Force structure
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Military solvency and signs of a system that might not work – why militaries must reimagine how they support and sustain forces in a future war
By David Beaumont Western militaries find themselves at a crossroads, as new pressures force a revaluation of assumptions about how they prepare for, and subsequently sustain, operations during a conflict. As the diet of these militaries expands – driven by… 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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Leading small-team logistics
By Chris Paparone. Steven Menschelyi recently described in a great article how armies can manage combat service support units best if it sees them as they really are: a collection of mission-focused teams. As a CSS Bn Cdr, I came… Continue reading
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Thinking small – the importance of small-team logistic operations
By Steven Mencshelyi Orchestrating the efforts of small combat elements operating in tactical environments which require dispersal and disaggregation is difficult. It’s probably going to get even more difficult to orchestrate combat elements, and maintain tempo, when we start considering… Continue reading
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Survive first, sustain later: exercising dispersed logistics in the close fight
By Mark Baldock A logistics element not capable of surviving and operating in a threat environment is a battlefield liability. Armies knew long before ‘multi-domain battle’ was developed that logistic capabilities are easy to identify, target and destroy. They are… Continue reading
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Adapting Atlas – The cost of combat power: Part Two
By David Beaumont. Most Western land forces are beyond the point where a ‘protection versus mobility’ argument has short-term usefulness. In recent years due to a range of threats upon typically Middle-eastern battlefields militaries have found protection as essential; protection… Continue reading
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The cost of combat power – weapons, weight and sustainment in the multi-domain land battle
By David Beaumont. In ‘Sustaining multi-domain battle’ I articulated a number of challenges that land-force military logisticians must address in developing their sustainment concepts for multi-domain battle. Some may not yet be persuaded that the idea of multi-domain battle is … 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
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Rethinking logistics – challenges of the modern battlefield
At the end of 2016 the Chief of the Australian Army, through conversations with senior logisticians, asked the logistic community to rethink assumptions made about logistics. This challenge, a part of other force structure reforms in Army, formed the basis… Continue reading
The Paper War: Logistics... and everything but the fighting. 