A Systems Approach to Rapid Logistics

SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONSIn today’s rapidly changing world, great challenges exist in outfitting the warfighter with the most advanced and effective equipment necessary to complete the mission. One method developed to facilitate introduction of cutting edge technology to the battlefield was the Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI) which speeds up the normal design and fielding processes to outfit the warfighter during pre-deployment or in the field of operations. The RFI process encounters challenges ranging from outfitting the warfighter with clothing to deploying a new weapon system into the field. In the latter, logistic support issues exist that are imperative to identify and plan for prior to the fielding of the equipment in order to ensure a cost effective logistic support structure solution. There are three alternatives for defining logistic support: no logistic analysis, traditional logistic analysis, and Rapid Logistics. The biggest obstacles to traditional logistic analysis are cost and timeliness of the results. Performing no logistic analysis leaves the probability of successfully supporting RFI programs completely to chance resulting in a potentially costly and unsupportable system. Analyzing the logistic support structure is a necessary part of fielding all new systems. The analyst must consider the real world obstacles to supporting the equipment and recommend an implementation strategy for the support system. If the logistic support system is not properly analyzed, equipment is fielded with insufficient or no analysis in the area of logistics, life cycle cost (LCC), and/or supportability, resulting in inefficient or excessive consumption of resources, often resulting in equipment being deemed unsupportable. Unsupportable equipment neither satisfies the objectives of the RFI, nor does it fulfill the needs of the warfighter. To preclude an unnecessarily costly support structure or unsupportable equipment, a method is required to identify and assess support system drivers and provide near real-time insights that can be employed to optimize the support system. Rapid Logistics represents an analysis environment that can be expanded or contracted to compliment a spectrum of RFI programs. This paper provides an overview of the process and a discussion of its implementation, including the challenges faced and benefits realized.