Logistic Support to the Army After Next Warfighters

Book excerpt: The document is an Army After Next Study Project which postulates what follows the present Force XXI effort. Logistics for the warfighters of the Army After Next must be revolutionized to assure adequate support. The present systems are inadequate and unresponsive to the plausible future battlefield. Additionally, the cost of the present support system is prohibitive in the environment of ever decreasing defense budgets. The author examines how the Army After next might fight future battles and then designs a logistics system to support that force. This logistics system has its foundation in a key operational concept of Joint Vision 2010-Focused Logistics-and is extrapolated forward to the 2025 timeframe. The fliture logistics structure is smaller, more agile, and increasingly seamless between the tradtional means of support. It ultimately concludes that the Armed Forces are evolving to a single national logistics provider, who largely replaces the individual Service and commodity oriented structure of today.