Outsourcing Operational Logistics: Buyer Beware

摘要

One of the key tasks from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to his Service Chiefs is to reduce DOD's overall logistic cost and footprint while transforming the warfighter-to-logistics (tooth-to-tail) force structure. As business strategies emerge to support the ever-changing military environment, planners and strategists must reapportion savings from support and infrastructure budgets to warfighting and modernization. Future Service Chiefs will rely more heavily on military contractors to provide technical specialists and force augmentation throughout the joint theater of operations. Along with a Joint Logistics Commander, war planners must fully incorporate private military support to the JFC's war plan while mitigating risk. These leaders should apply historical examples as well as service core competencies, legal aspects, resource availability, and force protection issues associated with civilian contractors operating in the joint theater of operations. Focused Logistics is file operational concept of Joint Vision 2020 designed to provide a clear conceptual framework to access logistics initiatives from America's private industry specific areas which Service outsource committees should immediately consider as candidates for outsourcing include: sea and air port logistics and force projection operations; intermediate staging base and theater reception.