If you read just one page of this web site, this is the one page I want you to read…
Whether you know it or not, the winds of change are blowing through the Department of Defense (DoD). As we close the book on Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn, we lean back and put pen to paper on a series of new books with titles such as The Army Capstone Concept (ACC) and The Army of 2020. While remembering the lessons from many years of war, these new books are full of fresh messages and ideas that resonate with concepts such as globally integrated operations, operational adaptability, expansibility, and reversibility…all written to protect our national interests in an increasingly complex and uncertain future.
So what does this mean to you? Here at the Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM), the Army’s Sustainment Think Tank, we are working hard to develop and integrate innovative Army and Joint sustainment capabilities, concepts, and doctrine to support our Soldiers of the future.
And we want your help. We know many of you, both inside and outside the DoD, have lots of game-changing solutions, just waiting for a chance to be heard. Now is the time! These new challenges are providing us with new opportunities. We ask you to start your journey by clicking on the chapter titles in the upper right and letting us know what you think. We will make sure your ideas get to the right person. Partner with us and let your voices be heard! We live in a participatory world and your input counts…
The Commanding General, CASCOM, Sustainment Center of Excellence (SCoE), and the U. S. Army’s Chief of Transportation (lead agent) look forward to partnering with you as, together, we determine, shape, and travel the best path to 2028—and beyond.
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| LARRY D. WYCHE | STEPHEN E. FARMEN |
| Major General, USA | Brigadier General, USA |
| Commanding, CASCOM | Chief of Transportation |
CASCOM: The Army’s sustainment think tank and premier learning institution, delivering game-changing professionals and solutions
March 20, 2013 at 6:24 pm
Has anyone seen the documents Global Trends 2025 and Global Trends 2030 on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence web site (www.dni.gov)?
Great reading. Its purpose is to stimulate strategic thinking about the future by identifying key trends, the factors that drive them, where they seem to be headed, and how they might interact. It uses scenarios to illustrate some of the many ways in which the drivers examined in the study (e.g., globalization, demography, the rise of new powers, the decay of international institutions, climate change, and the geopolitics of energy) may interact to generate challenges and opportunities for future decision makers.
Here is a sneak peak from Global Trends 2025… “The international system—as constructed following the Second World War—will be almost unrecognizable by 2025 owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalizing economy, an historic transfer of relative wealth and economic power from West to East, and the growing influence of nonstate actors”.
Recommend you take a look.
October 19, 2012 at 1:37 pm
As we continue to assess future distribution challenges I think it’s very important to take note of recent developments in operational concepts. CJCS Gen Martin Dempsey released the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations: Joint Force 2020 (CCJO) on 10 Sept 12. One of the key tenets in the CCJO is referred to as Globally Integrated Operations. It calls for globally postured forces that can combine quickly along with mission partners and to operate fluidly across domains, echelons, geographic boundaries, and organizational affiliations. The Army is preparing its own supporting operational concepts but at the heart of those concepts will be enabling doctrine and capabilities to support the rapid aggregation of forces and support and the ability to rapidly disburse to be ready again for further aggregation. This surge, ebb, surge capability will require the sustainment community to provide pinpoint support at the crucial moment the support is needed.
The CCJO also recognizes potential adversaries who will increasingly understand how to deny access to and through traditional access points in the operational environs. We will obviously need to field very agile combat formations that are lean enough to bypass the enemy’s chokepoints. The need to employ these forces implies a need for them to be as light as possible and, therefore, reliant on rapid resupply at presumably critical stages of combat or other operations. Recent Army deployment trends show that commanders deploy with relative mountains of extra “stuff” with them to combat. As you will see after reading through the CCJO, that will not cut it for the future force. We will need to continue to develop and evaluate sustainment structure, training, and techniques that will engender the required level of trust in our ability to distribute sustainment at the critical time and place. The CCJO is an unclassified document and can be viewed at the link below. Food for thought!
http://www.jcs.mil//content/files/2012-09/092812122654_CCJO_JF2020_FINAL.pdf
October 19, 2012 at 2:36 pm
The CCJO is excellent reading. I noticed it was highlighted in the 2013-2016 Chairman’s Joint Training Guidance dated 9 October 2012. Continuing along the lines of your discussion…I found it exciting that the Chairman’s first High Interest Training Issue (HITI) in his Joint Training Guidance was the Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC) and how unit training must include strategic and operational distribution, and deployment (to include deployment planning at the operational and strategic levels). He went on to mention training on the employment of rapid port opening capabilities. All seems to nest well with the HQDA G-3/G-4 sponsored Rapid Expeditionary Deployment Initiative (REDI). Exciting times!
August 22, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Excited about our future!!
July 3, 2012 at 5:55 pm
This article gives me a clear concept of the territory we navigate to reach 2028. I like the cooperative vision from the logistic branches- this documents signals a transition from the final grinding of BRAC plate tectonics to a unified and complementary outlook from the Logistic Corps.
June 11, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Sir,
Thank you very much for the invitation. I truly welcome the opportunity to collaborate. I am convinced that innovation, adaptability and boldness are and will be the norm in our efforts to sustain effectively operations anytime, anywhere.
June 8, 2012 at 8:59 am
MG Lust (ret),
Concur with your thinking on the document signatories. Believe when the CG, CASCOM signed the document, it nested with the other Commandants. To your point, we are working hard to ensure a collaborative effort with the Sustainment Center of Excellence and points beyond.
You are spot on regarding expectation management…especially in today’s fiscal environment. Of course, 16 years ago I would have never imaged that my wife could push a couple buttons on her phone and then tell me to pull off the highway at the next exit because the upcoming town has a starbuck’s with half off latte’s. Sixteen years from now, will my car tell me that without even asking?
And as you pointed out…it’s the Soldier, not the system that will provide the improvisation required to ensure we maintain enough agility and flexibility to adapt to any situation.
Bob
Deputy Director, Deployment Process Modernization Office
June 7, 2012 at 2:27 pm
1. An outstanding document to cause and guide the conversation concerning where we are, and where we want to be in regards to distribution. FM 4.0 defines distribution as “The operational process of synchronizing all elements of the logistics system to deliver the right things to the right place and right time to support the CCDR. It is a divers process incorporating distribution management and asset visibility”. Given this definition, it might be worth the effort to have the Quartermaster General and Chief of Ordnance as signatories of this document.
2. On page 3, line 8 of the vignette the following is written “delivering precisely what is needed to the exact point of employment on the ground…”. I have concerns with the use of precisely and exact. Both words mean without deviation, and I seriously question whether we will ever have the wherewithal to execute distribution operations without having at least one deviation concerning the items or quantity needed or location of employment. To deliver exactly what is needed implies the unit’s situation has not changed since the request or an update to the request was submitted, or in lack of a unit request the higher HQ’s estimate of the units needs was exactly what the unit needed. In the execution of sustainment operations of mobile forces on the battlefield or in training exercises there is a considerable number of things that can happen which will prevent “delivering precisely what is needed to the exact point of employment’.
3. On page 6, line 8 the following is written: “Soldiers have complete trust and confidence that they will be resupplied before they even think about asking for resupply”. This statement seems to imply there will be perfect situational awareness of all activities and situations on the battlefield, however, on past battlefields experience has shown perfect situational awareness to be very elusive.
4. Words have meaning, and meanings give rise to expectations. If expectations are not managed within the art of the possible, then there is an outstanding probability of the supported units being disappointment with distribution operations in 2028.
September 25, 2012 at 12:09 am
MG(R) Lust,
Sir, it is great to see that you continue to provide meaningful and pertinent feedback to the Logistics Corps. Also I would like to thank you for the great insight that you provided at the MCTP there in the 3 ID.
I completely agree with your assessment concerning expectation management. The battlefield is constantly in a state of change. However, as logisticians we have become very adapt at forecasting the resupply of units and their elements. Although it is not a flawless system, it has progressed immensely.
I am definitely excited about the direction we are going with this document. Thanks for all you do.
v/r,
CSM Johnson
Commandant
Logistics NCO Academy
June 4, 2012 at 9:01 am
I love what the future for transportation is holding. We are moving forward, with some great ideas and gestures . Over the last ten years our Army and Transportation Corp has shift to the new focus. Sir i love what is being presented, continue to move forward. Spearhead leads the way!!!!
June 1, 2012 at 11:07 am
A colleague sent me a great article this morning that I want to share in this forum, http://www.economist.com/node/21556103 Unmanned and remotely piloted distribution assets are a wave that government and industry need to partner on and get ahead of – when is the JCTD, or the JIIM-NC-CTD (Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, Multinational – Nongovernmental and Commercial) effort for leveraging such capabilities going to get underway?
May 19, 2012 at 11:52 pm
As a deployer and Training Officer with DLA Distribution, I’ve worked with the Army on 7 deployments in the field of Logistics. I really welcome this forum as an avenue to develop and deepen logistics partnerships with the military services, TRANSCOM (and the other “COMs”), other government logistics branches, and the commercial side. Throughout my experiences I’ve seen really great and some “not-so-great” processes in our field of endeavor… It is my hope that participation in this forum will insure future successes in logistics.
May 15, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Wow! Fascinating that two out of your three key areas are in the psychosocial arena. Good for you! People, people, people! Context, context, context. You cannot separate the two. Even the technology piece is not possible without the other two…no matter what direction, no matter the goals–people, positive leadership, flexibility, adaptability–they make up all three of your content areas. I want to hear more!
May 4, 2012 at 8:14 am
Steve,
Please make sure you bring in your commercial partners in this important path forward.
v/r
Paul
May 7, 2012 at 9:11 am
Mr Giovino,
Sir – you hit the nail on the head…nesting with our partners from commercial industry and academia is exactly the COT’s intent. TRADOC’s Deployment Process Modernization Office (DPMO) is working this collaborative effort and we welcome any and all parallel efforts towards that end.
April 24, 2012 at 7:40 pm
Team! Let the conversation begin!…we live in a participatory world…in order to effect real change and shape the future we need to collaborate broadly and work together…this is your opportunity to chime in and ensure your voice is heard…Thanks in advance for your input and engagement — we want and need everyone to be part of the process.