Logistics is more than just ensuring that the bullets and beans get sent forward to the infantry companies … it encompasses the whole business of manufacturing, stockpiling, shipping, handling and delivering everything the sailors, soldiers and air force members need, on time and to the right place. It is a complex science, and, when bombs are falling and bullets are whizzing about, a bit of an art, too. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, […] the administrative and logistics services are always “soft targets” for cuts when admirals and generals don’t want to cut their own pet components. The admirals and generals who always try to cut too much of the support “tail” before pulling a few teeth are always wrong.
When we consider logistics and training we should consider then both, together, as part of Support ~ with a capital S. Support also includes keeping facilities (barracks and training areas and workshops and supply depots) up to date.
Training is not just teaching selected skills; it involves planning on how many people will be needed, each with specific skill sets, to crew ships, to serve in regiments and battalions, to fly airplanes and to repair and maintain ships and tanks and trucks and aircraft over the long haul. Training also involves ensuring that teams know how to work together … training is how we prepare for war.
The capital S Support base […] must be properly staffed, properly funded (which means funding must be stable, over the years and decades) and properly organized and managed. Supporting our troops and fleets of ships, vehicles and aircraft requires a mix of civil and military people: some in uniform, some civil servants and some on contract from the private sector. There is no perfect model … most modern, Western states, including America, Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark and so on, use a mix of military, civil service and contractor support service. each trying to get the right mix of operational effectiveness and economy. The key, as I mentioned above, is stability. The support system need to be properly staffed and funded year in and year out, decade after decade. Those elements ~ dockyards and depots and workshops and schools and agencies comprise the firm base upon which the nation’s war-fighting (combat) powers depend.
Ted Campbell, “My Plan (3)”, Ted Campbell’s Point of View, 2018-09-15.
