Transforming the Battlefield

Written by Christian Sheehy and Randy Fillmore

THE ARMY IS TRANSITIONING
FROM A STOVEPIPED, MULTINODED
LOGISTICS ARCHITECTURE TO AN
END-TO-END NETWORK CAPABLE
OF FULLY INTEGRATING WITH
CRITICAL MISSION SUPPORT.

Like turning in your tie-dyed shirts and bell-bottom jeans for streamlined designer stuff, SALE is an Army initiative that is turning a 1970s logistics pipeline into a Web-based, real-time, holistic distribution system aimed at keeping the warfighter better equipped and those responsible for equipping them on the cutting edge of who has what equipment and where it is.

“We have been using programming and architecture technologies that date to the 1970s,” says Jessica Gatewood, who is responsible for advising the G-4 and making decisions on how to remove administrative burdens and risks from the Army supply chain. “Just as you use your state-of-the art computer and cell phone, we don’t want to put anything less than the best in the hands of soldiers. We don’t want anyone running across the battlefield with computer disks.”

The SALE initiative has been around since 2004, and those responsible for upgrading the technology that keeps track of personnel, equipment and supplies anywhere in the distribution pipeline through a seamless, integrated, end-to-end network say they have moved past stage one— modernizing current systems and data—and are now in a stage of realizing improvements. Full integration is expected to be a reality by 2014 at the latest.

Army programs that support this initiative are an alphabet soup of components: the Global Combat Support System- Army (GCSS-A); Logistics Modernization Plan (LMP); Future Business System (FBS); Future Combat Systems Advanced Collaborative Equipment (FCS-ACE); and Transportation Coordinators Automated Information for Movement Systems II (TC-AIMSII).

“GCSS-A is a fully integrated, automated logistics system that will re-engineer the current tactical Standard Army Management Information System [STAMIS] and integrate the Army’s tactical supply chain,” explains Gatewood. “PLM+ is the enabler supporting SALE requirements to integrate national and field level logistics for data.”

What this means, says Gatewood, is that 165,000 soldiers will have the same logistical view. It will be easier to see who has what equipment and where it is. It means that reports can be generated in minutes rather than days. And, it means that data will be backed up instantly, without shutting systems down during backup.

“The old systems were vulnerable, and it behooves us to keep up with new hardware platforms and Web-based access using best practices so that no soldier has to chase down administrative reports from disparate systems.”

Gatewood predicts that SALE will be the solution to reducing current redundant and “stovepiped” IT investments and modernize the logistical processes and systems that provide critical warfighter support.

LMP

The Army’s Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) was developed to reduce the logistics footprint to sustain warfighters, as well as improve readiness and effectiveness throughout the Army. Over the years, Army Materiel Command (AMC) logistics system became a complex web of outdated legacy systems. It relied on 25-year-old logistics technology and 30-year-old business processes that could no longer meet the needs of today’s technologically advanced Army. Legacy applications created an inflexible, costly, disjointed system that made it difficult for AMC logisticians to release, track and deliver supplies to troops.

In 1999, the AMC awarded Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) the multiyear contract to help it develop and manage LMP. CSC serves the diverse missions of government and has supported virtually every department, agency and major initiative. This contract between AMC and CSC initiated the first government contract in which both modernization and day-to-day operations were outsourced to one IT services provider.

With the LMP, an item manager at the AMC—the Army’s principal critical and repair parts supply organization— now has access to improved asset visibility, enhanced data accuracy and integrity, sophisticated reporting, and integrated financial management capabilities that enable supply planners and Army leadership to make strategic decisions about logistics operations in real time.

A unit’s logistics officer in Iraq can place an urgent parts order, which is then viewed by item managers at Fort Monmouth, N.J. The LMP allows them full visibility of the order and its associated dependencies. In real time, they can check inventory balances available at two principal storage depots and use the LMP to verify the geographical location and mission project code of the unit’s requests. With a few mouse clicks, the materials and equipment are on their way to the warfighters who depend so greatly on them.

“The LMP’s SAP integration technology promotes efficient inventory levels, reduces cycle times and infrastructure requirements, and provides significant improvements in materiel management,” said Sheri Thureen, vice president, Enterprise Business Solutions, CSC. “The LMP helps the Army reduce inefficiencies and related costs along its distribution system by reducing the accumulation of excess inventory, eliminating the duplication of requisitions and increasing efficiencies at theater distribution centers.” By supporting the prediction of future usage and supply needs the LMP delivers a smaller supply chain footprint on the battlefield. With just the first implementation of the LMP, the solution reduced hundreds of legacy applications. When fully deployed, it will eliminate more than 2,000 legacy applications.

“The deployment of the Logistics Modernization Program at the Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is just the beginning of our transformation journey in implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning approach to SALE,” said Cathy Dickens, project manager/lead integrator, Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, Logistics Modernization Program. “Our workforce has embraced the challenges we have experienced in data readiness, business transformation and organizational change through our preparation phase. We want to fully utilize the toolsets provided and are excited about a future solution with end to end visibility of our supply chain and true integration across the enterprise.”

INFORMATION ADVANTAGE

The Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) has been the provider of tactical logistics business systems for the Army for the past 25 years. As the Army transitions from the Standard Army Management Information Systems (STAMIS) to Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-Army), PEO EIS’ Project Manager Logistics Information Systems (PM LIS) continues to provide automation support to the Army using leading-edge technology while providing user-generated and Combined Arms Support Command-validated system upgrades.

“Logistics information systems have come a long way since the beginning of this project in the early 1990s,” said LIS Project Manager Colonel Eugene Skinner Jr. “Today, PM LIS is responsible for sustaining more than 52,000 fielded logistics STAMIS devices worldwide. These systems continue to be vital components of the logistician’s toolset 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure Army combat effectiveness.”

To date, more than 76,000 soldiers are trained worldwide on tactical logistics systems, including the Standard Army Maintenance System-Enhanced (SAMS-E), Unit Level Logistics Supply-Aviation Enhanced (ULLS-AE) and the Financial Management Tactical Platform (FMTP).

SAMS-E is a maintenance system modernization initiative, which allows it to act as a bridge between current functionality and the future Army logistics enterprise. SAMS-E automates unit level supply, maintenance and readiness functions, unit status reporting functions and tactical direct support/ general support readiness status, as well as day-to-day weapon system and subcomponent readiness status.

“SAMS-E supports critical unit level functions such as equipment operator qualifications, equipment dispatching, tracking equipment, fault records and reporting,” said Skinner. “It also provides consolidated maintenance and repair parts data and automatically generates a work order when a fault deadlines an item of equipment or an operator level fault is initiated and parts are received.”

The ULLS-AE upgrade initiative transforms the legacy ULLS-A STAMIS software environment to full Microsoft Windows technology. It incorporates enhancements that assist crew chiefs and aviation maintenance personnel in supporting conditioned-based maintenance efforts while tracking preventive maintenance checks and services, on hand Prescribed Load List usage, and the Army Maintenance Management Systems- Aviation functions.

“The ULLS-A/E architecture is specifically designed to support the management and process automation needs of Army aviation organizations,” Skinner said. “It is used by flight crews, crew chiefs, maintainers, supply personnel and flight operations personnel to access all scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, aircraft flight records, supply and reporting functions.”

“ULLS-A/E currently serves as a conduit for transmitting data to the CBM data warehouse and will ultimately have the ability to interface with onboard aviation digital source collectors that will assist flight mechanics in performing maintenance actions,” said Skinner. “Eventually this data will automatically populate data fields used to complete various maintenance forms and records in ULLSA/ E, and will present a mechanic with a description and the actions required to repair a problem detected by the onboard monitoring systems.”

FMTP is a deployable, modular local area network-configured hardware platform, which supports deployed finance and resource management operations equivalent to home station/garrison support. It streamlines finance unit information management by eliminating the need to deploy garrison workstations to the field and wartime environments that support the financial management mission.

“Currently, PM LIS is still in the process of fielding ULLS-AE, SAMS-E, and FMTP,” Skinner added. “These fielding efforts are projected through October 2009. At that time, the PM LIS systems will transition to the Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command Software Engineering Center-Lee (CECOM LCMC SEC-Lee), and SEC-Lee will assume the sustainment mission for these systems.”

LOGCAP

The Army recently entered the fourth phase of a multiyear Logistics Civilian Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) expected to continue the facilitation of a service-wide plan to integrate skilled contracted support within critical mission areas. Under the recently awarded LOGCAP IV contract, worth an estimated $150 billion, DynCorp International, KBR Inc. and Fluor Inc. will be responsible for movement control operations, managing the intransit logistics and facilities needed for U.S. military personnel to arrive and depart the Kuwait Area of Responsibility. “With the new task orders under LOGCAP IV, we will be helping the Army focus on their critical core mission of safeguarding our national security,” said Douglas Ebner, DynCorp Int. spokesperson.

DynCorp work will include base camp services, life support, and operations and maintenance for U.S. government facilities, including designated debarkation seaport and airports. “We will also provide a full range of services at the Udairi Army Airfield in Kuwait, handling firefighting and fire protection support, equipment and vehicle maintenance, airfield operations, flight dispatch, air traffic control tower services, and weather observation and forecasting,” added Ebner.

FUTURE ARMY BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

The Army continually looks for ways to improve the capabilities it provides to soldiers. An Army ERP Task Force, within PEO EIS, is in place to chart a future course for Army enterprise business systems, so that Army logistics, financial and personnel systems in deployment over the next few years work together seamlessly and provide users with the most efficient, effective tools available. ♦

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