Cooperative Sustainment: A Strategy for Focused Logistics.
Abstract
The end of the Cold War has reshaped our National Military Strategy (NMS). The diverse range of military missions that are now embraced in that strategy required a critical rethinking of our supporting logistic strategy. By design or default, logistic sustainment has always played a pivotal role in determining what is possible at the operational level of war. Today the sustainment strategy of 'just-in-case' logistics, the foundation of our Cold War logistics strategy, combined with a decreasing defense budget, will not meet the challenges inherent in our NMS. The era of 'just-in time' sustainment is emerging and a new strategy of Cooperative Sustainment -- the fusion of military and commercial capabilities -- is necessary to meet today's sustainment challenges. This paper discusses the growing similarity between commercial and military logistics and identifies key commercial logistic capabilities that will have to be fused into military logistics planning in order to meet the diverse range of missions expected in the post cold war era.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 19, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA328069
Entities
People
- Edward G. Usher Iii
Organizations
- Naval War College