Naval Logistics in Contested Environments

The U.S. Navy is evolving toward distributed maritime operations (DMO) in order to mass overwhelming combat power in response to the capabilities of near-peer adversaries in the Western Pacific theater (namely, China). To support the DMO concept, the Navy needs new approaches to logistics and the resupply and sustainment of distributed units.

Giving particular attention to the acquisition end of the military supply chain, the authors analyze two commodities — munitions and naval aviation spare parts — and identify specific challenges and constraints the Navy faces: Current supply chains are focused on steady-state demands and near-term readiness concerns. Demand metrics are based on historical analyses of past conflicts that do not match expected demands in a Western Pacific scenario under DMO conditions. Differences in incentives among critical stakeholders also complicate the Navy's ability to source to expected demand levels. A shift in focus to just-in-time logistics and resource conservation makes it difficult to stockpile and invest to meet future readiness. Even if the Navy were to fix its demand forecasting capability, issues of diminishing manufacturing sources, shared production lines, and existing funding mechanisms limit the Navy's ability to surge to meet demand.

In light of these challenges, the authors recommend possible mitigation strategies to address demand forecasting, budgetary concerns, and industrial base capacity. Their recommendations emphasize improved operations planning and execution (near-term objective), increasing inventory of repair parts (mid-term goal), and investing in future systems and force design (long-term strategy).