Precision-Guided Logistics. Flexible Support for the Force-Projection Army's High-Technology Weapons

摘要

What should the Army's logistics system of the 21st century look like. Withtheaters, threats, missions, and resources available all unknown, the Army must look for new solutions to the Army's force-projection role. How must logisticians accommodate themselves to a world of radically changed weapons, doctrine, threats, and forms of operations. This report argues that just as technology and new concepts have revolutionized combat operations, so too must logistics be revolutionized to make it leaner and more responsive. To help identify alternatives that will make the logistics system more capable of meeting this revolutionary challenge, the report examines the three operations the Army has been recently involved in-Operation Just Cause (OJC) in Panama and Operation Desert Shield (ODS) and Operation Desert Storm (ODSt) in Southwest Asia. Although these operations were substantial successes, in both logistics and, of course, combat terms, there is the question of how robust the logistics support the Army provided its deploying forces was. For example, what if the uncertainties of war had increased the stress on logistics. This study explores the robustness inherent in the Army's current logistics concept by analyzing the consequences of