Logistics Fast Learner
LOGISTICS FAST LEARNER
After a career in missile defense and space, Army Lieutenant General
Joseph M. Cosumano Jr. (Ret.) of KBR is focused on providing
services to troops on the ground and support services worldwide.
By Harrison Donnelly
Looking back on his 35-year military career, Army Lieutenant General Joseph M. Cosumano Jr. (Ret.) acknowledges at least one regret: As a commander, he should have been kinder to his G-4 logistics officers.
“If I would have known that I would be running the largest civil logistics program in the world, I would have paid more attention to logistics,” he said.
Cosumano retired as commanding general of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, where he focused on issues of advanced technology, space support to the warfighter and global strategy such as ground-based missile defense. Today, as senior vice president of KBR’s operations, maintenance and logistics programs product line, he is immersed in the nitty-gritty practical concerns of providing food, power and services to forces in Southwest Asia and elsewhere.
In overseeing 65,000 U.S. and foreign KBR employees working in Iraq and Afghanistan, Cosumano is a leader in a major transformation of 21st century military operations, as more and more support services are shifted from uniformed personnel to private contractors. While controversial in some quarters, the massive role of KBR and other companies in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom represents a turning point from which, as Cosumano puts it, “We can’t go back.”
Cosumano’s portfolio covers all KBR efforts for the Department of Defense and other federal agencies that have to do with base operations and service support, as well as sustainment and contingency operations.
The sustainment category under Cosumano includes base operation support service programs in a peacetime environment. For example, KBR has run all base and facility maintenance and logistics for Fort Knox, Ky., and, until recently, held the contract for facilities maintenance and logistics at El Centro Naval Air Facility, Calif., the home of the Blue Angels.
The other side of Cosumano’s ledger is the contingency environment, which is where the company has a lot of programs today, principally because of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. There are two large programs going—the Army’s logistics civil augmentation program (LOGCAP), which was competitively awarded to KBR as the single contractor in 2001, and the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program (AFCAP) contingency program.
“LOGCAP is a very large program, which is meant to augment the military’s efforts in construction, logistics, facilities maintenance and services,” Cosumano explained. “What we have done over the last four and a half to five years, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, is to build most of the forward operating bases. We are providing facilities maintenance and services for all those bases, with the services ranging from water purification to laundry, dining facilities, living accommodations and utilities of all types, including power.”
To provide those services, the retired general leads a veritable army of 26,000-27,000 Americans working overseas in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with 38,000 subcontractors. The latter include third-country nationals, such as people from India, Pakistan and Nepal, for example, and citizens of the host country. “Our main aim is to put host country nationals to work as soon as possible,” he noted. “We actively participate in the Afghanistan and Iraqi First programs, which are focused on putting host country citizens to work.”
AFCAP is smaller than LOGCAP, and differs from it in that the Air Force program is a multiple award task order contract, in which KBR and five other contractors compete for task orders. It is focused principally on Air Force bases in the combat zone.
Part of the Force
Calling himself a “born again” logistician, Cosumano has had a lot to learn in the last few years. “My career was filled with aviation, air defense and space assignments for 35 and a half years,” he recalled. “I had an opportunity to be participating with various aspects of logistics, but I was not a logistician. I was principally an operator or force developer, or an acquisition expert.”
Indeed, after leaving the uniformed service in 2004, Cosumano became a vice president of ATK, Thiokol, which builds rocket motors in Utah. Then a new opportunity beckoned.
“I was approached by KBR because they needed someone who was a certified program manager, as I had been as the original program manager for the ground-based missile defense program, which is currently operational at Fort Greeley, Alaska,” he said. “They needed someone who had acquisition experience as well as operational experience with very large programs, because the LOGCAP program had gone from a few million dollars when it was awarded in 2001 to KBR, which principally dealt with supporting the Balkans, to several billion dollars in 2004 and 2005. That and KBR’s commitment to secure the soldiers is what brought me to KBR.”
In joining KBR, Cosumano became part of a strong trend resulting from changes in the military force structure since the end of the Cold War. “With the downsizing of the 1990s and the resultant loss of this type of logistics force structure, contractors became a part of the force. So when I say we can’t go back, it means that the military, having had this closer association with contractors on the battlefield for the last four or five years, has to take steps—in plans, policies, doctrine, technique and procedures—to routinize the use of contractors on the battlefield,” he said.
“They can’t do it without contractors,” Cosumano continued. “The force structure is just not there. It’s very satisfying for me personally. You can really feel that you’re a part of the team, because the military embraces the contractors as a part of the contractor/military team, and they treat us like their own. We feel very privileged to be part of the team supporting Operations Iraqi
Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
“It is a very difficult environment to operate in, with not only our soldiers and servicemembers putting their lives on the line, but also the contractors who are with them shoulder to shoulder, in some cases,” he said.
Cosumano rejects criticisms of KBR’s role in LOGCAP, which have focused on the fact that it is a sole-source contract that determines payments on a “cost plus” basis. “KBR won the contract competitively, so there is clearly no issue with it being a sole-source contract, because it is a single award by its nature. We’ve been fully compliant with all government regulations and oversight in execution of this contract, so we feel good that we are meeting the needs of the client. Our award fee scores are determined by the client. The contract has a 1 percent base fee, which means that we get a dollar of profit for every $100 of cost that we incur performing the contract.”
To get more, Cosumano added, KBR has to earn it in terms of customer satisfaction. “There is also a 2 percent award fee, and we have to appear before an award fee board in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq. The senior management team goes to Iraq or Afghanistan, along with our in-country program managers, and talk to the client about what we’ve done in the last six months. The clients then give us scores, which have been excellent. So we believe that we are meeting needs and requirements, and the scores speak to the satisfaction of the guys in the field. It’s not a very high margin business, with 3 percent being the most profit we can make. So we feel that we are providing an excellent service at a good cost,” he said.
LOGCAP Changes
Even so, the LOGCAP program is in the process of changing, and with it the role of KBR.
Under the current version of the program, LOGCAP III, for example, KBR is the strategic planner as well as the contract executor. The company has planners in the planning offices of all the combatant commanders around the world, where they work with the uniformed client and help them in their planning, so they will know what services are available.
Under LOGCAP IV, however, there will be a separate planning contractor. The North American business of Britain-based Serco was selected last year to oversee the performance of other contractors and provide program management analysis, cost analysis and logistics planning for LOGCAP IV.
In addition, the new version of the program will have three contractors able to bid on specific projects, rather than just one contractor. KBR was selected last year to be one of the three, but the award was protested and is currently under re-evaluation.
The Future of Contractors
Much has been said about problems with contractors operating in support of the force. Cosumano states that the report by the Gansler Commission, issued late last year, lays out succinctly the issues KBR and others have experienced in support of the deployed forces over the years. The report focuses on improvement in government oversight, training of the government acquisition force, changes in policies and federal acquisition regulations. He says that it is a great roadmap to fix current issues and better integrate contractors in support of the force.
Cosumano said as he looks to the future contracts for operations, maintenance and logistics, he is focusing on greater transparency for the client, and technology to reduce manpower and provide better value for the client. He concluded with the comment that KBR is committed to its motto, “We Deliver,” as it and others work to transform logistics support for the 21st century. ♦