TYSONS, Va. –
The Defense Logistics Agency is collaborating with the Joint Force sustainment community to establish partnerships and plans to better understand requirements and posture supplies in the contested logistics environment.
As part of that effort, the inaugural Set the Theater, Set the Globe Summit encapsulated the mission magnitude and strategic importance of collaboration, the Defense Logistics Agency director said at the LMI headquarters April 1.
“The world is increasingly interconnected and marked by rapid shifts in technology and the geopolitical landscape. The demand for speed, precision, adaptability and resilience has never been higher,” said Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly. “This summit nests within DLA’s transformation strategy, which emphasizes adaptability, precision and partnerships to support the joint logistics enterprise.”
DLA’s Plans Executive Directorate Acting Director Will Bailey said the goal of the event was to bring the joint force, military services and combatant commanders’ staff together to build relationships and develop a joint enterprise process to plan and understand requirements in a contested logistics environment.
“The new process maps will be tailored based on classes of supply and will inform DLA deliberate planning efforts,” he said.
Simerly highlighted how the summit aligns with the four transformation imperatives of the DLA Strategic Plan.
- People: This event provides a platform for sharing best practices, innovative solutions and training opportunities to build organizational agility and workforce expertise.
- Precision: The summit reflects DLA's commitment to developing better automated tools to make decisions and shape estimates at the speed of war.
- Posture: The event addresses the need for forward-positioned resources and capabilities when “setting the theater.”
- Partnership: The summit brings together members of the joint logistics enterprise, fostering collaboration and interoperability necessary to accelerate integration and leverage partnerships with industry to better prepare the defense industrial base to surge.
He also said he wants to grow the summit and make it an annual event to inform and feed into the Worldwide Logistics Symposium beginning this fall.
“We are here to address these challenges collectively, recognizing that no single entity can tackle them alone,” Simerly said.
Supply Chain Strategies
DLA is reviewing its nine supply chains to be smarter, faster, better connected and better protected, Simerly said. The agency will develop and employ a scalable and tailorable supply chain framework to see itself more broadly, identify risks and opportunities, and enable decision dominance in a contested logistics environment.
“We're not just using our own judgment. We want our partners’ views as we start to build out those optimized supply chains,” he said, adding that the agency is addressing scarcity through strategic prioritization, resource realignment, policy and contingency planning.
Simerly also highlighted how digital interoperability will benefit the joint force and the services because it connects the end-to-end supply chains from the factory to the foxhole.
“We can make better decisions, we can anticipate consumption, we can match that with operational plans as they unfold in real time or near-real time, and we can optimize our supply chains,” he said.
Health of the Supplier Base
The defense industrial base is crucial for integrated deterrence, Simerly said. DLA will use its unique position to strengthen the DIB, ensuring the armed forces have the resources to execute the National Defense Strategy.
“DLA strengthens campaigning efforts by ensuring a consistent flow of supplies and equipment globally, even in contested environments,” he said. “DLA builds enduring advantages by fostering a robust and diverse DIB that maintains the U.S. military's technological edge while actively addressing challenges facing the DIB, to include those posed by global events and rapid technological advancements.”
Takeaways and Lessons Learned
DLA Contingency Plans and Exercises Director Lew Sigmon said the results of the summit will be used to drive the ability for the combatant commanders to understand potential risks related to sustainment through a logistics supportability analysis.
“If we are able to use the processes to calculate requirements, in turn, we will be able to show the potential risks to aid combatant commanders in making informed decisions about their sustainment, posture and the associated fiscal requirements from both DLA and the Services based on critical problem threats outlined in the National Defense Strategy,” he said.
Sigmon, who lead a joint Operational Planning Team prior to the Summit, said the process maps presented during the event were created and coordinated ahead of the summit by senior logisticians from across the joint logistics enterprise. This collaboration prior to the Summit was a contributing factor to the approval of the process maps and overall success of the Summit.
“Though not set in stone, the sustainment process maps will evolve as the data improves to set more defined requirements,” he said. “The event also highlighted sustainment gaps for DLA, the combatant commanders and the services to action, but also for the Joint Staff J4 as the global logistics integrator as well. The actions from this event will also be elevated to future general-officer level engagements like the Joint Logistics Board and the Worldwide Logistics Symposium so that these critical tasks are prioritized and synchronized as we work to set the theater; set the globe.”