TRACY, Calif. –
The Defense Logistics Agency Distribution San Joaquin, California, successfully sent a test shipment of F-35 parts to Denmark as agreed upon between the U.S. and Danish government.
In 2019, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office designated DLA and U.S. Transportation Command as the F-35 product support provider for North American warehousing and global transportation.
This change was brought on to optimize F-35 program sustainment costs while demonstrating DLA Distribution’s capabilities for storing and distributing Defense Department weapon systems.
Since shipping F-35 related material to non-DoD affiliated entities has increased for DLA and U.S. TRANSCOM, DDJC along with direction from the F-35 Lightning II JPO, is working to optimize this process.
“Now that we are close to finishing phase two, we started to test our F-35 distribution capabilities to our partners,” said Natalie Lee Haynes, the DDJC facilities manager for the F-35 division. “Our objective with this test shipment to Denmark was to validate end to end processes that come along with delivering hazardous materials overseas.”
The overall intent of the pilot shipment to Denmark was to test DLA Distribution’s processes and capabilities regarding distributing F-35 Material to support mission partners across the globe.
“The whole idea of this test shipment to Denmark was to utilize the U.S. TRANSCOM carriers and test shipping processes with an F35 partner nation. We were able to test the systems, mobility, shipment, and communications to ensure that the supply chain could provide all stakeholders with pertinent data,” Haynes said.
This was the first test that allowed DLA Distribution, U.S. TRANSCOM and the JPO to see some of the challenges associated with distributing materials to partner nations.
“In the past, we have only distributed materials to DoD entities. Now that we are working with partner nations, there is a whole new process due to international export protocols and various regulations that we never had to handle in the past,” Haynes said. “With our shipment to Denmark, we were able to get a better understanding of the special requirements associated with distributing these materials.”
Once DDJC solidifies the process of shipping materials to partner nations, DLA will be able to automate its infrastructure and increase the speed partners get their materials.
DDJC receives, stores and ships materiel in support of warfighters around the clock, around the world.