Combat LOG Support
Written by Leslie Shaver
MLF 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 (February)
Combat logistics support is never easy, but for the key units in engagement in Iraq right now, the 15th Sustainment Brigade, the drawdown is adding another challenge. The 15th is charged with moving excess cargo, containers and vehicles from Iraq and preparing them for journeys to Afghanistan or eventually back to the U.S.
Despite the challenge, Larry Phelps, the commander of the 15th Sustainment Brigade is confident. “Certainly the prospect of reorganizing the logistics set while simultaneously ensuring continuity of sustainment, while we also retrograde equipment and close FOBs [forward operating bases], COBs [collocated operating bases], and JSS [joint security station] outposts is enough to keep us busy, but we have a solid plan for it,” Phelps said.
But the drawdown is only the latest issue for Phelps and his fellow sustainment brigade commanders in Iraq. They have faced many of the logistical challenges you’d expect of a Sustainment Brigade with a relatively high OPTEMPO, including limiting strain on trucks and handling equipment. But fortunately Phelps says he has tools and equipment to help get the job done.
ISSUES UPON DEPARTURE
Phelps and Colonel Richard Dix, commander of the 401st Army Field Support Brigade (AFSB), headquartered at Bagram, Afghanistan, have opposite challenges right now. The 401st AFSB provides acquisition, logistics and technologyrelated sustainment support to Army, joint, and multinational forces in Afghanistan. The 15th has a similar role in Iraq. While Phelps is trying to wind down in Iraq, Dix is ramping up sustainment operations in Afghanistan.
For Phelps, winding down to meet Brigadier General Paul Wentz’s support strategy will be hard work. But he’s confident it’s something his group can accomplish.
“The 15th Sustainment Brigade started the process by getting all of our own organic excess turned in, to allow us to focus our efforts on our customers’ requirements,” he said. “Then, we reorganized our support footprint according to Brigadier General Wentz’s theater support strategy, implementing efficiencies in our distribution network that allow for more cargo to be moved quickly along more predictable routes. Now, with a thoroughly revamped concept of support, we are able to accomplish both sustainment and retrograde in accordance with Brigadier General Wentz’s priorities.”
While Dix is in Afghanistan, he knows the challenges associated with drawdown while still engaged in combat operations. “Some challenges are syncing the movement of equipment from one combined area of joint operations to another,” he said. “That’s moving our equipment out of Iraq and moving it either to be processed and returned to the CONUS [continental United States] depot or over to Afghanistan for the buildup. The challenge is synchronizing all of the moving pieces like transportation and maintenance.”
Headquarters has a support center inside Iraq that identifies and harvests equipment and prioritizes what is needed to match the force moving into Afghanistan. “We coordinate once a week and talk about the moving pieces—where the equipment is in the flow process and when we can expect it to come out of maintenance and then be put inside the training pipeline coming into Afghanistan,” Dix said. “And that’s helping significantly.”
In Afghanistan, Dix is facing the challenge of ramping up in an escalating situation. “[The challenge] is getting all of the moving pieces to come together in one location,” he said. “We have three major hubs where equipment flows into. We have visibility of what’s coming and matching up when we need to have that piece of equipment on the ground to match when the unit arrives. Then the issue is to get those pieces out to the units and get those units into their positions as quickly as possible.”
CHALLENGES IN THE DESERT
To get equipment out to arriving soldiers as quickly as possible, Dix must ensure that his trucks can deliver peak efficiency. With the relatively high OPTEMPO, that’s a challenge. Solving it starts with the basics. “We’re doing the preventive maintenance as a part of our routine,” Dix said. “That hasn’t changed.”
Still there is more emphasis on ensuring equipment is in good shape. “We’re doing the same services as normal, but we’re looking at equipment a lot more,” Dix said. “We have repair parts on hand to change out the necessary parts.”
The high OPTEMPO is also forcing Phelps to make changes. “It has also made us look at every efficiency we can squeeze out of ‘green suit’ [military] and ‘white suit’ [LOGCAP or Logistics Civil Augmentation Program] maintenance providers,” Phelps says. “We have established ‘pit crews’ that fall in on vehicles returning from convoys and turn them around quickly for their next mission. We have set up trailer transfer points with embedded maintenance support teams to keep the trucks on the road and out of the shop bays. And we have partnered our maintenance companies with LOGCAP providers to rebuild and service our trucks and forklifts in advance of the transportation spike.”
As Dix ramps up in Afghanistan, he’s helping get the Army back in balance as far as personnel and equipment and meet the Army chief of staff’s guidance to get the force back in balance by 2011.
“We’re bringing a refurbishment capability into Afghanistan,” Dix said. “There will be two locations that will provide the capability to take the equipment back down to zero miles per hour and then put it back into the fight. That will enhance the life expectancy of that piece of equipment. It will also free up additional equipment to be returned to CONUS as part of home station training set.”
But Dix also knows that the equipment maintenance challenges he will face in Afghanistan will vary from those encountered in Iraq. That will force changes.
“We will look at the suspensions of the systems a lot longer and the components will have to be upgraded and changed out to handle the terrain within the Afghanistan theater,” Dix said. “That will enhance the equipment’s capability to perform and do what it was supposed to do. We will look at those sorts of items and perform the necessary maintenance as scheduled to keep the equipment in the fight.”
HELPFUL TOOLS
Technology has helped commanders of sustainment brigades get their trucks where they need to be. “Our convoys are armed with the best equipment the Army has,” Phelps said. “We can shoot, move, communicate, command, and control with the equipment we have.”
Dix is equally as open is in his praise of how his unit is outfitted. “We’re using all of the new technology at our disposal that you see on battlefield on Iraq,” he says. “We use the same in-transit visibility pieces of equipment and we use the latest technologies to enhance property accountability.”
Phelps calls his heavy equipment transport (HET), HET trailers and M915s “the workhorses,” but he also singles out other key technologies. “Our counter-IED systems have all been fully installed and integrated into our standard operations with lifesaving results,” he says. “We have blue force trackers and movement tracking systems that allow us to track and communicate seamlessly with our convoys. Finally, our MRAP convoy escort platforms allow us to command, control and safeguard our convoys to an unprecedented high standard.”
Dix relies on some similar technologies. “We use the latest MRAP technology to provide force protection,” he said. “That includes the new M-ATV being fielded in Afghanistan. It’s working very well. It’s living up to performance standards set and required by the Army and its delivering.”
But Dix expects even more help with some of the inbound force protection systems coming his way. While he wouldn’t specify those pieces were, he did describe them as “game changers.” “Those pieces will greatly enhance force protection, and we’re looking forward to them,” Dix said.
While Phelps is happy is with what he has to “do our jobs safely and to a very high standard,” there is an item he thinks would help make his convoys safer.
“If we could add one item to make our convoys safer, it would probably be a uniform mobile firefighting system [something akin to the Tri-max System] on each one of our recovery platforms,” he said. “Our wreckers and M88s [recovery vehicles] over here really function as ‘first responders,’ and a state-of-the-art firefighting system could make our convoys safer than the smaller systems we currently use.” ♦
Relying on Local Networks
In Iraq, Army Sustainment Brigades are relying on local transportation networks to move supplies. That shouldn’t change in Afghanistan.
“The combination of local assets plus green trucks gives us the capability to get the supplies to all of the points of the SJOA [combined joint operations area] that we need,” said Colonel Richard Dix, commander of the 401st Army Field Support Brigade.
Dix utilizes trucks primarily stationed in Afghanistan and assets from Pakistan and Uzbekistan using local networks. “The equipment may be older in Afghanistan,” he said. “They perform and are able to move supplies and equipment that we need on the battlefield.”
Dix maintains that he uses a “balanced approach” between local networks and the military. “There’s the ability to ramp up and use additional local assets as necessary,” he said. “There’s also the ability to ramp up and use military trucks.”
While security concerns wouldn’t allow Larry Phelps, the commander of the 15th Sustainment Brigade to go into great detail, he said he has developed a series of “concentric circles.” “In partnership with the security force brigades and battalions, we have routinized much of our distribution network,” he said. “This is a ‘work in progress,’ and we are testing it as we speak. We think that this predictable local network will significantly improve our throughput and allow for more cargo moving south quicker.”
It takes more than trucks to move supplies. Drivers are also necessary in these local networks. And Dix seems highly thankful for the ones who are there.
“The level of desire and what these drivers [in Afghanistan] put into getting these supplies where they need to go is simply outstanding,” he says. “I could say the same about the drivers we use in Iraq.” ♦