ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Industry partners will be essential to supporting Army large-scale combat operations in a contested environment, said Gen. Charles Hamilton, commander of Army Materiel Command.

Speaking March 13 at a breakfast hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army as part of its Coffee Series, Hamilton called on industry to help the Army sustainment community meet one of the service’s top priorities—the delivery of ready combat formations.

Gen. Charles Hamilton, commanding general of Army Materiel Command, will speak March 13 as part of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Coffee Series.

The event will take place at AUSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The event opens at 6:30 a.m. with registration, coffee and networking. The program is scheduled to begin at 7:15 a.m.

Faced with an increasingly contested operating environment, the Army is working to deliver precision sustainment and incorporate autonomous vehicles for resupply missions.

“Everybody agrees that we’ve got to get after logistics in this contested environment,” said Rob Watts, deputy director of Army Futures Command’s Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team.

Speaking Feb. 7 during an Association of the U.S. Army Hot Topic on contested logistics, Watts said the Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team’s first “priority effort” is predictive logistics.

Protection, deception and masking are key investments the Army must make as it works to ensure it can get to the fight—and stay in the fight—on a complex modern battlefield, according to the author of a new Association of the U.S. Army paper.

In “Contested Logistics: A Primer,” Lt. Col. Amos Fox writes that contested logistics are not a “new wrinkle of modern warfare.” Instead, it’s an issue that planners, strategists and industry have wrestled with “throughout the depth and breadth of armed conflict.”

Sustainment soldiers operating on the future battlefield, particularly in a theater as challenging as the Indo-Pacific, will need the ability to move quickly and adapt to ever-changing conditions, a senior logistics officer said.

Just two weeks into command of Army Materiel Command, Gen. Charles Hamilton recognizes he has a big mission that could decide the outcome of future conflicts. 

Speaking March 30 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama, Hamilton said he follows a “string of superstars” at a critical time when the Army needs a way to provide precision logistics with the ability to predict when and where deliveries and resupplies must be made.

Faced with increasing competition in the vast Indo-Pacific, the Army must continually train and rehearse its sustainment and logistics capabilities, a senior leader in the region said.