Book Description

Operation Desert Storm demonstrated that there were serious problems with asset tracking, particularly with in-transit visibility, in our logistics system. In the modern age of joint warfare, this difficulty degrades the ability of the Joint Force Commander to exercise freedom of action in prosecuting a vigorous and flexible operation. Operation Iraqi Freedom, executed in essentially the same location twelve years later, demonstrated that there are still great difficulties with in-transit visibility. There were a variety of reasons for this continued degradation on our logistics system, including poor execution of existing doctrine, failure to integrate various logistics information systems for a common operating picture, and insufficient bandwidth to handle the load of a common logistics operating picture. In order to resolve these difficulties, more attention must be paid to integrating logistics management into the network-centric battlefield, allowing the Joint Force Commander to exercise oversight and control of his logistics streams with much more effect.