are? A: We’ve made a lot of progress, especially since September 11, 2001. We do have pretty good systems for monitoring in-transit visibility. We’ve made a lot of progress on the use of radio frequency ID tags, for example, for tracking equipment. But we still see breakdowns in discipline in using those ITV systems within DoD.

I frankly would give us about a C grade for now. A lot of our systems are still stovepiped along service lines; data doesn’t necessarily flow between them. One of our priorities for the command is to work on IT excellence. We’re squarely focused on trying to go into a more serviceoriented architecture for our IT and data services to track in-transit visibility (ITV), for example, to be able to share data between different applications as well as different service components. There’s a discipline aspect of being able to ensure that the information is loaded into the systems at the point of origin and use. For example, in our support of Operation United Assistance in West Africa, we’ve got good in-transit visibility on most of the missions within our organic or commercial charter systems for TRANSCOM. The people down range at Dakar and Monrovia can see what’s coming their way. But we still sometimes flow in lessthan-planeload loads of gear and equipment that show up, and they’re surprised. There’s a need for discipline there making sure that we put in our contracts for some of our commercial partner carriers that even for less-than-planeloads, the information gets loaded up into our systems so we have accurate details and can monitor in-transit visibility. Some work needs to be done. Some progress has been made. We’re not up to the same level of quality as the big guys like UPS or FedEx. One of our visions here is we want to eventually, someday,

6SHFLDOL]LQJ LQ

7KH 1DWLRQDO 6KLSSLQJ &RPSDQ\ RI 6DXGL $UDELD $GGLQJ $TDED ,]PLU

3URMHFW &DUJR %UHDN EXON 5252 $XWRPRELOHV &RQWDLQHUV KƵƌ WŽƌƚ Ăůů ZŽƚĂƟŽŶ͗ x :ĞďĞů ůŝ x ĂŵŵĂŵ x DƵŵďĂŝ x :ĞĚĚĂŚ x /ǌŵŝƌ x >ŝǀŽƌŶŽ x ĂůƟŵŽƌĞ x ,ŽƵƐƚŽŶ x :ĂĐŬƐŽŶǀŝůůĞ x ^ĂǀĂŶŶĂŚ x tŝůŵŝŶŐƚŽŶ x ĂůƟŵŽƌĞ tĞ ĂůƐŽ ^ĞƌǀŝĐĞͲ x ,ĂůŝĨĂǆ x:ƵďĂŝů x ƋĂďĂ x ďƵ ŚĂďŝ x :ĞĚĚĂŚ x<ƵǁĂŝƚ x :ĞďĞů ůŝ x ĂŚƌĂŝŶ x ĂŵŵĂŵ xDƵƐĐĂƚ x DƵŵďĂŝ x ŽŚĂ xhŵŵͲYĂƐƌ

ǁǁǁ͘ďĂŚƌŝ͘ƐĂ www.MLF-kmi.com

MLF 8.10 | 19

U.S. Transportation Command have a webpage—I say someday but I mean relatively quickly—so a soldier on the ground in Liberia can just login to www.transcom. mil and click on a page that says, ‘Where’s my stuff?’ and enter the information on what they’ve ordered, and it’ll show exactly where it is. We’re not there yet, but that’s the vision. Q: Can you describe the command’s emphasis and effort toward those goals? How are you keeping security in step with those IT goals? A: TRANSCOM, through the vision of previous leadership, has been on the leading edge of the department on the unclassified domain cybersecurity. Because we have to use and leverage the dot-com and the commercial networks, we’re very cognizant of that and we’ve done a lot of good work there. We have a very robust cyberdefense and security capability here in the command that primarily focuses in on our own IT systems provided by TRANSCOM and also within our components that support internal operations. It’s very solid and has been in place for several years. We’ve also built robust relationships with U.S. Cyber Command as well as their main component that provides us cyberprotection, the 24th Air Force Cyber Command down in San Antonio. They actually have two protection teams that are dedicated to monitoring and supporting TRANSCOM cyberdefense operations. In addition, we have regular standing agreements and regular coordination with the FBI, local law enforcement, the National Security Agency and other authorities that are outside the DoD network. If we see things that are going on in more of the dot-com type world, we can work with the FBI and local law enforcement, and they can work with the companies that may be affected. We’ve also, in the last few years, put into our contracts specific language covering cybersecurity requirements for our contractors that provide our IT support and our C2 systems. We write into the contract what the main requirements are for cybersecurity for their systems and networks, as well as the equipment they deliver to us. We know we’re a target. We’re continuing to do more and more. This year, we updated our cybersecurity strategy for the command and have worked to sync our IT and data strategies as well as our business operations strategy. Brigadier General Mitch Butikofer (TRANSCOM J6), Captain David McAllister (TRANSCOM J2) and I sit on a cyber board here for TRANSCOM and work on these issues every day. Going into the future, we’re focused on making sure that those cybersecurity requirements are baked into any systems we buy. We’ve recently stood up a joint cyber center here for the command; they actually work the command and control of cyber operations. They’re linked in directly with CYBERCOM and DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency). We make sure that we’re aware of any weak links in our IT and C2 systems that key cyber terrain as we do our physical operations. Then we focus our defensive efforts to make sure that they support the operations that are going on. We prioritize that by operations. Q: What is TRANSCOM’s role in trying to have better IT integration where the Army system talks to the Navy system, which talks to the Air Force, which talks to TRANSCOM, and so on? 20 | MLF 8.10

Essential military supplies, food and water, and mail—shown here—are all part of the supply chain. [Photo courtesy of DoD]

A: There are several lanes where we work those issues. The easy one is more within our own portfolio for TRANSCOM-specific C2 systems with a specific system that is managed by our components. We have a governance structure that’s led by me as the chief operating officer; we call it mission area management. For example, we have our air mission area, surface mission area, and joint planning mission area; those are the three big areas. We rely on a foundation of standards that are set by our J6, our chief information officer (CIO) for the command, so that we have a foundation of IT, cybersecurity and data standards that everyone has to follow. Then we closely manage the capabilities, the funding and the requirements for that portfolio of IT systems within the command. As we look at the other systems that each of the services use to connect with us, we work through our DPO (Distribution Process Owner) governance structure. We actively work with those service program managers to make sure that everyone follows common joint requirements and manages to plug in properly to that family of systems. Some of it can be directive and some of it can be collaborative, more like coaching—showing folks the business case to make investments up-front that allow these systems to connect and flow together for the greater good. Q: Anything else you’d like to add? A: This is an amazing job. Every day you come in and it’s something new. It’s really true that nothing happens in DoD without TRANSCOM. We’re kind of the special essence that gives our department the operational and strategic agility that the chairman and the secretary require. We have an amazing team of over 150,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, DoD civilians, contractors, active duty and reserves who make things happen every day on a global scale. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of this great team. I can’t think of a better place I’d rather be working. O www.MLF-kmi.com

SUPPLY CHAIN Navy Vertical Replenishment Contract Renewed AAR has announced that the Military Sealift Command (MSC) has exercised a oneyear renewal option for its airlift division to perform vertical replenishment (VERTREP) services for U.S. naval vessels in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. The one-year renewal is valued at approximately $15 million. The contract was awarded to AAR in 2011 for an estimated total value of $77 million. AAR has delivered VERTREP services to MSC since 2007. Under the agreement, AAR will support the 5th and 7th Fleets by providing ship-toshore replenishment, deep offshore underway replenishment, search and rescue (SAR), passenger transport, and other airlift support as required. The contract includes the use of four helicopters, personnel, and operational and technical support services. “AAR is proud to be the premier commercial provider of deep offshore replenishment services,” said Randy J. Martinez, president and CEO, AAR Airlift Group. “We have an excellent record of safety, reliability and responsiveness to the dynamic needs of this mission, which ensures U.S. forces have the critical supplies they need at sea.”

Pushing Battery Technology Forward EaglePicher Technologies, LLC announced that it has been awarded $22 million in funding under the Defense Production Act Title III Program for Phase II of the Lithium-Ion Battery for Military Applications (LIMA) project. The program goal assures the affordable production of critical items deemed essential for national defense, alleviating concerns regarding market volatility and uncertainty within the current international market for Li-ion. “This award assures EaglePicher will continue to be the leader in advanced lithium-ion technology for defense applications,” noted Randy Moore, president of EaglePicher. “We are delighted to take part in an investment that is critical to our national defense. Currently, the U.S. government relies on lithium-ion cells that are produced outside the United States. Most of our military’s current rechargeable portable power requirements and some critical energy-dependent weapons being developed and fielded for the future use these cells.” During Phase I, competitors were required to demonstrate electrochemical cell technology capable of exceeding 250 watt-hours per kilogram at an elevated discharge rate. EaglePicher was selected as the sole contractor for Phase II of the LIMA program. This phase of the program provides cost-shared financial assistance to establish a production facility supporting the manufacture of raw materials, cells and batteries utilizing this newly-developed, high-energydensity formulation. “This is an exciting time for EaglePicher as we continue to expand our lithium-ion footprint and product portfolio,” noted John Bennett, vice president and general manager of EaglePicher’s defense business. “This is being viewed by the industry as the next big step in lithium-ion battery technology. In addition to the move to more rechargeable batteries for the soldier, micro-grids for forward-deployed troops will benefit from this technology.” “Our current lithium-ion cell manufacturing focuses on medical and space applications,” said Ron Nowlin, vice president and general manager of aerospace at EaglePicher. “In addition to the applications already mentioned, this new capability will also help us better serve both military manned- and unmanned-aircraft applications. The improvements in battery energy density that we have created can truly be an enabling technology and allow for reduction of weight and extension of mission-critical applications.”

www.MLF-kmi.com

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Partnership at Air Force Sustainment to Reduce Costs

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center recently signed a partnership agreement that establishes a common framework and pre-negotiated terms and conditions for long-term partnership work efforts, thereby improving efficiency and readiness to support operations. With this public-private agreement, Lockheed Martin is enabled to immediately execute specific implementation agreements with the Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) and their air logistics complexes, reducing costs and allowing for faster implementation of agreements. “This partnership ties directly into our cost-effective readiness initiatives,” said Lieutenant General Bruce Litchfield, Air Force Sustainment Center commander. “As we continue to make internal improvements to the way we do business, the next logical step is to develop robust partnerships with industry. We view these partnerships as an opportunity to capitalize on the strengths of our organic enterprise and the defense industry’s capabilities. Together we can find win-win solutions that deliver more Air Force readiness at less cost.” Building on Lockheed Martin’s expertise delivering relevant capability to Air Force depots since 1992, the agreement improves contract negotiation with a standard partnering process. “This partnership agreement matures Lockheed Martin’s relationship with the AFSC by providing a consistent framework across all ALCs with pre-negotiated terms and conditions,” said Lou Kratz, vice president, logistics and sustainment at Lockheed Martin. “This allows us to implement specific work agreements rapidly and efficiently, drawing upon our complementary skills to effectively support our warfighters.”

MLF 8.10 | 21

Distribution Deliverer

Q& A

Providing Full-Spectrum, Global Mobility Solutions and Capabilities General Paul J. Selva Commander U.S. Transportation Command General Paul J. Selva is commander, U.S. Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. USTRANSCOM is the single manager for global air, land and sea transportation for the DoD. Selva graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1980, and completed undergraduate pilot training at Reese AFB, Texas. He has held numerous staff positions and has commanded at the squadron, group, wing and headquarters levels. Prior to his current assignment, Selva was the commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB. Selva is a command pilot with more than 3,100 hours in the C-5, C-17A, C-141B, KC-10, KC-135A and T-37. His major awards and decorations include: the Defense Distinguished Service Medal; the Distinguished Service Medal; the Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters; the Defense Meritorious Service Medal; the Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters; the Air Force Commendation Medal; the Air Force Achievement Medal; the Joint Meritorious Unit Award; the Combat Readiness Medal with two oak leaf clusters; the National Defense Service Medal with bronze star; the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with two bronze stars; the Southwest Asia Service Medal with bronze star; the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; and the Armed Forces Service Medal. Q: Since assuming command, what have been your priorities? A: USTRANSCOM, its components and subordinate commands provide full-spectrum, global mobility solutions and related enabling capabilities to execute national priorities in peace and war. The strategic environment in which we operate is challenging. We face a cyber domain that poses risks to our operations. The global economy has a direct impact on our commercial partners’ capacity to surge and magnifies the impact of decreased Department of Defense demand. As we see from today’s headlines, more capable adversaries are emerging and will likely challenge U.S. access to the global commons. Increasingly, expeditionary joint forces based in the continental United States require a robust global distribution network to rapidly support agile operations in multiple theaters with overlapping time frames. Budget constraints will drive the loss of predictable, consistent opportunities to train mobility warriors, conduct engagement activities and support the commercial distribution sector, and will likely have second-order effects on readiness. These significant challenges make it imperative that we work together with a common purpose to achieve my desired end state for the command: to be ready to deliver the distribution and enabling capabilities that make America a global power. My number-one priority is our readiness as a command and the readiness of the global distribution enterprise to extend America’s helping hand or project combat power anywhere, anytime. My intent 22 | MLF 8.10

is for each of us to mature our respective organization’s processes so that everything we do contributes to the common readiness of the Defense Transportation System, the global distribution enterprise and our unique enabling capabilities. Within the constraints of public law and national policy, we must leverage daily operations, military exercises and partner engagements in more sophisticated ways that deliver superior support to supported commands while ensuring we maintain readiness in the future. Our transportation solutions must preserve industrial mobilization capability and the vital surge capacity of commercial transportation providers. Our active and Reserve soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilian personnel are ready to overcome future challenges and make our team the transportation and enabling capabilities provider of choice. We will succeed in accomplishing this vision together with the contributions of our commercial partners. Q: What will be the stressors on the U.S. Transportation Command budget over the next 12 to 18 months? A: We rely on our service component commands—Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, Military Sealift Command and Air Mobility Command—along with commercial partners to provide these transportation services. The readiness of the entire enterprise to respond to USTRANSCOM taskings is critical to our success. www.MLF-kmi.com

IT’S NOT A JOB, IT’S A MISSION. The battle I wage is against time. And in defense of efficiency. Whether I am operating in support of a strategic deployment or moving materials to a forward militarized zone, I will persevere. I will improvise, adapt, and overcome. I will deliver. Every time. It’s not just my duty. It’s my privilege. It’s my honor. I am

pilotdelivers.com / 1-800-HI-PILOT

In this light, we are most concerned about the services’ appropriated funds—from both an operations and readiness perspective. Both areas need adequate funding to support successful missions. As a result of the Budget Control Act, we face an overall austere funding climate. In fiscal year 2016 and beyond, potential sequestration could seriously inhibit USTRANSCOM’s ability to deliver transportation services and meet the requirements of those we support. It is an important point that USTRANSCOM pays for operations through the Transportation Working Capital Fund (TWCF), which means we provide transportation services for supported commanders who, in turn, reimburse us. World events and USTRANSCOM’s dynamic operational environment notwithstanding, transportation requirements show a decreased demand. A robust workload is key to USTRANSCOM maintaining the financial resources necessary for readiness. An example that illustrates the interaction between workload, financial resources and readiness. The drawdown of forces in Afghanistan means a much smaller military presence there, which equates to fewer troops to sustain and less frequent deployments and redeployments. This reduced transportation demand results in profound effects on the readiness of our global mobility system. For instance, when airlift demand is down, we fly less, which reduces the flying hours our aircrews have to maintain proficiency and gain experience. A decline in airlift and sealift demand results in less business for our commercial partners, and that has an impact on their business decisions and ability to respond to crises when we need them. If we can’t sustain an acceptable level of workload for these commercial providers, we run the risk that they will be unavailable to rapidly deploy massive forces for major contingencies or humanitarian crises. USTRANSCOM needs workload to generate revenue and maintain adequate cash balances within the TWCF to fund fixed costs and maintain the distribution network. We are focused on controlling our overhead costs to keep our transportation rates as low as possible and cost-effective for our supported commanders and the services. However, there will come a time when we are forced to make hard decisions about the level of transportation infrastructure and capabilities we must retain to meet future wartime demands. We will continue to work across the Department of Defense and with Congress to address not only the financial aspects of these issues, but to ensure USTRANSCOM has the necessary capabilities and capacity required to respond when our nation needs us. Q: Is there an established timeline for the Global Campaign Plan for Distribution (GCP-D)? What will that plan give you and the component commands? A: The GCP-D is an annual iterative process with specific milestones throughout the year to support plan execution and identify required updates for further improvement. The under secretary of defense for policy approved the plan in January 2014, and we are now approaching our second year and iteration. In concert with DoD, the GCP-D gives USTRANSCOM and its component commands the ability to shape and improve the global distribution environment in support of our national strategy. The plan facilitates coordination and synchronization across the distribution community of interest and focuses enterprise leaders on addressing their most important challenges. It helps ensure the Global Distribution Network is agile, flexible and responsive to DoD’s current and future needs in the operating environment. We will realize 24 | MLF 8.10

improvements and operate more efficiently by addressing global endto-end distribution requirements, synchronizing global distribution planning and identifying critical capabilities, infrastructure and relationships required for global distribution operations. Q: What about the international partner aspects? A: All theater campaign plans incorporate security cooperation as an essential planning factor. International agreements are pivotal to our continued success and further global distribution synchronization. In fact, the GCP-D recognizes the importance of international partners in achieving DoD goals. As a result, the Global Distribution Network relies heavily on allied, friendly and cooperating nations to support international agreements and for access to the critical waypoint and transportation nodes. As a command that moves in, through or over up to 130 countries on any given day, we place significant importance on engaging international partners. We also recognize that we work with international partners as part of a U.S. government team that includes the Department of State, Department of Commerce and other non-defense agencies as well as geographic combatant commands and the services. USTRANSCOM has a unique worldwide, cross-boundary perspective on distribution equities in the global arena. We build partnerships that benefit all users of the Global Distribution Network. USTRANSCOM is nonkinetic, presents a less threatening image and is internationally recognized and commercially valuable, which gives us a broader reach in building international partnerships. Q: Do you see unmanned systems having a dramatic impact on supply—tactical or strategic? A: Although we’re still in the early stages of developing unmanned systems for resupply missions, we are beginning to see advances in air and ground autonomous technologies for providing tactical resupply. Examples include recent successes with unmanned helicopter resupply to Marine tactical units in U.S. Central Command’s area of operations. We’re also involved in technology demonstrations for ground resupply convoys. Using unmanned systems for resupply is a promising capability which we will certainly continue to support and remain engaged in. Q: With the currently used air/land/sea lanes of transportation out of Afghanistan, is everything working as expected? A: The Afghanistan retrograde operation is working as expected, but we still have areas that we need to monitor to ensure we stay on track with targeted timelines. We use the Joint Operational Planning and Execution System for better retrograde estimates and to assign the proper lift to accomplish the mission. This allows us to utilize all of our retrograde lanes while providing a surge capability for other areas. Afghanistan retrograde is a great example of a whole-of-government approach for mission accomplishment. We are in close coordination with multinational partners and the Department of State for country-specific negotiations and safe passage of cargo along the routes. Our commercial partners prove daily just how important they are to the retrograde of the U.S. and International Security Assistance Force cargo, equipment and passengers. As we draw down the forces in Afghanistan to 9,800 servicemembers for the Operation Resolute Support mission, we must adjust to www.MLF-kmi.com

Behind your operation, is our operation. On the front line, each situation is different; every environment unique. No one knows what challenges today’s mission will bring, but it’s important to be prepared, and equipped to handle anything. Our long-standing relationship with the military has proven that APL has what it takes to deliver essential supplies to our troops, on time and on target. And we’ve been proud to offer our unsurpassed service to the U.S. Government for more than 160 years. With multiple weekly U.S. Flag services linking North America to Asia and Europe plus feeder routes within the Middle East, we make sure mission critical equipment reaches those who need it, so they can complete their Moving Business mission with confidence. Forward To learn more about how we support those who serve, visit www.apl.com

apl.com

the reduced demand signal from a smaller force. At the same time, we need to remain ready to support our national interests and our international partners in places like Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and Africa. Q: What has been TRANSCOM’s role in Operation United Assistance? A: USTRANSCOM is part of Operation United Assistance, the Department of Defense’s support to the whole-of-government, U.S. Agency for International Development-led response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa. The command is transporting cargo and passengers in close coordination with U.S. Africa Command. In addition, the command has sent communications and public affairs specialists, as well as planners, to augment USAFRICOM’s joint force headquarters. Another important contribution in the fight against Ebola is USTRANSCOM’s joint task force-port opening teams working in Senegal and Liberia to help receive personnel and cargo and arrange for further transportation. While in West Africa, USTRANSCOM personnel are working with staff members of other U.S. government agencies, non-governmental organizations, host nations and other contributing nations. Our role is to conduct airport and seaport surveys, determine port capabilities and offer transportation solutions. At our headquarters, planners work tirelessly coordinating the flow of cargo and forces into theater using organic and commercial strategic airlift and sealift. For context, West Africa is not a mature theater. It is an expeditionary environment with mobility limitations. Roads are unimproved, and rain causes many to be impassable. Airfield space for cargo and aircraft staging is limited. Airfields were not designed for numerous landings and departures of heavy aircraft. Seaports may not be deep enough for larger vessels. Since we haven’t operated in this area previously, robust military distribution networks don’t exist. Keeping these limitations in mind, the USTRANSCOM team ensures our efforts do not overwhelm the forces, infrastructure and host nation support. We are also planning for the possibility of aeromedical evacuation. USTRANSCOM and Air Mobility Command surgeons are working with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to design, test, evaluate and procure a Transport Isolation System (TIS) to evacuate patients exhibiting symptoms of Ebola virus disease (EVD). The TIS is not being built as Ebola-specific, but as a system with future applications as well. This design must be compatible with 463L pallets and C-17s, C-130s and KC-135s, as well as with similar aircraft of partner nations. Once the EVD outbreak is contained, the TIS will provide an added capability for USTRANSCOM and partner nations. Q: How has the response in West Africa impacted USTRANSCOM’s ability to sustain operations elsewhere in the world? A: There is no doubt that the added requirements we’ve seen from Iraq, Africa and elsewhere have led us to reprioritize some of our efforts across our network, but I’m confident we can wholeheartedly support both USCENTCOM and USAFRICOM. The EVD outbreak, combined with multiple global contingency operations, has led to shortfalls for lower-priority missions and some delays. USTRANSCOM, however, is working vigorously to meet the needs of the combatant commands we support. USTRANSCOM’s role in West Africa started in late September and will continue until the U.S. government/DoD role, or USTRANSCOM’s capability, is no longer required. We are poised to support future U.S. government requests for assistance and support to the international 26 | MLF 8.10

coalition, while maintaining global commitments, including ongoing operations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan; force rotations in Europe and the Pacific; retrograde of equipment out of Afghanistan; air refueling operations across the world; and other daily tasks like privatelyowned vehicle and household goods shipments. With an increase in operations, our mobility capacity remains the same. We do not get an increase in mobility assets during periods of increased tempo. During any operation, a time-phased force deployment planning and execution effort is critical, balanced upon joint staff movement priorities. Not only does this type of plan stagger force flow, it gives strategic mobility planners the ability to conduct transportation feasibility for all transportation options and stagger those movements based upon priorities. After the first week in October, cargo and movement projections showed a need for approximately 184 C-17s. USTRANSCOM ensured these movement requirements were aggregated and moved in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. We do this on a daily basis with any movement requirement while continuing to maintain a balance between commercial and organic assets. Enduring relationships with commercial transportation partners and access to commercial sea and air carriers reduces the strain on our organic fleet. Additionally, our Guard and Reserve components bring an enormous capability to the table—from volunteerism to full activation—and are utilized to further reduce stress on the system when necessary. Q: Since the withdrawal from Iraq, how quickly were you able to re-establish logistics pipelines for missions there? A: USTRANSCOM has remained in close contact with many of our Middle Eastern partners, and we continue to do quite a bit of work with many of them, mainly because of the Afghanistan retrograde operation or through Foreign Military Sales. Because of the great strategic partnerships we have sustained over time, we were able to quickly re-establish the logistics infrastructure needed to support combat operations being executed against ISIS. Q: As transportation requirements decline, what are you hearing from your commercial contractual partners about their ability to provide the services you need at competitive prices? A: While transportation requirements are indeed decreasing, we have not seen any trends that would impact USTRANSCOM’s ability to contract for commercial services at competitive prices. As we move further into this period of decreased requirements, we will continue to work to provide the most cost-effective solutions to our customers in partnership with our commercial providers. We will also focus on the readiness requirements of the commercial sector to make sure they are available and ready to respond in crisis. Q: Do you have anything else to add? A: I can’t beat the drum any louder. Readiness is vital to support our number-one priority—the warfighter. We cannot be ready to answer our nation’s call without the tremendous support of the commercial transportation industry. Our partnership, tested by time, is absolutely necessary for national defense. Our amazing organization—including active duty, Guard, Reserve, DoD civilians and contractors—comprises an unmatched and highly capable team critical to our nation’s success. O www.MLF-kmi.com

Special Section

Captains DLA’s Captains of Industry Program brings the best of the commercial world to DLA’s doorstep. By Beth Reece The power of conversation is strong at the Defense Logistics Agency, where frequent discussions between agency and industry leaders have led to billions of dollars in savings. Many critical conversations have come about during annual meetings with industry representatives in all of DLA’s supply chains. The meetings comprise the Captains of Industry program, created in March 2012 to help the agency meet DLA Director Navy Vice Admiral Mark Harnitchek’s goal of saving $13 billion through 2019. More than $8 billion of that is expected to be trimmed from material costs. As of the end of June, Captains of Industry participants had already identified $1.3 billion in savings and cost avoidances toward the effort. “We’ve got some fairly aggressive goals here, and you guys can help us with that because you’re part of this big process in terms of proposals and pricing,” Harnitchek said. He estimated that 60 to 70 percent of new cost-savings ideas are born through the Captains of Industry program. The meetings are held in a three-hour roundtable format that encourages open discussion between DLA leaders and current and potential industry partners, as well as military leaders who attend to share their perspectives on changing demands.. Separate events are held once a year for each of DLA’s diverse supply chains, allowing participants to focus on finding efficiencies that apply to specific commodities. Recent savings identified through the program range from the elimination of unproductive processes to increased use of performance-based logistics, said Navy Commander Steven Boycourt, who helps manage the program for DLA Acquisition. The PBL concept gives contractors partial responsibility for material readiness and typically reduces repair time and costs for the military. Discussions on aviation repair parts led to new PBL contracts with Boeing, Honeywell, Raytheon and other manufacturers and resulted in $659 million in savings, for example. In the 2013 meeting highlighting subsistence, vendors explained that commercial customers typically use much smaller food catalogs than military customers, so DLA Troop Support worked with vendors to reduce the number of types of items available via catalog by 52 percent. The effort saved money and made managing orders easier. “This was one of the things that you guys suggested to us in terms of keeping the food quality great but taking some cost out. You told us that most of your commercial customers don’t have nearly the size of catalogs that we have. It’s not like we’ve gone to just one of everything, but a few of everything instead of 15 of everything. It makes your job a little easier in terms of management, and there’s some savings there as well,” Harnitchek told vendors in May. When DLA leaders last met with bulk petroleum suppliers, they discovered procedures for filling fuel tanks still included obsolete military-specification requirements, thereby raising contract www.MLF-kmi.com

From Industry’s Chair Forums have greatly simplified the ability to bring industry best-in-class methods and practices to the Department of Defense. The opportunity to talk directly with senior leadership provides insights that enable industry to craft higher-value solutions based on specific customer needs. “Lockheed Martin’s participation in Captains of Industry is orchestrated at the corporate level based on our partnership with the Defense Logistics Agency,” said Lou Kratz, vice president of logistics and sustainment, Lockheed Martin, and executive participant, Captains of Industry. “Depending on the specific area of discussion, forums allow us to draw from our functional experts in supply chain, contracts and engineering to identify and streamline operations and reduce cost.” Lockheed Martin has coordinated directly with Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) leadership to improve delivery time, reduce material cost and establish long-term contracts to support programs such as the F-16, C-130, C-5 and P-3. In 2013, Lockheed Martin and DLA formed a joint team to reduce acquisition and production lead times. The team’s assessment of the value stream led to a 20 percent reduction in lead time and a 30 percent reduction in material cost. DLA recognized the value of the contribution by awarding Lockheed Martin the DLA Cost Reduction Award. Lockheed Martin’s most recent Captains of Industry initiative is a sponsor-initiated order proposal that will send spare parts directly to DLA without the requirement of a new purchase order, resulting in an additional 10 percent cost decrease, reduced inventory investment and increased material availability.

costs unnecessarily. DLA Energy worked with industry representatives to align government and commercial standards. The result was increased competition and a possible $35 million annual savings in fuel costs. While the program has led to improvements for DLA and vendors alike, customers are the main benefactors. “We pass these savings directly back to our customers through reduced material costs and recovery rates. That’s what this is all about,” he said. O Beth Reece is with the Defense Logistics Agency. For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.

MLF 8.10 | 27

Logistics, Big Data Offer Potent Mix Big data methods can accelerate the benefits of analyzing business processes while also escalating the results. By Harrison Donnelly, KMI Media Group Managing Editor “It’s like sensors—each is designed to capture its own data, which For military logisticians looking to improve their supply chains, is necessary. But you have to bring the data out of all the sensors big data analysis can be like the icing on a cake—highly satisfying in into one place, and then you can begin to ask questions and find the meeting the hunger for actionable information that can help cut costs problems. Getting to the root cause requires an anaand speed the flow of vital goods. First, though, you have lytic mentality and the ability to organize your data,” to bake the cake, warned Peeter Kivestu, senior industry Kivestu said. consultant on transportation and logistics for Teradata. The cake, in this case, is provided by the hard work of leveraging data from existing systems to gain Big Dollars enhanced end-to-end visibility. Like many other organizations, the military still has work to do in this area, Big data analysis can also be valuable in longKivestu said. But once the foundations are laid, there term logistics planning, especially if the military are major potential benefits from using big data analytkeeps its eyes on what Kivestu calls its areas of “big ics in military logistics. dollars”—readiness and reliability. “If you haven’t done the hard work with your regu“A tank or aircraft is an incredibly complex piece Peeter Kivestu lar analytics, big data is not the place you want to start. of machinery, and the big dollars are in two areas,” he On the other hand, if you have done the heavy lifting, you are going to indicated. “One is if the assets are available for use. It is actually a hard be able to substantially enhance what you have already done,” he said. question to answer: What percentage of the time are your heavy assets Big data methods can accelerate the benefits of analyzing busiavailable to run a mission? That’s hard to do because it is complicated. ness processes, Kivestu noted, while also escalating the results. The assets can run sometimes in degraded condition, for example, so Acceleration is when you get similar benefits, but faster, such as when there is a lot of data that you need to pull together to answer the quesRFID tags on major systems aboard an aircraft automatically provide tion. Is it in heavy maintenance, does it need light maintenance or is information about flight readiness much more quickly than a manual it operable but degraded?” inspection. The military has made some progress on availability, although Escalation, however, takes performance to a whole new level. “For more needs to be done, he said. But reliability is an even tougher example, in the past you might have had a few dozen sensors on an question. airplane,” he said. “Today, you have thousands of sensors on board to “Reliability comes from sub-components. Reliability is the prodhelp the machine operate. If you take that data and repurpose it to also uct of an ecosystem of components, which in turn break down to allow it to be used for analytics, you can begin to analyze pathways, smaller components. The driver of reliability is a complex equation particularly pathways to failure. of parts, vendors, inventory, purchasing and maintenance practices. “Now that you have hundreds or thousands of sensors, you can tie In an operation like the military, there are millions of different items the data together second by second, and begin to do troubleshooting to keep track of, from boots to expensive electronic components. The that has never been possible before. You are escalating your preparedtendency is to try to paint everything with the same brush, but the ness analytics to a new level,” Kivestu added. reality is that knowing the reliability of a half-million-dollar computer, The key to success is putting your data to work, and the key to where it is and its maintenance status, offers more important opporputting data to work is asking the right questions. But that’s harder tunities,” Kivestu explained. than it seems, he continued, because modern networks and systems The challenges are particularly evident in reverse logistics, are so complex it is often not clear what you need to look at in order whether in efficiently restoring a damaged but usable computer or, to understand your situation. like the U.S. military today, in retrieving and resetting a lot of expenYou may even need to ask 10 questions in order to find the one sive equipment from an overseas area of operations. you need. “Look at the data with the idea of formulating the right “We’ve been at war for a long time, and our assets have been heavquestion. Then you can put the data to work by drilling down to the ily used and worn down,” he observed. “They are still operable, but root cause,” he urged. they need to be brought back to the depot to be refurbished. What One of the first things the military can do to leverage data and the military tends to do is to completely rebuild the unit. But it often put it to work is to separate it from the applications that generate it. happens that when you bring back something to the depot for main“That’s a short-term step everyone can take: Make sure your data can tenance, some of the parts may have been replaced recently and don’t be looked at,” he said. “The reality is that you can’t in most organizaneed to be replaced again. An enormous amount of money is wasted tions because the data is tied up with the applications. Applications are on resets because there aren’t reliability-centered, analytics-based necessary for today’s world. But if you don’t bring the data they genertactics for managing them. The data doesn’t exist, so the mechanics ate out of the application so you can query it, you can’t tie it together do the best they can, and the net result is that time and money are with data from other applications. being wasted.” 28 | MLF 8.10

www.MLF-kmi.com

Plugging the Gaps Such wastes of money are a vital issue at a time with an increasing gap between the military’s needs and its available funds. “Analytics can help plug budget gaps by allowing you to use your money wisely. Good analytics enables you to do more with less, as in the reset example. By spending time on equipment reliability, resets and other issues, you can fund the other things that you need, whether equipment or personnel,” Kivestu suggested. “Analytics is the way to do more with less,” Kivestu said. “One thing that the military has not achieved success on yet is doing some basic things that could enable analytics to plug budget gaps, such as barcoding. Simple barcoding of parts enables you to do analytics, which enables you to do more with less. The military has not accomplished as much of that as the commercial world. “There is also a risk in relying on ‘big bang’ applications designed to fix large problems,” he continued. “There is more and more evidence that says if you are able to take a look at your data, you can identify actionable improvement opportunities without building complex applications. That’s the applications mentality, which asks what is the problem and the solution. The analytics mentality looks at the question, and then the next question and the next after that. Let’s stop thinking about solve-it-once solutions, and instead about the questions.” Despite the challenges, Kivestu sees hope in the marriage of big data analytics and the extraordinary levels of skills and experience in

today’s military. “One of the things that is very effective in the analytic environment is when you take people who know the way the business operates—in the military case in war-fighting situations—and know the problems that occur in that environment. When you give these people tools that they can begin questions with, you can put their accumulated experience to work with some of the business intelligence tools that are out there, and you can begin to leverage their practical knowledge. “This is one of the great opportunities that the military has—to take all their experience and put it to use in providing what we could call a data-driven environment. A data-driven environment is not a situation where you sprinkle a little bit of data on an existing problem, but where you let the data tell the story. When you have someone who has been in the fight and lets the data tell its story, it leads to what people are really good at—picking out patterns,” Kivestu said. “If you point the tools to the right data, they will show the patterns, which the military’s expertise can use to solve problems,” he continued. “The missions are so complex that you can see it in the data faster than any other way. So I would encourage the military to enable people with new analytic tools that combine their field expertise with access to data. It’s a very potent mix.” O

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.

Doing More with Less Ask the Right Questions to Get the Right Supply Chain and Logistics Answers For supply chain and logistics, the potential of big data lies in integrating enormous amounts of data to ask new questions and discover new insights. Big data analytics are critical to help drive higher equipment readiness and utilization, reduce needs for supporting capital assets and improve productivity.

An encompassing analytics environment accommodates increasing service demands in constantly changing supply chain environments. Read this white paper, Discovery Analytics—a New Vehicle for Supply Chain and Logistics, to learn more about optimizing your supply chain.

Download the white paper at www.Teradata.com/DoingMoreWithLess

What would you do if you knew?™

www.MLF-kmi.com

MLF 8.10 | 29

WHITE PAPER FORUM Overcoming MRO Supply Chain Dysfunction A Critical Element of Operational Excellence Isn’t it time to transform your organization into a streamlined machine that adeptly leverages the benefits of solid and reliable MRO data? This White Paper will help you shift your organization’s current MRO mindset while illustrating the economic impact of the silo’ed viewpoint and helping you leverage MRO to:

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

U.S. CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN AFGHANISTAN Force transition, withdrawal schedule and contractor default have led to issues in Afghanistan

• Enhance productivity • Reduce inventory • Cut MRO spending

DoD established a process to determine whether ongoing military construction projects for U.S. facilities in Afghanistan should be completed or terminated. As a result, DoD has realized a cost savings of $22.7 million through termination and offsets of select military construction projects. There are current four ongoing construction projects with three more in limbo after the contractor defaulted.

For the complete White Paper, go to: http://bit.ly/1w2tbRD

For the complete report, go to: http://bit.ly/1qsWlLJ

Introducing...

White Paper Forum

An effective way to have military logistics decision-makers, influencers and program officers follow your pioneering research and focused capabilities while driving our qualified and loyal group of readers to your Web site. Elements of featured posting includes • Company name • Title of White Paper • Your unique URL • Description/Summary of your White Paper (approx. 140 words) • Image of White Paper cover Benefits to You • An effective and efficient way for you to communicate your understanding and commitment to a solution • Build credibility with senior level military logistics decision-makers • Increase traffic to your Web site through qualified White Paper readership Your Posting • 4 Featured Postings available per issue in hard copy of publication • White Paper summary and unique URL to appear on the MLF Web site for one month • After one month, White Paper to appear in archives for 3 years For more information on your White Paper submission contact: Jane Engel, Associate Publisher / (301) 670-5700 ext. 120 / jane@kmimediagroup.com

30 | MLF 8.10

www.MLF-kmi.com

The advertisers index is provided as a service to our readers. KMI cannot be held responsible for discrepancies due to last-minute changes or alterations.

MLF RESOURCE CENTER Advertisers Index

Calendar

AAR Corporation.............................................................................................5 www.aarmobilitysystems.com APL................................................................................................................25 www.apl.com Banneker Industries, Inc................................................................................1 www.banneker.com Exelis Mission Systems/Vectrus......................................................................3 www.vectrus.com I.H.S...............................................................................................................30 http://bit.ly/1w2tbRD Inventory Locator Service..............................................................................9 www.ilsmart.com Leidos............................................................................................................C3 www.leidos.com/logistics Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.................................................C2 www.lockheedmartin.com/jltv Pilot Freight Service.....................................................................................23 www.pilotdelivers.com SupplyCore......................................................................................................1 www.supplycore.com Teradata Corporation...................................................................................29 www.teradata.com/doingmorewithless Volga-Dnepr Air............................................................................................C4 www.volga-dnepr.com

December 3-5, 2014 Defense Logistics Alexandria, Va. http://defenselogistics.wbresearch. com

March 30-April 2, 2015 Aircraft Airworthiness & Sustainment Conference Baltimore, Md. www.aasconference.com

December 9, 2014 Global Supply Chain Summit Rockville, Md. www.ndia.org/meetings/5040

March 31-April 2, 2015 AUSA Global Force Symposium Huntsville, Ala. www.ausa.org

Special SUPPLEMENT

Bahri General Cargo....................................................................................19 www.bahri.sa

April 13-15, 2015 Sea-Air-Space National Harbor, Md. www.seaairspace.org

February 9-11, 2015 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Washington, D.C. www.arpae-summit.com

June 3, 2015 Hot Topic – Sustainment Arlington, Va. www.ausa.org/meetings/2015

March 10, 2015 Hot Topic – Installation Management Arlington, Va. www.ausa.org/meetings/2015

June 23-25, 2015 Mega Rust Newport News, Va. www.navalengineers.org

March 16-18, 2015 National Logistics Forum Washington, D.C. www.ndia.org/meetings/5730

GLOBAL FORCE SYMPOSIUM AND EXPOSITION KMI show Daily Drive Traffic to your Booth

DAILY AGENDA

SIVES CONFERENCE EXCLU

2015 AUSA GLOBAL FORCE

E EXCLUSIVES

Show News & Highlights Exclusive interviews and commentary from the show floor.

Produced by Ground

DAILY AGENDA

Produced by

Highlight Your Location The expo floor is huge. Make it easy for people to find you.

Nimble Wheels

FERE

Science and technology

Online & Digital Distribution Reach beyond the show attendees. • Email notification to more than 20,000 • Blog Updates • Daily Tweets

and Tactical ISR Technolog

SHOy W HIGH Technolog Forum, Special Operations 2015 AUS LIGHTS Logistics A GLO BREAKING NEW BAL FORCE SYM S POSIUM AND EXP OSITION

Combat Technology, Military

g Seats CONatin Blast-Attenu

Press releases The Global Force Symposium and Exposition is the ideal time for companies to announce new products and capabilities.

DAY

ITION

SHOWDAILY SHOWDAILY SHOW DAILY CONFERENC

Daily Agenda The agenda that the KMI Show Daily delivers every morning of the symposium will include the most current updates, additions and changes to the speakers, speaker topics and locations to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

BREAKING NEWS

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

SYMPOSIUM AND EXPOS

from hidden threats lives saveNC E EX CLUSI

DAY

The Army is acting t Technology,20 Militar 15y Logisti AUSA cs Forum, Specia AGEN smartly and swiftly to A logy GLOBAL l Operations D Techno rs safely and SH soldie Tactica keep l ISR Technology OW FORCE HIG HLIG move. SYMPO on the HTS VES

Ground Comba

DAILY

Blast-Attenuatin

Science and tech

g Seats

SIUM

AND EX

BR a EA more than If you thought that after KING military’s wheeled decade at war, the U.S. worn out and in vehicle fleet might be be wrong. need of repair, you would proArmy’s the Fahey, Kevin So says Logis Suptics Fo rum, executive officer for Combat gram Speci al Op Support. “Overall, eratio port & Combat Service ns Tec wheeled vehicle hntoday ologythe Army’s tactical and Tac and in good shape. young tic fleet is healthy, al ISR Techn warfighter, rapid, ology Thanks to substantial the past defocused investment over on seating uating wheeled vehicles supplied blast-atten you though tactical cade,If today’s t that after more uating seating which has proessentially “It than a decade Bradleys. and improved With energy, or blast-atten the and at war, capability the U.S. military offer greater vehicles, the U.S. MRAPs ’s wheele rs,” solution in terms of survivvehicle fleet than their predecesso d installed in select ground ultimate the vides might its protection of be worn out survivability to and in a vertical attenuationprovided need of said military has been increasing a statement ability in a blast event or Fahey repair,inyou would be wrong. seat at a time. going to see.” vehicle-based troops one So says Technology. “Our meevent that the occupant’s Combat Kevin Fahey, Ground ambush protect- type the Army’s lives—and will American profleets saved gram Installed in mine-resistant tactical vehicle These seats have ive officer and heavy diumexecut for Combat Sup- in some other vehicles, if the U.S. military were port & Comba programs more ed (MRAP) vehicles and even production save most could t Service Suppo keep conclude rt. fleet ages more ground platseats use technology to help ll, today the Army’s these with young“Overa expand their use on even Withunique the next few years tactica energy, orwithin l wheele vehicle from feeling to at companies riding blast-aattenua safe, relifleet is healthy keep our soldiers dinvehicle personnel ting seating installe forms, according to executives d in select ground that should, young and in good device which has supplie blast-a shape. vehicleexplosive effects of an improvised Thanks to substa theyfull s, the U.S. militar many years.” ttenuating seating that make the dseats. has been increas blast, should able trucks forntial, their vehicleMRAP rapid, warfightactical s and the the on deployed in MRAPs terfocused investm , the primary mine or othering survivability of its Bradle seats (IED), ys.were vehicle “It essentially proMeanwhile -based ent over the vides the“Initially, troops ultima past is movas a means of defeat- cade, today’s one. one seat at a time. te solutio vehicles If you encounter combat production effort den light in Install vehicle and terms tactica wheeled ed in mine-resistancritical survivtho of ability the l is wheele survivThis ught in a blast event d vehicle in the field. absolutely t ambusforprotec cade tactical offer de s veconditions that aft light or a vertica greater joint ed (MRA“They’re the ing overmatch at capabi quickly t- type event l attenu good reaing P) vehicles and It is whath the wator, the occupant er lity and moreedcalled vehicle improv that theisoccupa , and withationsome other vehicle the occupant. protec U.S.which continuing tion (JLTV) these ability nt’s going fleet program, than a trend that militarFaheythan a uniqueofseats hicle their predec to would have the last s,line of These W mig use techno y’s nee seats have saved ith en on and, essentially, ht effort where theysee.” wh,”eel logy ittoishelp Fahey d of rep Corps riding beMarineessors said person and Ameri However, the place ergy, in aArmy ed keepor the instalisled nel can lives—and statem riding rn ou could son. ent wo the soldier within or of save even more is in common-u platforms Ground“aSocriticalair, provide you wo aprotecting bla vehicle dt and to in terms in sel stfrom feelingfeatures the biggest impact if the U.S. militar se the uld Comba says Ke attenua fulldefense milita t Techno to expand their ON PAGE 8in➥ of ect y were logy.be an improv wro survivabili gram grounofised vinCONTINUED ryeffects “Our ting seaty ng meha bee Fahey because use on even more dium d the andexe (IED), ive device heavy ON PAGE 8 ➥ vehicleoccupant vehexplos cutive , the Arm . tin mines or tactical vehicle n incblast, ground CONTINUED program forms, g icle tt, other platpo McDermo accord -ba s, offi fleets rea Mike which rtde y’s willpro the & Co conclu the seat,” saidsin on encoun gshould for Co most vehicle U.Systems, has suping to executives at companies mbatproduccer survivtheir ter sed S. that one.troops on protection Instal BAE make today mbms Serviction progra abiat pli the MR at seats. e vehicle led lity in ed the for sea Su the e next AP director blast-att Supp fewArm of its t at a tim ped (M “They’re in s and years minetely with young ort. “O y’s tac fleet is RAP) absolu -resist enuatin theseats lly, the critical e. surviv- vides“Initia ages verall, that should tical wh fleet for the Br heakeep were an veh ability the adl the deploy g t lthy of sea am icle eys our se uniquthe occupa ultimate eelsafe, soldiers in and light comba , young ting on Th . “It essed in MRAP s nt. ed veh an is whatbu s abi sh pro relit vehicle lity in ableank s to for and solution trucks icle sea use dItsom isson s as a means entia per tectriding one and, submany e oththe occupa nt typ aatch years.”in good ing overm blast condit stantia focuse defeatnel rid ts essenti proshape event ions inin terms of lly vehline it is theerlast hnolo l, rap d inv Meanw ing wi tecally, icles,of a e event tha thedefens . hile, or a the field. e in terms id, wa of sur estmethe primar gy to full eff cade, trend that ist the This protec y tactica vivisrfighte l n a ting the nt ove help kee tical att ects of ofthi continup ver wheele These tod soldier d vehicle (IEoccupa ray’s tac r the or the en an ofpro vehicle p cou D), mint becaus production seats ha occuing, an and with uatioreason. Howev good offer effortpa tical the m feelin isstmovnne or oth eim survivafro the ve place t’s going to greate ld save er, vised ing quickly debility encou on nte feature the seat,” eel explos the jointwh rto cap g s to the bigges see.”have even mo savedwhere protec Amerithey would blast, McDe vehicle tactica ability light ed ive dev r on saider Mike expan t impact l vetion can liv hicle (JLTV) reisifinthe comm s directo progra ice m and d their progra on-use tha “They’ r fore.vehicle protecshouldrmott, es— m, Fa platfor which n the imp for U.S. mi andms use on ir vehicle re abs called tion at BAE said Army their pre Fahey rov “ahey critical ed ability Systems, ms, accord litary olutely eve in a and Marinedeces Groun n moUED of the CONTIN we tha ing sta Corps cri re sor t tem re effort d ON to ma tical for s,” occup Comb gro PAGE 8 is riding ent pro ke the execut ant. It dium at Tec the sur ives at und plat- ➥ vided seats. and hea CONTIN “Initia hnUED is ology. defense on and, ess ON PAGE 8 to compan lly, the vy tac concl entially, what the occ viv- and ➥ “Our in terms ies tical veh ude mo seats we light meupant occup it icle flee st pro re dep the nex ant bec of protectin is the last ing ove combat veh ductio loyed ts will line of t few ause of on the g the sol icle rm n pro in years that sho grams sea a trend atch condit s as a mean MRAPs the sur dier or with you uld kee director t,” said Mi in vivabi s of def the ions in tha ng flee able tru p our lity ke son. Ho t is contin for veh eatthe fie t ages soldie cks for uing, icle pro McDermott features wever, ld. rs in saf This many an the big the pla , progra tection Meanw e, reli years.” gest im ce where d with good is at BAE hile, m wh pac eeled the reaSystem the t is in prima vehicle s, commo y would ha ry tac ing qu produ ve n-use ickly tical ction platfo to the effort hicle CONT rms is mo joint (JLTV INUED vlight ) progra tactica “a crit ON PA m, wh ical Arm l veGE 8 ich Fa ➥ y and hey cal Marine led Corps effort CONT Produ

ced by

nology save lives

Groun

d Comb

at Tec

hnolo

Blast-A ttenua Scienc e and

techno

NimbPO leSITION Wheels

from hidden thre

ats.

gy, Mi

litary

The Army is acti smartly and swifng keep soldiers tly to safely on the move.

ting S eats ve

logy sa

lives fr om

hidden

threat

NEW

DAY

Nimb Wheele ls

The A rmy is smar tly an acting d keep soldie swiftly to on th e mov rs safely e.

INUED

ON PA

GE 8

➥

For more information or to book your space, contact Jane Engel at jane@kmimediagroup.com or 301-670-5700 x120

www.MLF-kmi.com

MLF 8.10 | 31

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Military Logistics Forum Greg Wood Director IHS Technology Greg Wood manages the content for the IHS CAPS Universe component database and has more than 19 years of experience working in parts content information management, manufacturing, mechanical design and software engineering, delivering solutions that meet ever-changing customer needs. Wood has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. Q: How would you describe your company’s focus, goals and abilities to meet the needs of the military customer? A: IHS Technology Parts’ solutions focus on data and tools that help our military customers quickly find parts, identify end-of-life (EOL) components and avoid at-risk parts and suppliers. This allows our military and A&D customers to mitigate risk, anticipate component EOL issues, reduce manufacturing costs, improve product design, quality and performance, and conform to legislated requirements, such as those for DRC conflict minerals and trusted suppliers. Our solutions also provide information on integrated circuits and discrete semiconductors that are DLA-qualified, with data available for newly- or formerly-qualified parts relative to QPDSIS updates to QML-19500, QML38534 and QML-38535. Additionally, our solutions provide detailed information on the high-reliability parts used in the demanding environments of military equipment, with information such as radiation hardness levels and military temperature-grade components. Q: What innovations do you expect to bring online that will make your operations more efficient and better position you to compete in today’s military marketspace? A: In the summer of 2014, we completed work on our CAPS Universe electronic component, electromechanical and fastener database, which now contains more than 440 million part records—making it the largest database of its kind in the industry. Among many improvements, the database contains extensive authorized distributor information, allowing military suppliers to conform to Section 818 of the National Defense 32 | MLF 8.10

accuracy, enhancing reliability data (such as mean time between failure and failure-intime information), enhancements to qualified part status, and the identification of specific sources of authorized or DLA-approved parts.

Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012, providing a framework for the detection and avoidance of counterfeit components in the supply chain. The database also provides extensive information on DLA-specified parts, including data on approximately 500,000 integrated circuits, 5.8 million electromechanical and interconnects, and over 72 million passive military parts and vendor cross-reference equivalents. Q: What do you do to better understand logistical requirements from the military’s perspective to be able to deliver a solution that takes into account industry best practices and meets the stated needs of the military? A: Our solutions are designed based upon user feedback and by following government and industry changes and legislated requirements. This summer, we performed detailed user interviews, the outcomes of which are being used to improve our products. Based on this type of direct user feedback, we develop and offer several solutions for military and defense customers, including ones that provide the ability to use our applications either partially or completely behind an organization’s firewall. This unique ability supports customers with specific security concerns and requirements, precisely meeting the military’s technical, computing environment, data and application requirements. Q: What challenges have you forecasted for the coming 12 months, and how have you positioned yourself to address those? A: The issue of counterfeit parts in the supply chain is ongoing. To address this, IHS has entered into partnerships with electronics industry councils to provide our users with critical information on active and suspect counterfeit parts. Other areas of focus for IHS include improving our life cycle prediction

Q: Are there examples that illustrate your capabilities in meeting the needs of the defense customer? A: In a recent consulting services engagement, IHS created a trusted suppliers list for a top-tier A&D manufacturer, expanding their supplier list from approximately 2,000 known suppliers to over 31,000 authorized distributors/trusted suppliers in over 100,000 locations. The solution includes the ability to continually monitor and update the supplier list, keeping the client informed about changes in the industry and marketplace. This information allows them to demonstrate compliance with Section 818 of the NDAA of 2012 and provides them with a larger supplier base to choose from, reducing the likelihood that components and parts are unavailable when they need them and providing the ability to shop for competitive pricing, while ensuring that their suppliers are trusted by the OEMs and within the customer’s supply chain. Q: With potentially reduced DoD spending, do you see your company becoming more or less involved in joint ventures with other industry partners? A: IHS partners with industry to provide unique solutions that benefit our customers and their workflows. Our CAPS Universe data has been integrated into third-party PLM and ERP systems, regulatory compliance solutions, and CAD applications. We also look to our own company capabilities across other business areas, such as our Component Price Tracker and Component Health Watch and Teardown industry solutions, marrying current and historical pricing, commodity forecasts, industry capacity forecasts and bill of materials breakdowns to craft solutions that reduce costs and meet the specific needs of our customers. O greg.wood@ihs.com www.MLF-kmi.com

Freedom to Think Forward The military and Intelligence Community need the highest operational availability and the lowest life cycle cost. Leidos delivers effective logistics solutions when they are needed, wherever they are needed.

Evolving logistics through forward thinking. leidos.com/logistics

Unique Logistics Partner

Volga-Dnepr Group outsize and heavyweight air cargo.

is the world’s largest transporter of

We’re providing unique solutions for the most demanding and complex loads. Cargoes that once took weeks to move by land and sea now reach their destination to over 1 150 airports across the globe securely within hours thanks to the expertise of our people and the unique cargo carrying capabilities of our fleet of An-124-100, IL-76TD-90VD, Boeing 747 and An-12 freighters. With the launch of our Engineering & Logistics Centre, we offer a complete multi-modal, door-to-door solution that combines everything you’ll need to deliver your big and heavy cargoes quickly, securely and cost efficiently anywhere in the world.

Russia +7 8422 590059 UK +44 1279 661166 USA +1 713 335 5547 www.volga-dnepr.com