Seven years into the Global War on Terrorism, U.S. Armed Forces are decisively engaged in their longest period of sustained conflict since the Vietnam War. Joint logisticians are focused on providing world-class operational availability of systems to the warfighter and are constantly in pursuit of modernizing our military services. However, logisticians face two concerns with providing modern equipment. First, the cost to deliver this high level of system readiness remains unknown. Second, we in the Department of Defense (DOD) need to take an introspective look at how we make decisions to upgrade combat systems.rnFor example, the high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle has a 1975-vintage engine that could have been replaced in 1985 with a new, smaller engine that would have performed better, been more reliable, used less gas, and lasted longer. Two compelling reasons explain why DOD did not institute a fleet-wide upgrade. First, the acquisition and sustainment communities could not compellingly demonstrate a return on the investment. Second, it could be argued that the agencies responsible for funding this purchase had little interest or involvement with spiraling life-cycle costs.
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