Sustainment of Army Forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom

The major combat operations of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) have been judged from virtually all quarters as a remarkable success, although accompanied by some perceptions that this success was achieved in the face of severe logistics problems. This monograph describes how Army forces were sustained during Operation Iraqi Freedom, examines how well this support performed, and discusses the effects on operations with an emphasis on the period from the start of ground combat to the fall of Baghdad. The findings should be of interest throughout the Army as well as the broader Department of Defense supply chain, deployment planning, and force development communities. The findings have implications for the design of the logistics system, logistics process improvement efforts, future force design and warfighting concepts, and the acquisition of end items such as vehicles as well as logistics enablers such as those that provide logistics situational awareness.