In August, U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) celebrated its 50th year of providing America’s warfighters with the decisive edge. AMC’s mission is to develop, deliver, and sustain materiel to ensure a dominant Joint Force for the United States and our allies. While our mission has remained the same over the past half-decade, we are a fundamentally different organization than we were at our inception, and much of that change has occurred over the past 10 years.
AMC has evolved into a Globally Networked Logistics Command, with forces deployed around the world. Our position as the Army’s Lead Materiel Integrator (LMI) makes us a key enabler for global materiel management. The well-trained and dedicated AMC workforce, some 70,000 strong, researches, develops, procures, delivers, and sustains the equipment on which the warfighter depends to perform his or her mission.
In 2011, AMC serviced a workload three times greater than in the Vietnam era, resetting some 2.7 million critical pieces of equipment ranging from chemical/biological equipment to missile systems for 33 brigade combat team equivalents per year. We anticipate that workload will continue, and AMC continues to implement lessons from Operations Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and New Dawn to refine and improve our efforts.
As always, our priority remains supporting the Joint warfighter, and our accomplishments in 2011 reflect that goal.
Jadey Pareja, a chemist with the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC), leads five scientists in the Protective Equipment Test Branch who test and analyze the carbon materials that will be integrated into mask filters for Soldiers’ protective masks. ECBC is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, one of AMC’s major subordinate commands and a leader in basic scientific research areas including nanotechnology, armor, robotics, the human domain, fuel-efficient vehicles, and simulation. (U.S. Army photo by Dan Lafontaine)
Responsible Reset Task Force
Perhaps one of our most significant accomplishments in the past year was concluding the Iraq phase of the Responsible Reset Task Force (R2TF) mission. The mission included retrograding 3.9 million pieces of equipment, including 30,000 wheeled vehicles; reallocating more than $7 million in equipment from the war in Iraq to other federal agencies; and reusing $1.3 billion of equipment from the war in Iraq for the surge in Afghanistan.
R2TF was designed to consolidate data to maintain visibility of equipment departing from Iraq using these imperatives: visibility, accountability, velocity, and triage forward. In early May, the last Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle to leave Iraq was returned to the United States after a five-month reset process. Its return to the States symbolized AMC’s success in increasing the velocity and capabilities of responsible reset.
Lead Materiel Integrator
AMC efforts to develop a world-class operations center have enabled us to establish systems and capabilities to maintain situational awareness of ongoing operations around the globe. AMC’s operations center can determine what container a particular piece of equipment should go into, and what ship to put it on, to get it to the right reset facility or the right unit. That visibility increases the flow of materiel, saving the Army time and money.
It is that capability that led the Secretary of the Army to designated AMC as the
LMI on March 22, 2011. As the LMI, AMC has the mission to synchronize the distribution and redistribution of Army materiel in accordance with Army priorities and directives.
Workers overhaul heavy and light combat vehicles at Anniston Army Depot, AL. AMC seeks to transform the sustainment of our organic industrial base capabilities while providing cost-effective solutions for the Nation.
EAGLE
Another success is our transition to the Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise (EAGLE), a move that revolutionizes the contracting process. It expands competition and reduces acquisition lead time.
EAGLE incorporates directives on better buying power and optimization of service contracting, while increasing opportunities for small businesses. This fundamentally new way of doing business, which is expected to decrease future installation logistics costs, is tied to AMC’s realignment of Directorates of Logistics.
Organic Industrial Base
One area of concern for AMC is the modernization of aging facilities. Many of the physical plants that house our organic industrial base were built for World War II and have reached DOD’s benchmark for recapitalization.
This presents us with an $8 billion conundrum: how to resource this important requirement in an era of fiscal constraint. Also, as wartime manufacturing loads are reduced, these facilities must look for new strategies to keep production lines up and running, providing exciting new opportunities for public-private partnerships.
R2TF-Afghanistan
AMC also recognizes the significant challenges ahead in returning equipment from Afghanistan. One thing is clear: The challenges of reset and retrograde from Afghanistan are not the same as those from Iraq.
As we prepare for the Afghanistan R2TF mission, sustainment, battle damage repair, and retrograde operations remain constant and will occur simultaneously until both the wartime and R2TF missions are complete. Upward of 3 million pieces of equipment must be moved within a landlocked and land-constrained environment, concomitant with ongoing operations such as training the Afghan National Army and other security forces.
Vehicles drive aboard the USNS Red Cloud at Wharf Alpha, Joint Base Charleston, SC. The vessel, bound for South Korea, contains part of U.S. Army Sustainment Command’s (ASC’s) global collection of prepositioned equipment, kept at the ready both ashore and afloat. ASC, a major subordinate command of AMC, serves as its executing agent for the Army’s Lead Materiel Integrator. AMC in turn supports and is fully integrated with the four major functions of DOD’s global logistics mission: maintenance, transportation, supply, and logistics management. (Photo by Jon Connor, ASC Public Affairs)
Looking Forward
Fortunately, AMC has the most experienced and professional Soldiers, civilians, and contractors in our history, who will continue to meet the challenges we face today while preparing for the threats of tomorrow.
As we look to the future with our strategic focus, we must take a fundamentally different approach to the way we do business. This approach will maximize efficiencies, eliminate redundancies, and prepare us for an era of persistent conflict characterized by declining resources, uncertainty, and complexity.
Moving toward Army 2020, AMC will continue to serve as the single entry point for logistics support. Our goal is to be fully networked and transparent—able to respond rapidly to the needs of the Army and the Joint Force.
- —U.S. Army Materiel Command Public Affairs
