Examples Of Sustainment Operations

Hartung, W. D. (2003, February 14). War without end? The costs of the new military buildup. United States. Retrieved July 15, 2005, from http://www.iansa.org/iraq

The second failure experienced during the operation was that AFRICOM did not have a clear-cut end goal. Without a defined endstate for operations in Libya, AFRICOM was uncertain as to what resources it needed for operations. As Clausewitz wrote, “No one starts a war-or rather no one in his senses ought to do so-without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it. The former is its political purpose; the latter is its operational objective.” Even though he stated this back in the 1800’s, Clausewitz’s point is still appropriate. I believe we were clear in our minds when the crisis started what our intentions were. Because the on-going situation was changing at such a rapid pace there was no time to define a clear-cut end goal. This rapid shift in missions

The invasion and the war in Iraq remains a continuous topic of divisiveness and sensitivity in today’s America. One of the negative evaluation of the war is attributed to the false impression of the length of the war which lasted seven years, not six months as presumed in 2003. As the invasion initiated, the ideologies of American government then failed to perceive the large number of troops required, casualties and the financial toll in the interest of the preventive war doctrine. However, when weighing the failures of this war, there are successes brought home that relate mostly to the lessons the American military and the government learned with the use of counterinsurgency tactics after “winning the hearts and minds” of Iraqis (Young). Nevertheless, with evaluation through levels of analysis, the accomplished agenda of ending Saddam Hussein’s regime justifies success and failure, mutually.

The Army Reserve provides Sustainment support duties for Active Duty missions. Sustainment Warfighting tasks provide support and services. There are three main Sustainment Warfighting Functions; Conduct logistics, Provide personnel services and Provide health service support. Sustainment tasks enable the Warfighting forces to extend operations and maintain capabilities. One of the most

To understand how some of the soon to be discussed failures arose, all of the key commanders need to be identified. When Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) began General Tommy Franks was the CENTCOM Combatant Commander in Tampa, Florida. Events on 9/11 lead to us having forces in Afghanistan soon after. From the beginning of the war Special Forces (SOF) were the primary assets utilized. As time went on conventional units were joining the forces in theatre. This caused the need for the Command and Control (C2) structure to adapt to the

Central to the success of Operation Overlord, was the successful execution of Operation Fortitude. Before understanding Operation Fortitude, one must know the points of

So, how do we go about sustaining the force during a high tempo operation? Over the past 10-15 years of war, the military as a whole had everything it needed at its beckon call, for the

The US Central Command’s planning for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) was not the all-inclusive plan that joint operations require. Joint operations are no longer limited to major combat operations, but encompass a wide range of actions. Planning for joint operations requires input from many sources to produce a successful campaign plan to meet the desired end state. Operational design provides a concept and a construction framework that underpins a campaign and its execution. (JP GL13). Evaluating the planning process by using the operational design identifies some of CENTCOM’s shortfalls. US military planners’ lack of understanding of the operational environment led to an inadequately defined problem that resulted in a faulty operational approach. CENTCOM’s approach did not have the right assessment to gauge the effectiveness of the plan such as alerting planners when and if the plan needed modification. Current joint planning policy incorporates several of CENTCOM’s shortfalls in an attempt to provide a better planning process for future joint operations.

The outcomes of counterinsurgency have shifted partially because of the collision of World War 1 and industrialization resulting in a new system of military organization. The outcomes of counterinsurgency just like the outcomes of any conflict are a win, draw, or loss. A win constitutes that the insurgents have been defeated. A draw is

Again, great example of sustainment operations and how much both shaping and decisive operations depend on them. Bringing to light a familiar and large scale operation helps our understanding of how and why sustainment operations are necessary.

Army sustainment is based on an integrated process (people, systems, materiel, health services, and other support) indivisibly linking sustainment to operations. The concept focuses on building a combat ready Army, delivering it to the combatant commander (CCDR) as part of the joint force, and sustaining its combat power across the depth of the operational area and with unrelenting endurance (ADRP 4-0, Chap. 1, Intro.) Sustainment maintenance is off-system component repair and/or end item repair and return to the supply system or by exception to the owning unit, performed by national level maintenance providers. National level maintenance providers include the Army

The purpose of Army maintenance is to preserve the required performance capabilities of Army materiel or to return those assets to their baseline performance capabilities. Maintenance is an enabling process to meeting Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) requirements. ARFORGEN is the process used to generate and regenerate combat power and preserve the capital investment of combat systems and equipment to enable training and mission accomplishment (Department of the Army, 2013). The Army’s doctrinal definition can be confusing to some and it does not make mention of efficiency, reducing non-value adding activities and the overall equipment effectiveness. This definition allow for commanders at all levels the flexibility to focus on other tasks, tasks not related to maintenance.

Sustainment is defined by the Army as “the provision of logistics, personnel services, and health service support necessary to maintain operations until successful mission completion.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines sustain as “to provide what is needed for (something or someone) to exist, continue, etc.; to give support or relief to.”

Two variables that I will discuss are social and physical environment. It is very easy as a military today to look back at Iraq and Afghanistan and see the glaring mistakes we made and how they could have been

     With the attacks of 9-11, many of the military logisticians realized that we were not finished with what we had begun in 1991. They also realized that there had to be a better way to support the force. I deployed with the Army in Desert Storm and was witness to hundreds of