A few weeks back, I was asked to write about the logistics units supporting the American Forces around the world. I will attempt do so, but must say upfront that I only have experience with the Army and a very little with the Air Force. I was an Army Logistican for twenty years during which time I worked at least a few weeks in every area of Army logistics. The most important thing I learned was that logistics is all about money and transportation. Given enough of those, there is no logistics problem. But even if I have cubic dollars, transportation remains a problem.

In fact, when we read about SECDEF Rumsfeld's efforts to "transform" the military, the driving factor is transportation. The Army seems to be under the SECDEF's gun the most and that is because the Army is currently structured to fight a war where it has most of its equipment prepositioned in the theater and enough troops to provide security until soldiers from other theaters can arrive to operate the pre-positioned weapons and equipment. The problem with this mode of operation is if the war does not conveniently happen where we have the equipment, it can take months to move it to the theater of operations. In Iraq we saw this with the 4th Infantry Division when Turkey refused to allow transit of the division's personnel and equipment. If you remember, there was talk of it taking weeks for the equipment to transit the Suez and be off-loaded in Kuwait. Given the world political situation, an Army that takes months to get into theater is a luxury we cannot afford.

To transform the Army, the current Chief of Staff set out to make a heavy brigade lighter and more transportable. Tanks are out and wheeled armored personnel carriers are in. Since this is about logistics, I will not talk about the merits of the "Striker" vehicle other than to say is lighter, smaller and more easily transported. A brigade thus equipped can get into theater a lot faster either via air or sea. Once in theater, a "Striker" brigade will consume much less fuel and ammunition tonnage than a brigade equipped with M1s and Bradleys. Usually ammunition and fuel are the tonnage and volumn drivers in supporting a military unit,

In addition to ammunition and fuel, a unit requires food, general supplies and equipment maintenance. When you start adding up all the people it takes to transport and handle all these supplies, the logistics tail can easily exceed the size of the fighting force.

In future posts I will talk about the missions and challenges of log units in a modern theater of operation.