Operations
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Logistics and the strangling of strategy
By David Beaumont. Logistics has long been recognised as vital to a force, but when inefficient a constraint on that force’s freedom to manoeuvre. However, the impact of logistics on strategy is just as significant and ultimately more profound. The… Continue reading
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Structuring logistics for unstructured war
By Chris Paparone. In the October 2014 issue of The Journal of Military History, Robert W. Hutchinson published his illuminating article subtitled, “Wehrmacht Officers, the U.S. Army Historical Division, and U.S. Military Doctrine, 1945–1956.” Hutchinson tells the story about how,… Continue reading
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Intellectual irrelevance and the ownership of military logistics
By David Beaumont The professionalisation of logisticians is a topic that has once again emerged, as strategic-level organisations in a number of different militaries seek to improve, and ‘intellectualise’, military logistics. The desire for ‘intellectualisation’ appeals to one of the… Continue reading
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Fighting in the void – combat operations in the logistic vacuum
By David Beaumont. Logistics has emerged from a decade-long hiatus to reassert its relevance. As Western militaries turn their attention from operations with a generally consistent logistic tempo, to strategic challenges that necessitate a substantial shift in force posture, logisticians… Continue reading
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Operations Warden, Enduring and Iraqi Freedom – deployment and employment and the gaps in capability
By David Beaumont. Observations made of logistic performance in military campaigns always subjective. Because wars are inherently different, so too must be the means by which combat forces are sustained. Yet logistical requirements also change, and frequently, with the operational… Continue reading
The Paper War: Logistics... and everything but the fighting. 