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The Army must improve the sustainability-driven by reliability, maintainability, fleet life cycle management effectiveness, and supply support effectiveness-of its future systems. To do this, the Army needs to identify a set of equipment sustainment requirements for its weapon system programs aligned with future operating concepts.

United States. Army -- Equipment -- Quality control. --- United States. Army -- Operational readiness. --- United States. Army -- Supplies and stores. --- United States. --- United States. --- United States. --- Operational readiness. --- Equipment --- Quality control. --- Supplies and stores.

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Using a case study based on the Army's new Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the authors explore how the Army might improve its ability to contribute to prompt, global power projection, that is, strategically responsive early-entry forces for time-critical events. The authors examine options to reach a dual goal: to initiate deployment of the right force capabilities, and then get those capabilities where they need to be as quickly as possible.

Airlift, Military - United States. --- Airlift, Military --- Stryker brigade combat teams --- United States. --- Foreign service. --- Field service.

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To be a strategically responsive force, the Army must be able to rapidly move or project forces with sufficient power to execute a broad spectrum of missions. This briefing examines the Army's strategies for transforming its combat service support (CSS) activities in support of this power projection goal.

United States. --- Supplies and stores. --- Combat sustainability. --- Operational readiness. --- Equipment --- Maintenance and repair.

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The RAND National Defense Research Institute examined Department of Defense depot-level reparable (DLR) supply chain management to assess how it could be improved to enhance customer support and reduce costs. This report concludes that DLR supply chain management appears to be done relatively effectively across the services. What on the surface appears to be substantial inventory excess and high disposals of assets is instead a reflection of the fact that DLRs are durable assets very much like weapon systems and other end items. Most DLRs have very low condemnation rates, with depot maintenance economically repairing them time and again through the life of the supported end item. So when they are replaced by upgraded versions or weapon systems are phased out, demand disappears but the assets remain, leading first to "excess" inventory and then to disposals. This is a cost of doing business. As a result, no large, "silver bullet" solutions were found. Still, a number of modest opportunities for improving DLR supply chain management were identified. The first is improving parts supportability, including taking a total cost perspective that encompasses supply and maintenance costs when planning inventory in support of depot production. The second is to shift the Army more toward pull production. The third is to reduce lead times for all types of contracts affecting DLR supply chain management. And the fourth is to better account for all resource lead times in planning DLR production and for anticipatable shifts in procurement and repair needs. All of these enhancements would improve customer support, with better parts support likely reducing maintenance costs and pull production reducing the buildup of inventory.

Logistics --- Management. --- United States. --- United States. --- United States. --- Inventory control --- Evaluation. --- Procurement --- Evaluation. --- Rules and practice --- Evaluation. --- United States --- United States --- United States --- Armed Forces --- Supplies and stores --- Management. --- Armed Forces --- Equipment --- Maintenance and repair. --- Armed Forces --- Procurement --- Evaluation.

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As the average ages of Army weapon systems increase, it has been assumed that this is leading to increasing maintenance costs. However, it has proved difficult to quantitatively "validate" and estimate the actual effect of equipment age on costs. In particular, it has been noted that increases in costs may have been "hidden" by how Army budgets are structured or mitigated by adaptations in part-ordering practices that are not reflected in spending and budgets. This study examines the relationship between equipment age and spare part costs for M1 Abrams tanks through the use of part requisition data. The authors also examine the issue of adaptive practices by comparing actual part expenditures to an exchange price-based valuation of part demands. This work is closely related to a companion study on the effects of equipment age on mission critical failures, a key component of equipment readiness.

M1 (Tank) --- Spare parts --- Maintenance and repair --- Costs. --- United States. --- Equipment --- Maintenance and repair. --- Weapons systems