DLA News Archive

June 21, 2024

Consumable item growth at DLA: From 67% to ‘Almost All’

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — DLA's management of consumable items rose from 39% of the military’s expendable inventory in 1962 to 67% three decades later due to steady accretion and one massive transfer. The same pattern occurred on an accelerated timeline over the next decade and a half.

June 20, 2024

Consumable item growth at DLA: From 39% to 67%

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — DLA has managed consumables such as blankets, fuel and photographic film since receiving seven commodity supply centers in 1962. This two-part series details the agency's growing responsibility for consumable items through history.

Feb. 26, 2024

Commentary: DLA’s historic, current support covers 14 of 15 executive departments

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — DLA has long been a whole-of-government provider and has supplied all but one of the nation’s 15 executive departments.

Feb. 20, 2024

Commentary: Foreign military sales reflect national policy, expand customer base

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — DLA has long provided goods and services to allied nations. From NATO cataloging in the 1960s to today’s worldwide crises, the agency has used the Foreign Military Sales program to advance national policy and realize economies of scale.

Dec. 26, 2023

Commentary: DLA provides global support in 2023

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — In most years, events force DLA to focus on one region. Not so in 2023, when actual and potential conflict involved it in six of seven geographic commands.

Oct. 23, 2023

Commentary: World War II developmental, formative for first 5 DLA directors

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — When the Defense Supply Agency became the Defense Logistics Agency in 1977, it marked the end of an era. For a decade and a half, agency directors had based organizational and operational decisions on their World War II experiences.

Aug. 28, 2023

Commentary: DLA’s support for the Abrams as involved, critical as ever

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — DLA Historian Colin Williams chronicles the agency's long and storied relationship with the Abrams tank, which it helped develop in the 1970s.

Aug. 1, 2023

Commentary: McNamara cagey, equivocal about reasons for Battle Creek move

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — DLA's historian explores the reasons why Army Lt. Gen. Andrew T. McNamara moved cataloging, standardization and utilization programs that were part of the Defense Logistics Services Center from Washington, D.C., to Battle Creek, Michigan.

July 11, 2023

Commentary: Director visits form, enhance DLA Europe & Africa

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Senior leader authority is most potent when exercised face-to-face. Put simply, things get done when the boss visits. It’s therefore not surprising the organizational history of Defense Logistics Agency Europe, now DLA Europe & Africa, can be told through DLA directors’ trips to the continent.

June 21, 2023

Commentary: First agency director sketches, foretells growth in commodity management

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — Before his tour as first director of the Defense Supply Agency ended, Army Lt. Gen. Andrew T. McNamara shared his ideas for improving military logistics with Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara.