FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
A new forum with the military services and combatant commands addressed shared nuclear enterprise sustainment challenges during the first Nuclear Enterprise Integration Day at Defense Logistics Agency Headquarters Feb. 19.
Maintaining a resilient nuclear triad across land, sea and air requires integrated support and material planning, like other weapon systems maintenance. DLA regularly hosts events with the military services to talk through new and ongoing logistics support requirements, though this marked the agency’s first formal discussion across the department’s nuclear enterprise.
DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly emphasized the importance of this first discussion as a platform to ensure the agency can meet service and CCMD expectations.
“I think of this as a true integration,” Simerly said. “These weapon systems are our highest priority — make no mistake about it.”
Simerly noted DLA can meet requisitions above the required threshold, but that just resourcing isn’t enough. The agency reviewed its nuclear support portfolio and wants to take a stronger approach to the nuclear enterprise and the collaboration between partners.
“All of us in this room have a shared purpose, and we’re looking to come away with increased transparency, heightened integration and better alignment across the nuclear enterprise,” Simerly said.
Overall NEID topics ranged from nuclear triad sustainment requirements and capabilities to the industrial base and nuclear enterprise modernization. Common threads involved demand forecasting for readiness and parts availability, plus ensuring legacy and modern systems integration while modernizing the nuclear triad.
Segments throughout the day took a deeper look into the challenges for the portfolio in a contested environment, as well as for nuclear enterprise material planning. They also evaluated strategic material gaps and opportunities relating to the National Defense Stockpile program. Further discussions aimed to identify solutions for overcoming diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages.
“The event produced a number of important action items, but perhaps the most impactful discussions focused on how DLA and the services can better leverage each other’s data and organic industrial capabilities towards the common goal of increased support to the nuclear enterprise,” said Air Force Col. Matt York, director for DLA’s Nuclear and Space Enterprise Support Office.
NESO synchronizes the agency’s efforts and resources to ensure responsive material support to the War Department’s nuclear enterprise, space enterprise, missile defense and strategic warfighters. It provides complete lifecycle support from provisioning through disposition. The NESO team partners with U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Space Command, as well as the Navy, Air Force, Space Force and other military services to support their planning and operations.
Those partnerships were on display during NEID with representatives from those organizations championing their requirements and expectations for nuclear triad support.
“The NEID created a platform to facilitate the exchange of sustainment practices, data and lessons learned across the nuclear enterprise that didn’t exist before,” York said. “We now have a template to build on and synchronize our efforts and messaging within the nuclear enterprise and to industry.”
NEID will be a recurring event, with the lessons learned applied to DLA’s nuclear support portfolio as the NESO team advances integration across the nuclear enterprise.