Projecting Power Jointly

Written by Christian Sheehy

CONTRACT SUPPORT

In the case of a small contingency operation in a foreign country, all four services send support to assist in mission support. Supply replenishment as, for example, with water reserves can present a challenge to the joint commander in the effort necessary to secure the highest quality product at the lowest cost, all without mission delay.

Prior to the development of the Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office (JCASO), the services, in fielding their own contract teams, would approach the contract effort from the point of view of a consumer posting a bid for a particular product or service. In the competition between consumers, or military services in this scenario, the bidding for a desired item or service continues to rise in amount until a highest bidder is finally determined and a sale is made or contract is awarded.

“JCASO prevents each military force from having their own contracting teams competing for contracts from the same sources,” said Tim Freihofer, director, Joint Contingency Acquisition Support. “Through this cross-service competition, prices for these contracts can go through the roof as it ends up coming down to who will pay the most. JCASO goes forward and works for the task force commander to coordinate service contracting efforts in theater, monitoring what they’re doing, setting up a communications network, and basically ensuring that they don’t compete for the same scarce resources.” Freihofer added. In many cases, JCASO may have the services share contracts or write types of contracts that allow them to share equipment and/or supplies.

SUSTAINING EARLY FORCES

From a Navy and Marine Corps perspective, expeditionary operations are old hat. With a long-time capability to circumnavigate the Earth in support of combat and humanitarian missions, the two services employ a husbanding agent contracting network globally where ships go into port and get services and supplies they need. Besides the initial sustainment capability held aboard amphibious shipping, a fleet of pre-positioned ships are used as afloat supply warehouses and can be discharged in-stream or offloaded in port to operate ashore.

“The challenge presented for forces afloat today is getting needed supplies to forces ashore in a timely manner without violating the regulations of which may be a noncombatant nation,” said Colonel Tom Keating, head, Logistics Vision & Strategy Branch at Headquarters, U. S. Marine Corps. “There is a ‘geographic point of integration to project combat power ashore’ that must be determined uniquely for each mission.”

Until the setup of a logistics over the shore concept, Maritime elements can assist the Army in getting around the lack of an Army self-discharge capability. In many situations, where there is no established or functioning port facility, offload at sea is the only means to help prepare the Army more quickly for the larger logistics effort of establishing a supply chain in creating infrastructure. In scenarios during Operation Enduring Freedom, logistics operations involved complex terrain in establishing points of supply so that the Army was able to build a mature, theater-level logistics operation and plug into the enterprise level at agencies like USTRANSCOM and DLA.

MARITIME PRE-POSITION SUPPORT

General James T. Conway, commandant, U.S. Marine Corps, explained the Marine Corps challenge as “trying to change the tires on a vehicle while it’s in motion” or better yet “doing a complicated judo move while trying to change the tires.” The Marine Corps is currently entering a reset and reconstitute forces phase in shift from Operation Iraqi Freedom to an OEF focus all while modernizing its logistics capabilities.

For several years, the Marine Corps has been planning the transitioning to a future maritime prepositioned force (MPF-F), a force of Navy-operated logistics ships based out of Blount Island, Jacksonville, Fla., with large stocks of equipment and sustainment supplies positioned at strategic locations around the world. The forward deployed expeditionary Marine force is a fleet of Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) transported globally by Navy amphibious ships. Through the joint concept of sea basing, the Navy provides support to the MEUs once they’ve been launched. As part of the ongoing Integrated Naval Logistics (NLI) process supplies are moved from home base to ship to shore in support of larger, integrated logistics operations.

“The tyranny of time and distance are the two major hurdles that NLI deals with in providing streamlined support for continuous operations,” said Nick Linkowitz, head, Logistics Vision Section at HQMC. “Sea basing itself is a basic concept for the Navy and Marines where you are sustaining forces afloat daily. Now we are extending that to also include naval forces ashore. It’s using the concept of sea basing in a joint manner with the Army and Air Force that is relatively new.”

Deployed and forward deployed with the Navy, the Marines provide a capability to establish a logistics link to an operating area until a larger joint force such as the Army comes in to establish theater-level logistics with robust distribution regional chains. Providing initial foot-in-the-door logistics to the joint expeditionary commander, Marine Air Ground Task Forces (MAGTF) integrate at tactical level with expeditionary Army units to transition seaborne assets and equipment to ground operations status as seamlessly and effectively as possible.

As modernization of MPF continues, we’re looking to increase capacity as the MEB equipment continues to grow larger,” said Keating. “Current pre-positioning ships are in a long-term lease program which will need to be replaced by new builds.”

“Capabilities of today, such as in-stream offloading (involving taking equipment off a ship to a barge and to shore) and moving supplies via containers will continue,” said Linkowitz. “The future MPF will bring a sea basing emphasis so that naval forces can operate more from the sea and produce a smaller land footprint in the face of growing coastal populations. With a need at-sea arrival and selective offload capability, the logistics footprint will continue to decrease in areas that may be sensitive to a U.S. military presence ashore and/or areas of high population recovering during humanitarian crises.”

MISSION SUSTAINMENT

In an evolving 20-year program with the U.S. Navy and Marines to support the maritime pre-positioning ships that are forward-deployed for U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Central Command, and the U.S. European Command, Honeywell is improving ship maintenance and readiness efficiencies with the Honeywell Operating System (HOS). Honeywell was recently awarded a $52 million contract modification for logistic services, including frontline maintenance support at Blount Island Command, Fla., and other operating bases. Stationed at Blount Island, Honeywell personnel work with Marine depot mechanics on preventive maintenance checks. Inspections are performed on rotation—for all Marine pre-positioned logistics ships and “left-behind equipment” returned from theater. As part of the Honeywell Operating System, contract mechanics and technicians work side by side with Marine Corps surface and ground depot mechanics to refurbish equipment slated for return to theater.

Army General Johnnie Wilson (Ret.), Honeywell vice president, logistics, said, “We are ramping up the Honeywell Operating System at Blount Island in response to the Marine Corps push to put frontline maintenance in Kuwait and Afghanistan. There are two questions which are most important: Is the equipment mission ready, and what capacity is needed to be able to pick up contingencies such as surges in activity?”

To address these questions, the Honeywell Operating System deploys Lean methodologies on the maintenance line in an effort to improve existing processes. One such effort is the use of rapid improvement methods such as the Japanese kaizen philosophy where frontline personnel submit recommendations for improving particular parts of the maintenance process. Data collected from documented maintenance processes is used as a means of analysis for determining where a process can be adjusted or removed all together to make an entire cycle more efficient.

“HOS was initially defined by a standard work theory which identified what people would accomplish on a daily basis and productivity defined by this daily work output,” said Mark Neas, president of Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc. “We used an equation with people, organization, and Lean and Six Sigma philosophy to map work habits and ‘stream out’ basic maintenance processes. Through this we could determine how to use employee skill sets to make processes less step-driven and more holistic in approach.”

Key elements of the Honeywell Operating System, such as visual management and controls, help address these questions. Rapid improvement methods, including kaizen philosophy and rapid problem solving, are coached by leaders and applied by frontline personnel.

“It’s not just about streamlining processes or improving your operation after careful analysis. It’s about changing the work culture on the floor,” said Neas. “The challenge is changing the culture through teams that understand the larger end goal, and through improved accountability and personal commitment to common goals.”

ARFORGEN

Amid a transformation from a division to brigade- oriented force, the Army is transitioning to a more modular force where there is movement from a garrison type of operability to a brigade combat and Stryker brigade combat team format. These are part of the Army’s new global response force, which aims at getting “wheels up” and on the ground quickly with accompanying logistical support.

Under previous concept, the Army used pre-positioned units exclusive to one another. When a contingency operation broke out, units would then combine to meet the objectives. “Today, the transition to the Army Force Generation [ARFORGEN] concept is putting more emphasis on the reset and modularization of Army assets in such a way to make Army units more readily available or ‘pre-packaged’ for joint and contingency situations,” said Keating. “The idea is to make the Army more agile and quicker so that brigade teams can move out immediately with the logistical support they need. With forward support elements ready to go, forward logistical support can be provided on the spot without affecting operational continuity.”

From an Army perspective, expeditionary operations from the sea are conducted, as with the Navy and Marines, using pre-positioned surface units. These units marry up with Marine Corps MPF units in “over the shore” movements intended to establish initial logistics operations that will support later theater-level activities.

INTEGRATED SUPPORT

From the start of DoD’s MRAP deployment to theater in 2006, contracted support was a primary element of the project. As an additional resource to DoD without designated military support, the MRAP program was contract-supportbased for maintenance and sustainment in theater. OEM personnel from BAE Systems Inc. were some of several contractors involved in training military personnel on the vehicles.

Embedded within the actual MRAP detachments, contracted maintenance personnel served alongside military counterparts as “working instructors” to ensure proper techniques were followed for sustaining the equipment. A parts baseline, common to the Army’s FMTV line, started in the R&D phase of MRAP development and enabled training prior to MRAP on-scene arrival, ensuring servicemembers would be familiar with the tools necessary for vehicle operation and upkeep.

“Expeditionary logistics starts very early in the equipment life cycle,” said Bruce Harrison, vice president, mobility and protection systems, BAE Systems. “In the case of the Caiman variant, prior MRAP training of depot-level mechanics coupled with the close commonality between MRAP and FMTV made for zero time in training military mechanics used to working on the latter.”

BAE Systems also formed an MRAP readiness operations center (ROC), manned by government and BAE Systems employees, to collect and analyze maintenance and supply reports from theater. The ROC was created to analyze data and provide sustainment solutions to the government and commanders. The ROC resolves and reports solutions well before field commanders recognized the sustainment challenges.

JOINT TASK FORCE-PORT OPENING

A U.S. Transportation Command initiative in partnership with the Air Force, the Joint Task Force-Port Opening (JTF-PO) program, was developed to set aside specific units to enable better facilitation of foreign port upgrades.

“JTF-PO evolved as a result of a series of port opening shortcomings catalogued over the past two decades of military and humanitarian relief operations,” said Lieutenant Commander Christopher Marrs, branch officer, Transportation Command Deployable Distribution Command and Control Branch (D2C2). “These events and supporting after-action reports revealed an ad hoc approach to port opening operations and an inability to ensure logistics-enabling forces arrived early enough in a contingency operation involving port opening.”

This ad hoc approach resulted in clogging the ports with excess cargo, a lack of joint command and control, and an inability to track arriving cargo by RFID or other electronic means. JTF-PO was specifically designed to address these shortcomings with a joint-trained, rapidly deployable entity to assess, open, operate and clear strategic ports of early-arriving cargo. It also brings a state-of-the-art robust command and control suite along with RFID technology.

Initial in-transit visibility of cargo as it arrives and clears the port of debarkation is key with JTF-PO. This data can be transferred as appropriate when logistics assets are available to distribute the cargo to the forces in contact with an enemy or to support relief operations. JTF-PO’s joint suite of logistics AIS (Automated Identification Suite) also supports the joint task force and regional commander’s staff with a clear snapshot of operations at that particular port.

ONGOING SUPPORT

With the change in footing and tempo as DoD begins the transition from an OIF to OEF focus, military expeditionary movement will, by necessity, become more joint in nature as the services combine strengths in facing greater complexities in terrain and weather. The need to continue an investment in DoD infrastructure to sustain limited operations in Iraq will also challenge cross-service cooperation. To accomplish this, companies such as SupplyCore, with facilities in Kuwait and Iraq, will maintain regular and direct contact with forward deployed personnel, working with them to accurately prioritize requirements based on regional availability. Among primary DoD objectives will certainly be the maintenance of localized supply chain and transportation networks, supply lines and active ports capable of receiving materials for continued humanitarian support.

“As in hauling materials from U.S. and Middle East locations to forward-deployed personnel and facilities in Iraq to meet short lead times and urgent field requirements, we are working closely with our end user customers under both DLA and ASC initiatives in helping to standardize material requests and provide a greater breadth of support,” said David Hahn, vice president for corporate development, supply core. “Greater symmetry in expeditionary operations is consistent with and complementary to the concept of ‘extending the enterprise’ and providing support from home port to theater to foxhole.” ♦

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