How the Marines are working to solve their logistics problem

OPINION:

“Amateurs discuss tactics, the professionals discuss logistics,” Napoleon famously asserted.

The Chinese have been very professional and have bolstered their logistics while targeting ours. This means our military will have to deal with contested logistic chains — something our Marines are working hard to address.

While the term “contested logistics” is relatively new, the concept is not. People have been trying to break each other’s stuff since the first Bedouin shot an arrow into a rival’s camel.

Both sides in the 1942-1943 Guadalcanal campaign, for example, had to address the challenges of contested logistics and tried creative solutions. The Japanese used destroyers to resupply their garrison by throwing overboard 50-gallon drums, full of food and ammunition, to wash ashore, while the Americans used submarines to supply and transport Marines to different locations. Ultimately, the Americans were more successful.

The Marine Corps today uses a framework of six functions to understand and execute logistics. These are: supply, transportation, maintenance, general engineering, health service support, and services. As some of these terms are not common in a commercial application of “logistics,” here is a brief explanation.

Supply is the easiest function of logistics to understand and accomplish. It is the “things” needed: food, replacement parts, etc. Transportation is the function of making sure those things get to where they are needed. Maintenance keeps equipment operational and repairs it for reuse.

The remaining three areas of Marine logistics functions differ from conventional definitions of logistics and have no business equivalent.

General engineering involves building survivability positions for and providing electricity to deployed Marines. Health service support can be thought of as “maintenance for people.” Services encompass routine chores that we overlook daily; mail delivery and paying people. Another important, but less enjoyable aspect of services is mortuary affairs.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps recently told Congress several of the ways the Corps is working to overcome the challenges of contested logistics.

In the supply realm, the Marine Corps is expanding its network of prepositioned stocks and equipment around the Indo-Pacific region. The transportation function finds the Marine Corps fielding Ultra-Light Tactical Vehicles (think dune buggies with guns) to go where larger vehicles cannot and using unmanned aerial systems to deliver supplies into hazardous environments (think self-navigating flying drones carrying items from your Walmart list).

The Marine Corps is innovating across the maintenance function by using portable fabrication labs to create replacement parts. Across the health services function, Marines and their Navy teammates are building smaller, more capable mobile surgical teams.

Despite the many advances in contested logistics, the Commandant laid out for Congress some of the challenges the Marine Corps faces. One is with the Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF).

The MPF is a program of ships currently in two squadrons, filled with Marine equipment, stationed around the world, able to rapidly respond to a crisis. In the last 10 years, an entire squadron has been eliminated — leaving one-third of the Corps’ Marine Expeditionary Brigades unsupported.

A second liability is the delay of fielding Landing Ships Medium (LSM), which are ships that have a relatively shallow draft and the ability to load and off load cargo rapidly.

LSMs are designed to move between islands and get close enough ashore to resupply Marines. The Commandant told Congress clearly, “supporting contested logistics at scale is only achievable with the LSM — the LSM is our bid for success.” The LSM program is currently paused because of cost and capability disagreements.

Action is needed. As such, Congress should fully fund and restore a third MPF squadron. And, the Navy must rapidly resolve years-long disputes regarding the LSM and get building these needed logistic ships.

“What would you take with you if you were on a deserted island and you only were allowed ## items?” is a hypothetical question used to teach a variety of subjects. For Marines, the question is neither academic nor hypothetical as they are creatively working to overcome all the practical challenges inherent in modern warfare; particularly those that involve fighting in contested logistics spaces.

• Mike Jernigan is a visiting fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 30 years.